Five days after someone shot a New Orleans cab driver
in the head, an emotional mother summoned her minister
to a motel room in Amite. Inside the Colonial Inn, off
Louisiana 16, two teenage boys waited.
The woman said she wanted the clergyman to "talk to
them about a matter and lead them to Christ."
The Rev. Jeffery Woolridge agreed, but had no idea he
was about to hear a tale of a shooting and botched
robbery.
But unless the Louisiana Supreme Court intervenes, no
jury will ever hear of the confession or motel meeting
at a trial -- that is, if prosecutors don’t dump the
2-year-old case first.
Whatever Deonta Gray, then 17, told the minister
inside the rented room was privileged information, not
to be shared or used against him in court, the 4th
Circuit Court of Appeal recently said, agreeing with
defense attorney Jeffrey Smith.
Louisiana’s evidence laws hold that a confession made
to a clergyman, under the motivation of penance or
spiritual guidance, is confidential and cannot be used
in court. A defendant has a right to refuse to
disclose such a "confidential communication" by
someone acting as a "spiritual advisor, " according to
the law.
Crucial testimony
Without Woolridge’s statement, District Attorney Eddie
Jordan’s office is left with little evidence to
convict the teens on an attempted murder charge, which
carries up to 50 years upon conviction.
Nothing in the case file indicates that the Grays made
statements to the police.
In the motel room, Deonta Gray did all the talking
while his 15-year-old cousin, Jonta Gray, and aunt,
Kenyatta Gray, sat nearby. "They were getting high,
and called a cab driver to rob him, " Woolridge said,
first to police in 2002 and again last year in Orleans
Parish Criminal District Court.
"He reached for a gun and he shot him, " Woolridge
said Deonta told him.
Deonta and Kenyatta Gray were charged as adults in the
attempted murder of cab driver Kayon Brumfield, who
couldn’t identify the two boys he picked up before a
gunshot pierced his face.
Almost two years after Brumfield was attacked, the
case has been batted between the appeals court and
Criminal Court Judge Darryl Derbigny, who initially
tossed out the minister’s testimony but later reversed
himself. The 4th Circuit soundly ruled that the
confession must remain confidential.
Now the case sits before the Louisiana Supreme Court,
which in a prior decision said the lower appeals court
should handle it. The Grays have been in jail since
late 2002.
Prosecutors argue that what Woolridge heard was not a
"privileged communication, " because two other people
were present. None of the Grays asked the minister to
keep quiet about the meeting, and he made no promises
to do so, according to court records.
But the appeals court said the law could not be more
precise or plain.
"We have no evidence that would indicate that the
statement was not made for spiritual purposes, " Judge
Max Tobias wrote for the three judge panel, comprised
of Chief Judge Joan Bernard Armstrong and Judge
Michael Kirby.
