Federal appeals court upholds guilty verdicts, sentences for 2 NOPD officers in Robair beating death

New Orleans police officers Melvin Williams, left, and Dean Moore 

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the convictions and sentences of two former New Orleans police officers over the fatal beating of a 48-year-old handyman. A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled there was sufficient evidence to support a jury's April 2011 convictions of the former officers, Melvin Williams and Matthew Dean Moore.

Williams was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison for fatally kicking Raymond Robair and beating him with a baton during a July 2005 encounter in Treme. Moore, who wasn't charged with having a role in Robair's death, was sentenced to more than five years in prison for submitting a false report and lying to the FBI.

The case is one of several Justice Department probes of alleged misconduct by New Orleans police officers. Most focused on cases that occurred during Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath. Robair died less than a month before the August 2005 storm's landfall.

Prosecutors said Williams broke four of Robair's ribs and crushed his spleen before the officers drove him to a hospital, where he died of massive internal bleeding. Williams' attorney, Reagan Wynn, argued there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove Williams inflicted Robair's fatal injuries.

The 5th Circuit panel, however, said even a defense expert testified that the spleen injury could have been caused by a hard kick.

"While the jury certainly could have reached a different conclusion, these arguments ignore the evidence in the record that supports the jury's verdict," Judge W. Eugene Davis wrote.

Williams denied kicking or hitting Robair, claiming he slipped and fell on a curb as the officers approached. But jurors heard from residents who said they witnessed the beating.

Deborah Pearce, one of Moore's attorneys, argued during a hearing in December that those "incredible" eyewitness accounts conflicted with each other and with the medical evidence in the case.

The 5th Circuit's ruling says jurors were "free to choose among reasonable constructions of the evidence."

"The fact that both medical evidence and eyewitness testimony are conflicting does not preclude a finding of guilt by a jury who has the task of deciding which evidence to credit," Davis wrote.

Wynn also argued that U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon erred in sentencing Williams based on a finding he committed voluntary manslaughter. Wynn said the trial evidence at most supported a finding of involuntary manslaughter. The 5th Circuit, however, ruled that the record supports Fallon's finding that Williams "acted with an intent to do bodily harm."

The officers' attorneys tried to shift the blame for Robair's death to doctors who treated him for a heart attack for about 90 minutes before they discovered his spleen had ruptured. They say hospital records show Robair arrived at Charity Hospital with a single fractured rib and wasn't bleeding internally.

Moore was a rookie and Williams, a 16-year department veteran, was his training officer at the time of the deadly encounter.