The state Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling that threw out a man's conviction in a 2018 slaying.
Last year, the Third Circuit Court of Appeal threw out the murder conspiracy conviction of Carlos Anthony Toby in the slaying of local boxer Brandon Broussard. The higher court has reinstated the conviction, and remanded the case back to the Third Circuit.
Toby was one of two brothers indicted in the shooting death of Broussard; he and his brother, Shavis Breon Toby, were indicted in 2018 for Broussard's death. At that time, both were charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. At trial, Shavis was convicted on both counts and Carlos was convicted of conspiracy.
The Third Circuit threw out Carlos Toby's conviction last year, ruling that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction. The Supreme Court disagreed, finding that "the jury could reasonably infer from the circumstantial evidence, without speculating, that defendant and his brother planned to kill the victim, and defendant's brother then carried it out."
The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Third Circuit to consider four errors that were appealed but not considered by the lower court because the conviction was thrown out based on insufficient evidence.
The shooting happened late at night on Grossie Lane. Lafayette Parish Sheriff's deputies found Broussard suffering from gunshot wounds; he was transported to a hospital but did not survive. Broussard was known as "King Tut" and had boxed professionally for several years.
The trial began in June 2020 and ended on July 3, with the jury convicting Carlos Toby of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and acquitting him of second-degree murder. His brother was convicted on both counts. Court records show the state Supreme Court has denied appeals in his case.
According to the Supreme Court ruling, which you can read for yourself by scrolling down, Broussard was shot and killed in his girlfriend's driveway. The allegation was that Carlos Toby had also dated that person, and that he and Broussard had a fight in a Lafayette nightclub two weeks prior to the day Broussard died. Prosecutors' theory was that the brothers planned the slaying but it was Shavis who carried it out.
Neither of the brothers lived in Lafayette, but cell phone data showed that Carlos drove to Lafayette from Texas on the date of the shooting, and his brother drove in from New Iberia. Cell phone data placed Carlos near Willow Street when the shooting happened, but data and surveillance video placed Shavis' phone and a vehicle like his near the crime scene, the ruling states.
DNA from part of a latex glove found at the scene matched to Shavis, the ruling states.
The Third Circuit decided that the only way the jury could decide that the brothers had a conspiracy was by speculating.
"We disagree," the higher court wrote, citing the standard "whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt."
That standard gives a jury "broad discretion" in deciding what to decide from the evidence, requiring only that it be reasonable and rely on facts, the Supreme Court wrote, citing two facts: that Shavis didn't know Broussard but his brother did, and that Carlos bought a new phone the day after the murder.
The Third Circuit "departed" from the standard cited, "substituting its judgment for that of the jury," the Supreme Court stated.
The absence of a direct text message outlining an agreement did not prevent the jury from deciding that a conspiracy existed, the Court wrote.
We reached out to Todd Clemons, who represents Carlos Toby, for a statement:
"We are extremely disappointed in the ruling from our state Supreme Court. It contained comments about what the evidence showed that simply are not supported by the record. We are in the process of reviewing all of our options including a motion for them to reconsider their ruling," Clemons said. "Regardless, the case has been remanded to the Third Circuit Court of Appeal. They now must consider the remaining four assignment of errors that we raised on appeal. These are assignments of error that they did not even get to originally. That is because they correctly found that the evidence at trial was insufficient to prove that Carlos Anthony Toby conspired with anyone to commit murder."
Here's the ruling:
