Williams v. State
| Decision Date | 07 February 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 49A02-0201-CR-96.,49A02-0201-CR-96. |
| Citation | 782 N.E.2d 1039 |
| Parties | Jerome WILLIAMS, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Mark Small, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.
Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, Michael Gene Worden, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.
Jerome Williams ("Williams") was convicted of murder,1 a felony, attempted robbery,2 as a Class A felony, and carrying a handgun without a license,3 as a Class A misdemeanor, after a jury trial in Marion Superior Court. Williams appeals raising five issues, which we restate as:
I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed two witnesses to testify to what the victim told them in the emergency room after the shooting;
II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed the medical examiner to testify as to why some of the victim's organs were not harvested;
III. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by reading the jury Final Instruction 10D, which referred to accomplice liability;
IV. Whether there was sufficient evidence to support Williams's conviction for murder; and,
V. Whether Williams's sentence was inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender.
We affirm.
On December 17, 1999, Frank Townsend ("Townsend") was using his car to provide taxi services to earn extra money for the holidays. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Williams and his cousin, Cleve Williams ("Cleve"), left a friend's house and walked to a gas station. At the gas station, Williams used a payphone to call a cab. Both Williams and Cleve had handguns; Cleve had received one earlier that day from Williams. When Townsend arrived at the gas station, Williams sat in the front seat and Cleve sat in the back seat. Williams told Townsend to keep his hands on the steering wheel and drive. Tr. p. 278.
A few minutes later, the car stopped near the intersection of North Beville and Coyner. Williams's and Cleve's aunt lived across the street from that location. Almost immediately after the car stopped, shooting started from the front seat area of the car. Cleve then pulled out his gun and started shooting. When Cleve stopped shooting, he got out of the car through the back passenger's window and ran to his aunt's house. A few minutes after Cleve reached his aunt's house, Williams also entered his aunt's house and was bleeding. Cleve then left and went to his uncle's house.
Indianapolis Police Officer Brian Bethel ("Officer Bethel") was patrolling the area of Brookside Parkway in Indianapolis at around 11:00 p.m. Initially, when Officer Bethel drove through the intersection of Beville and Coyner, he did not observe anything unusual. When he drove though a few minutes later at 11:36 p.m., Officer Bethel saw a car sitting in the road facing northeast on Coyner. The headlights of the vehicle were on, the car was running, and there was glass broken out of the driver's side window. Officer Bethel stopped to investigate and observed a person slumped in the driver's seat. As he approached the car, Officer Bethel saw that several of the windows had been broken out, all of the car's doors were closed, and that the man, who was later identified as Townsend, in the driver's seat appeared to be unconscious. Townsend had blood on him, and a handgun was lying a few inches from his hand.
Officer Bethel moved the handgun for safety reasons and called in for backup. At that time, a woman came from 2214 Coyner and told Officer Bethel that there was another person shot inside the house. Tr. pp. 79-80. Another officer arrived at the scene and went with the woman to check on the person inside the house. Officer Bethel then returned to Townsend and noticed that he had stopped breathing. Officer Bethel pulled Townsend out of the car to assist him. The car began to move, so Officer Bethel quickly put the car in park. When Officer Bethel returned to Townsend, he was breathing again. The ambulance arrived shortly and took care of Townsend. Officer Bethel then went to the woman's house and saw Williams lying on the floor bleeding. Another ambulance arrived and took care of Williams.
Indianapolis Police Lieutenant Mark Rice ("Lieutenant Rice") arrived at Wishard Hospital at 11:52 p.m., in response to a call regarding two people who had been shot at Beville and Coyner. Lieutenant Rice first checked on Townsend, who was the most critically injured. Townsend was being treated by the emergency room personnel. He had an oxygen mask over his mouth and had chest tubes inserted in his chest. Lieutenant Rice asked Townsend what had happened, and Townsend told him that two young men had tried to rob him. Tr. p. 114. Townsend stated that one of the men had been in the front seat, and one had been in the back seat. Id. He told Lieutenant Rice that he knew that the man in the front seat had shot him, and he was possibly shot by the man in the back seat. Id. The two men had also asked Townsend how much money he had. Tr. p. 115. Townsend stated that he had a gun under his right leg and had fired before the man in the front seat had. Id. Townsend told Lieutenant Rice that he had picked up the two men at 1105 Jefferson. Id.
Lucille Townsend ("Lucille"), Townsend's wife, also arrived at the hospital. Lucille was notified that Townsend was at the hospital at approximately 11:45 p.m. and reached the hospital about thirty minutes after receiving the notification. When Lucille saw her husband, he was on a gurney in the emergency room and was in a lot of pain. There was blood on the floor and the bed, and Townsend had tubes and IVs sticking out of his body. Townsend told Lucille that he had picked up two young men at 10th and Jefferson. Tr. p. 127. He stated that when the men entered the car they had their guns drawn, and they tried to rob him. Id. Townsend said that he had pulled out his own gun, but it had jammed when he fired it. Id.
On January 19, 2000, Townsend underwent major surgery, and his gallbladder was removed. For part of his hospitalization Townsend had a trach tube inserted to assist him with breathing. On March 4, 2000, Townsend was in pain and was disoriented. He had an elevated fever and high white blood cell count. On March 5, 2000, Townsend, while sitting in a chair, went into cardiac arrest when his trach tube became blocked by mucous. He did not recover from the lack of oxygen to his brain, and he was taken off of life support on March 8.
On March 31, 2000, Williams was charged with murder, a felony, attempted robbery, as a Class A felony, carrying a handgun without a license, as a Class A misdemeanor, and dangerous possession of a handgun, as a Class A misdemeanor. A jury trial was held on October 22-24, 2001, and the jury found Williams guilty of murder, attempted robbery, and carrying a handgun without a license. The trial court merged the attempted robbery and carrying a handgun without a license convictions into the murder conviction and sentenced Williams to sixty-five years in the Department of Correction. Williams now appeals. Additional facts will be provided as necessary.
The admission of evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial court, and the decision whether to admit evidence will not be reversed absent a showing of manifest abuse of discretion by the trial court resulting in the denial of a fair trial. Prewitt v. State, 761 N.E.2d 862, 869 (Ind.Ct.App.2002). A decision would be an abuse of discretion if it is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances before the court. Id. In reviewing the decision, we only consider the evidence in favor of the trial court's ruling and any unrefuted evidence in the defendant's favor. Id.
Hearsay is an out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the facts asserted in the statement itself. Ind. Evidence Rule 801(c). Hearsay is generally inadmissible unless the statement falls within one of the established hearsay exceptions. Ind. Evid. R. 802. In the present case, the trial court admitted Townsend's statements to Lieutenant Rice and Lucille under the excited utterance exception.
For a hearsay statement to be admitted as an excited utterance under Evidence Rule 803(2), three elements must be shown: (1) a startling event occurs; (2) a statement was made by a declarant while under the stress of excitement caused by the event; and (3) the statement relates to the event. Ind. Evid. R. 803(2). Application of these elements is not mechanical. Rather, the inquiry turns on whether the statement is inherently reliable because the declarant was under the stress of the event and unlikely to make deliberate falsifications. Cox v. State, 774 N.E.2d 1025, 1027 (Ind.Ct.App.2002) (citing Jenkins v. State, 725 N.E.2d 66, 68 (Ind.2000)). The time period between the startling event and the statement is but one factor to consider when determining if a statement is an excited utterance, but no precise length of time is required. Id. (citing Simmons v. State, 760 N.E.2d 1154, 1161 (Ind.Ct.App.2002)).
Williams argues that the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed Lieutenant Rice and Lucille to testify to statements that Townsend made after the shooting. He contends that the statements were not inherently reliable because Townsend could have fabricated these statements in the time that elapsed between the shooting and when he made the statements.
Here, Townsend had been subjected to a startling event. Two men had attempted to rob him, and he had been shot several times. Townsend made the statements to Lieutenant Rice and Lucille while in the emergency room and still in pain from being shot. He made these statements while undergoing medical procedures to save his life and shortly after he was found unconscious at the scene of the shooting. Townsend's...
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