Judge: Obscenity charge won’t be in murder trial

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 22, 2008 - Page: 2B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A state district judge ruled Wednesday that a jury should not hear about a lewd act a man on trial for murder allegedly committed several weeks ago in a courthouse holding cell.

The ruling came in a hearing after jury selection was completed in the trial of Sanchez Brumfield, who is accused of killing a man behind the Olive Garden restaurant in 2006.

Whether Brumfield masturbated in a courthouse holding cell April 23 would not be pertinent in the penalty phase should Brumfield be convicted of first-degree murder, Judge Todd Hernandez ruled.

According to court documents, sheriff’s deputies monitoring a holding cell camera observed Brumfield, 25, engaging in a moment of self-gratification while alone in a cell in the courthouse basement at 222 St. Louis St.

Brumfield, who is in Parish Prison awaiting trial, was booked on two counts of obscenity in that incident, the documents show.

While attorneys for the prosecution and the defense agreed the alleged incident does not necessarily fit the definition of a crime, they had different views on its relevance to Brumfield’s murder trial.

Should Brumfield be convicted and jurors have to recommend whether he deserves life in prison or the death penalty, knowledge of the alleged incident would give jurors a better understanding of Brumfield’s character, prosecutor Aaron Brooks said in the hearing.

“He will make a lousy prisoner if he’s given a life-sentence,” Brooks said. “And this stunt proves that.”

Meanwhile, defense attorney Bruce Craft shrugged off Brooks’ suggestion.

“My focus is on guilt or innocence. Life or death,” Craft said. “I’m not worried about what may have happened in the courthouse basement a few weeks ago.”

Hernandez’ decision came on the eighth and final day of jury selection.

Jurors include five white men, five white women, two black men and two alternates — a white woman and a Latino woman. Brumfield is black.

All 14 jurors will be sequestered from the time of opening statements, scheduled May 27, until the jury has reached a verdict.