State v. Cavaness
State v. Cavaness
Opinion of the Court
The defendant, Jesse L. Cavaness, was convicted of forcible rape after a trial by jury, adjudged a second felony offender pursuant to La.R.S. 15:529.1, and sentenced to forty years imprisonment at hard labor. Defendant appealed to this court on the basis of eight assignments of error.
Pursuant to the internal procedure employed by this court, this case was screened and placed on our summary docket calendar for oral argument.
The victim of the rape testified that the defendant had approached her at the Hitching Post bar, informed her that one of her companions was in trouble outside, and then raped her after she had followed him outside the bar to investigate. According to defense counsel’s colloquy with the trial judge while the jury was excused, the manager of the Hitching Post would have testified that he had seen the victim and her companion approach men in the bar for drinks and that they had on one occasion collected a cover charge at his establishment without his authorization. The trial judge did not abuse his discretion in excluding this testimony from the jury; that the victim had asked other bar patrons to buy her drinks on other occasions or had collect
Finding no error in the trial judge’s ruling, nor any merit in the other assignments of error raised by the defendant, we affirm his conviction and sentence.
AFFIRMED.
. For a discussion of the procedure employed by this court in screening appeals and assigning them to the summary docket see State v. Duhon, 340 So.2d 151 (La. 1976), as modified by State v. Montgomery, 362 So.2d 769 (La. 1978).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Louisiana v. Jesse L. CAVANESS
- Status
- Published