State v. Juniors

The State of Louisiana (plaintiff) charged Glynn Juniors (defendant) and Ronald Williams with murder based on the shooting death of Albert Robinson. The shooting occurred at the office of Williams’s former employer, Fleet Boats, Inc. Williams pleaded guilty and testified against Juniors at trial. According to Williams, he and Juniors decided to rob Robinson, and Juniors shot Robinson during the robbery. During the defense’s case, Juniors offered a medical-history form from the hospital where Robinson was taken after the shooting. The form indicated that Robinson had been “shot by a disgruntled employee.” The doctor who signed the form died before trial. The trial court admitted the form but removed the words “by a disgruntled employee,” leaving only the statement that Robinson had been shot. Juniors also offered a laboratory report from Williams’s pre-employment drug test. A handwritten note on the form indicated that Williams tested positive for marijuana two weeks before the shooting. Juniors contended that the report was evidence that Williams was fired for using drugs and that Williams thus had a motive to kill Robinson. Although a Fleet Boats secretary testified about records kept as part of Williams’s personnel file, she said that the laboratory report had been prepared by an outside company and that she did not know how the laboratory prepared the report or who wrote the note about the positive marijuana test. The trial court ruled that the laboratory report was inadmissible. The jury ultimately found Juniors guilty, and the trial court sentenced him to death. Juniors appealed.