Stocks of Local Interest
August 15, 2011
Lillian Callais
August 17, 2011
Derrick Odomes was sentenced as a habitual offender to life in prison Tuesday, one week before he goes on trial for second-degree murder for allegedly killing a Thibodaux priest 19 years ago.
Odomes, 33, of Houma, nervously wiped his face with his hands and with the sleeves of his prison jumpsuit several times Tuesday afternoon as the prosecution methodically proved to the 17th Judicial District Court that he was the same man who has been convicted of six felony charges in his adulthood.
The state, led by Assistant District Attorney Kristine Russell, presented five witnesses who were able to prove “beyond any doubt” to District Judge John E. LeBlanc that the man who sat in orange garb at the defense table was the same man convicted of six felonies since 1996.
“He’s a sixth offender who I can only declare as a fourth offender who needs to be in custody for the rest of his natural life,” LeBlanc said as Odomes fidgeted in his seat next to his defense attorney, New Iberia-based Lynden Burton.
Louisiana’s habitual offender statute dictates a sentencing range from 20 years to natural life if a defendant is proven to have been convicted of four or more felonies. The statute does not issue a penalty range beyond four prior convictions.
Odomes is scheduled to stand trial next week in the 19-year-old murder case of Rev. Hunter Hudson Horgan III, who was found bludgeoned and stabbed to death in the St. John’s Episcopal Church rectory in 1992. Jury selection is set to begin Monday in LeBlanc’s courtroom.
Odomes, who was 14 at the time of the crime, would avoid prison time for the murder if convicted, according to LeBlanc’s ex post facto ruling in pre-trial proceedings. Louisiana law in 1992 did not allow for convicted minors to serve past their 21st birthday.
After the ruling, Russell deferred questions to Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant II.
“The sentence is appropriate, and I agree with it,” he said. Morvant went on to compliment Russell for her work in attaining the conviction.
“She spent numerous hours on this case, which was evident from the presentation and the result,” he continued.
The state filed the habitual offender bill after a 12-person jury found Odomes guilty of intimidating a witness, a felony, earlier this year.
Odomes, while incarcerated pending the results of the murder trial, allegedly exposed himself to Lafourche deputy Haley Burkett in 2009, according to an arrest report.
After Odomes learned of the pending obscenity charge, Burkett testified this year, he tried to speak with her about the charge.
Burkett rebuffed him, she told the court, and Odomes responded, “It ain’t going to stick. I am going to get out. I’ll get you girl.”
Defense attorney Burton said he is still going through the process of appealing the intimidation conviction. “If we win that, [this sentence] will go away,” he said after Tuesday’s ruling was handed down, rationalizing the fact that the state used the charge as the basis for the bill.
In addition to the intimidation result, the state presented the following felony convictions to the court Tuesday afternoon: attempted simple escape, convicted in the 4th Judicial District in 1996; aggravated flight from an officer, convicted in the 17th Judicial District in 2000; unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, convicted in the 17th Judicial District in 2002; illegal possession of stolen things, convicted in the 32nd Judicial District in 2004; identity theft, convicted in the 32nd Judicial District in 2004; and intimidation, convicted in the 17th Judicial District earlier this year.
Habitual offender hearings are about proving the defendant in court is the same person who was convicted on the previous charges. The state’s burden of proof is through paperwork and technicalities, Russell said before the hearing.
The state used four witnesses to prove Odomes was convicted of the crimes. Two supervised Odomes while he was on parole for three of the remaining five convictions, a third witness testified to filing a fourth charge, and the fourth witness was able to link Odomes to the 1996 conviction through fingerprint analysis.
Each witness identified Odomes in court and provided the social security numbers, date of birth and other personal information they had in their respective criminal file on Odomes in proving the state’s case.
Corey Acosta, a former probation and parole supervisor for the City of Thibodaux, testified that Odomes was the same man he supervised after he was released from prison for the conviction of identity theft.
William Null, an adult probation and parole officer for 20 years, testified that he twice supervised Odomes, after he was convicted of illegal possession of stolen things and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Capt. Brian Rhodes with the Thibodaux Police Department testified that as an assistant shift commander, in 2000, he arrested Odomes for aggravated flight from an officer.
Vicki Poche, a criminal records analyst with the Louisiana State Police, was deemed an expert in fingerprint comparison by the court. She obtained Odomes’ fingerprints at the beginning of the hearing and compared the prints with Odomes’ 1995 arrest for simple escape during a recess.
“Each one is the same,” Poche said from the stand. “I stopped counting at 15 [matching identification points].”
State police considers eight points a match, Poche said.
After the state was able to link Odomes to the six felony convictions, it called its final witness, who testified that Odomes had spent only two years as a free man, meaning not incarcerated or under any probationary or parole supervision, since his first arrest in 1995.
The testimony was instrumental because the habitual offender statute says that more than 10 years cannot have elapsed between the first and last crime in order to earn a conviction.
But in computing that time, the statute says, “any period of parole, probation or incarceration by a person in a penal institution … shall not be included in the computation of any said 10-year periods.”
This was the first of Burton’s three objections that LeBlanc overruled.
The second objection, as argued by the defense, was because Odomes was not properly read his rights to trial by jury and protection against self-incrimination, or Boykin rights, when he pleaded guilty to the 1995 charge.
Burton argued Odomes’ “education level was low,” and it was not an “intentional intelligent plea.”
In overruling, LeBlanc said he had reviewed the Boykin reading in question, adding: “It made me realize I need to do a better job on my Boykins. It was one of the best Boykin examinations that I’ve ever seen.”
The final objection Burton filed was over an incorrect social security number in Null’s parole file concerning Odomes’ unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The state, by presenting the certified minutes of the conviction into evidence, was able to prove that Odomes’ correct social security number was linked to the conviction.
Poche, who analyzed the fingerprints, also had Odomes’ “rap sheet” on file. She testified that three different social security numbers were linked to Odomes, including the incorrect sequence in Null’s file.
Again, LeBlanc overruled Burton’s objection.
In contemplating Odomes’ sentence in the public forum, the presiding judge said he believed allowing Odomes to become a free man would present an “undue risk” and a “lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the crime.”
Also on Tuesday, the state amended the murder charge against Odomes in the trial slated to begin next week. Morvant, who will prosecute the case on behalf of the state, downgraded the charge from first-degree murder to murder in the second degree.
“The penalties and issues are still the same, but there will be less confusion for the jury,” Morvant said.
Odomes re-entered a plea of not guilty, and Burton said after the proceedings he believes “the facts that come out in court will show Mr. Odomes is not guilty.”
