Louisiana Supreme Court reinstates overturned conviction in 2018 Brandon Broussard murder
NEW ORLEANS, La. (KLFY) -- A Lafayette man who had his conviction on charges of conspiracy to commit murder vacated on appeal, has had the conviction reinstated by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Carlos Toby was convicted in 2021 of conspiracy in connection with the 2018 murder of Lafayette boxer Brandon Broussard. Toby's brother, Shavis Toby, was convicted of the second degree murder of Broussard in the same trial.
In early 2022, Toby's conspiracy conviction was overturned by the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal, which ruled that evidence provided by the state was insufficient in proving there was a conspiracy. Toby’s sentence of 25 years in prison was vacated.
The Supreme Court disagreed, and reinstated the original guilty verdict in a ruling announced today.
"The court of appeal concluded that the jury could only speculate to infer defendant’s participation in a conspiracy with his brother Shavis," the high court ruled. "However, the State presented evidence at trial that both brothers travelled to Lafayette on the day of the murder and engaged in multiple phone calls and texts to each other before the murder. Furthermore, the State presented evidence that Shavis travelled to murder a victim he did not know, other than that defendant was recently in a fight with him. Notably, evidence was also presented that defendant obtained a new phone the day after the murder. The jury could reasonably infer guilty knowledge from the attempt to conceal defendant’s electronic communications with Shavis."
Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Piper Griffin dissented.
"A conviction based entirely on circumstantial evidence must necessarily 'exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence,'” Griffin wrote in her dissent. "The State failed to meet this burden as it is undisputed that not one witness testified regarding an agreement; nor did the
State present any recording, messages, or communication between Mr. Toby and his brother relating to an agreement to kill or inflict great bodily harm upon the victim.
"[A] conviction based upon a record wholly devoid of any relevant evidence of a crucial element of the offense charged is constitutionally infirm."
Prosecutors pointed to a night at a Lafayette nightclub as a motive for the murder. Attorneys said Broussard beat Carlos Toby in a fight, and Toby wanted revenge, enacting the help of his brother Shavis to murder Broussard. Shavis Toby received a life sentence, plus 30 years when he was convicted of the pulling the trigger.
"We reverse the court of appeal, which acquitted defendant," the 6-justice court majority ruled. "We reinstate the jury’s guilty verdict of conspiracy to commit second degree murder. The case is remanded to the court of appeal to consider four pretermitted assignments of error."
Read the entire ruling here: