Louisiana v. McGhee

Defendant Chadwick McGhee was found guilty as a principal to the simple kidnapping of Jessica Guillot, in response to a charge of second degree kidnapping. Guillot disappeared in September 2013 after she was last seen being dragged out of one vehicle by Donnie Edwards and Willie Price and forced into a second vehicle in which Asa Bentley was waiting. Bentley then choked and threatened the victim, who begged for her life, as Edwards drove off with them, following Price and defendant in the first vehicle. The court of appeal found that, although the evidence showed co-perpetrators Bentley, Edwards, and Price kidnapped the victim, the evidence was insufficient to show that the defendant was anything other than an unwitting bystander to the crime. Because the court of appeal erred in its application of the due process standard of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979), the Louisiana Supreme Court granted the state’s application to reverse the court of appeal’s ruling and remanded for consideration of the pretermitted assignments of error. View "Louisiana v. McGhee" on Justia Law