Johnson v. State

Decision Date30 December 1986
Docket NumberNo. 45S00-8604PC395,45S00-8604PC395
Citation502 N.E.2d 90
PartiesCarl Lee JOHNSON, Appellant (Petitioner Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Respondent Below).
CourtIndiana Supreme Court

Susan K. Carpenter, Public Defender, William L. Touchette, Deputy Public Defender, Indianapolis, for appellant.

Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Michael Gene Worden, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.

PIVARNIK, Justice.

Defendant-Appellant Carl Lee Johnson was convicted of first degree murder at the conclusion of a jury trial in the Lake Superior Court and was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment. On direct appeal, his conviction was affirmed. Johnson v. State (1978), 268 Ind. 55, 373 N.E.2d 169. In 1985, Appellant's Pro Se Petition for Post-Conviction Relief was denied, and he now appeals this denial, raising, as the sole issue, ineffective assistance of counsel at trial.

We first note that in a post-conviction proceeding, the burden rests with a petitioner to establish his grounds for relief by a preponderance of the evidence. The trial court's decision will be reversed only where the evidence is without conflict and leads unerringly to a result not reached by the trial court. McHugh v. State (1984), Ind., 471 N.E.2d 293, 294-295; Ind.R.P.C. 1, Sec. 5. Our post-conviction rules provide for a special remedy where a party can present error which, for various reasons was not available or known at the time of trial or on direct appeal. Any issue which was or could have been addressed at trial or on direct appeal is not the proper subject for post-conviction relief. Music v. State (1986), Ind., 489 N.E.2d 949, 950; Phillips v. State (1982), Ind., 441 N.E.2d 201, 203.

The evidence showed that Appellant and the victim, Adell Mead, had had an altercation early in the day on June 1, 1976. That night, Appellant shot and killed the victim. There were no eye witnesses to the incident other than Appellant himself. Appellant was on foot when he first came upon the victim, who was driving an automobile. He drove the victim's automobile to the home of witness Eva Mae Fagin, and told Eva and her family that he had just killed the victim by shooting him in the head. Fagin testified that Appellant then cleaned his gun and threatened Eva Mae and her family not to mention the incident to the police. Appellant testified he had killed the victim in self defense, stating the victim tried to run him down with his automobile, then accosted him on the street. Appellant claimed he tried to settle his differences with the victim, but the victim did not want to do so and fired at Appellant, grazing his leg and causing Appellant to fall to the ground. Appellant said he then pulled his own pistol and shot the victim twice in the head, killing him. He testified that he then moved the body some distance with the automobile; laid it in a ditch; and laid the victim's pistol, used to wound Appellant, next to the body. When the body was discovered the next morning, there was no pistol next to the body, and none was ever found. The record shows conflict in Appellant's testimony with that of other witnesses. He denied he had made any threats to Eva Mae Fagin and her family. Further, the evidence showed that one of the bullets entered the victim's head below the ear in such a way that it could not have been put there with Appellant and the victim being face to face as Appellant described it.

Appellant's complaint of ineffective assistance of counsel is based on a series of questions propounded by Appellant's counsel to Appellant on direct examination. In his examination of Appellant, Counsel questioned him about problems he had had in the past. In response, Appellant testified that he had had problems with his fath...

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11 cases
  • Woods v. State
    • United States
    • Indiana Supreme Court
    • November 23, 1998
    ...we have held that failure to raise a "record" ineffectiveness claim results in waiver of the issue. For example, in Johnson v. State, 502 N.E.2d 90 (Ind.1986), in an effort to show that the defendant was credible because he could admit past mistakes, trial counsel questioned the defendant o......
  • Dawson v. State
    • United States
    • Indiana Appellate Court
    • June 30, 2004
    ...assistance of trial counsel on post-conviction relief because the issue was "clearly known and available" on direct appeal. See Johnson, 502 N.E.2d at 91. However, in 1998, our supreme court, in Woods v. State, 701 N.E.2d 1208, 1214-1215 (Ind.1998),cert. denied, 528 U.S. 861, 120 S.Ct. 150,......
  • Wallace v. State, 84S00-9305-DP-527
    • United States
    • Indiana Supreme Court
    • September 28, 1994
    ...time of direct appeal, it is waived for purposes of PCR proceedings if not presented during the direct appeal process. Johnson v. State (1986), Ind., 502 N.E.2d 90, 91. However, because appellate counsel on direct appeal was the same as trial counsel, that rule does not apply. As the Court ......
  • St. John v. State
    • United States
    • Indiana Appellate Court
    • October 20, 1988
    ...proceeding the petitioner bears the burden of proving his grounds for relief by a preponderance of the evidence. Johnson v. State (1986), Ind., 502 N.E.2d 90; McHugh v. State (1984), Ind., 471 N.E.2d 293, 294. The judge who presides over the post-conviction hearing possesses exclusive autho......
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