Collins v. State

• Decision Date: 23 March 2012
• Docket Number: No. 45A03–1104–CR–168.,45A03–1104–CR–168.
• Parties: Athena Y. COLLINS, Appellant–Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

966 N.E.2d 96

Athena Y. COLLINS, Appellant–Defendant,

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.

No. 45A03–1104–CR–168.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

March 23, 2012.

Ordered Published April 19, 2012.

Marce Gonzalez, Jr., Dyer, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Karl M. Scharnberg, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

KIRSCH, Judge.

Athena Y. Collins ("Collins") appeals from her conviction after a jury trial for voluntary manslaughter,¹ a Class A felony. Collins presents the following restated issues for our review:

I. Whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury;

II. Whether the trial court erred by admitting evidence of a prior out-of-state battery conviction from 1979; and

III. Whether the prosecutor committed fundamental error by engaging in prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments.

We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On the morning of August 5, 2008, Collins and her husband, McKinley Collins ("McKinley"), received a telephone call from an automobile repair shop. McKinley had previously arranged to have Collins's car towed to have it repaired. The estimated cost of the repairs was between $500.00 and $700.00. After receiving the estimate, Collins and McKinley began to argue about their financial matters. The argument escalated and became physical. Next, either Collins hit McKinley with a clothes iron, or McKinley hit Collins with it, or both. At some point during the fracas in the hallway, Collins tore the control panel for the house alarm system from the wall and set off the alarm. The two continued to fight in the kitchen where McKinley grabbed a knife. McKinley used the knife to slash at Collins, cutting her several times on the arm and on her chest below her right breast.

Collins was able to break away from him and ran upstairs to retrieve a gun she had purchased a few days after having obtained a protective order against McKinley in 2006. Collins ran back downstairs with the gun and found McKinley standing near the bathroom. Collins then shot McKinley five times, killing him.

After Collins set off the alarm, ADT, the alarm company, was notified of the alarm. A person working for ADT twice unsuccessfully attempted to reach Collins or McKinley on their telephone line. ADT then notified the Hammond Police Department and reported the alarm. After notifying the local police, ADT called Collins's son, who then spoke to his sister about the alarm.

Sergeant John Muta was dispatched to Collins's house in response to the residential alarm call. Sergeant Ray Finley also responded to the dispatch, and the two arrived at about the same time. Collins's daughter, Natasha Collins ("Natasha"), also arrived at the house at approximately the same time. The officers checked the exterior of the house for signs of forced entry because ADT had received an alert for broken glass, but found no such signs. Natasha, who was carrying a baby in her arms, approached the officers and asked what was happening. The three then proceeded to the front door of the house, and Natasha knocked on the door. Collins yelled from inside the house, "Go away. Everything is okay." Tr. at 365. Natasha opened the front door, which was unlocked. As she opened it, Collins told her, "[G]et the baby out of here." Id. at 428.

The officers went inside the home and found Collins sitting on a couch to the right of the front door, wearing a bloody house dress. Collins had a blank, expressionless look on her face, often described by officers as "a thousand-yard stare." Id. at 430. One of the officers asked Collins if anyone else was in the house, to which Collins replied yes. She told them that she had a fight with her husband and shot him. She pointed to the rear of the house and said, "[O]ver there by the bathroom in the hallway." Id. at 368. Sergeant Muta turned and walked down the hallway where he found McKinley, nude and lying face down. McKinley, who was unresponsive and breathing shallowly, was lying halfway in the hallway and halfway in the bathroom, with a knife under his right hand. Sergeant Muta then called for backup and for an ambulance.

Sergeant Muta returned to the living room area and asked Collins for the location of the gun. Collins told him she had placed the gun on the table in the kitchen. Additional officers arrived and conducted a protective sweep of the remainder of the house. They found no one else inside the home. There were massive amounts of blood leading from the kitchen area to the bathroom area. The officers observed that Collins had a slashing-type wound

on her lower arm and a few smaller wounds on her upper arm. Collins was also bleeding from her head above the left eye. McKinley was taken to a local hospital where he died a short time later of multiple gunshot wounds.

The State charged Collins with murder, a felony. At trial, the State advanced a theory that Collins had killed McKinley and then cut herself and pulled braids out of her head to make it appear as if she were the victim of domestic violence. Collins advanced the theory that she was the victim of more than twenty years of domestic violence at the hands of McKinley and that, on the morning of his death, she just snapped. In support of her argument, Collins presented evidence of Battered Woman Syndrome. She offered the testimony of multiple witnesses that there had been numerous calls to the police over the years and complaints of domestic violence involving McKinley as the aggressor and Collins as the victim. Family members also testified that McKinley was the aggressor between the two. Over Collins's objection, the State presented rebuttal evidence that Collins had been arrested and charged in a battery incident in 1979 involving an alleged attack of a co-worker with a butcher knife, cutting the co-worker several times. At the conclusion of the jury trial, Collins was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and the trial court sentenced her to twenty-two years executed with two years suspended to probation. Collins now appeals. Additional facts will be supplied as needed.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

I. Jury Instructions

Collins contends that the trial court erred in instructing the jury. She claims that the trial court erred by instructing the jury on voluntary manslaughter and by denying her tendered instruction on involuntary manslaughter.

The manner of instructing a jury lies largely within the sound discretion of the trial court, and we review the trial court's decision only for an abuse of that discretion. Stringer v. State, 853 N.E.2d 543, 548 (Ind.Ct.App.2006). An abuse of the trial court's discretion occurs "when ‘the instructions as a whole mislead the jury as to the law in the case.’ " Ham v. State, 826 N.E.2d 640, 641 (Ind.2005) (quoting Carter v. State, 766 N.E.2d 377, 382 (Ind.2002) ). A defendant is only entitled to a reversal if he affirmatively demonstrates that the instructional error prejudiced his substantial rights. Hero v. State, 765 N.E.2d 599, 602 (Ind.Ct.App.2002). In reviewing a trial court's decision to give or refuse tendered jury instructions, we consider: "(1) whether the instruction correctly states the law; (2) whether there is evidence in the record to support the giving of the instruction; and (3) whether the substance of the tendered instruction is covered by other instructions that are given." Chambers v. State, 734 N.E.2d 578, 580 (Ind.2000).

When a trial court is requested to instruct a jury on a lesser included offense of the charged crime, the trial court conducts a tripartite analysis. Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563, 566–67 (Ind.1995). First, the trial court must compare the statutes defining the crime charged and the lesser included offense. Id. at 566. If the lesser included offense may be established by proof of the same material elements or less than all the material elements of the crime charged, or if the only difference is that a lesser culpability is required to establish the lesser included offense, then the lesser included offense is inherently included in the crime charged. Id. If the proffered lesser included offense is inherently included in the charged crime, then the trial court proceeds to the third step of the analysis. Id. at 566–67.

The trial court then proceeds to the second step of the analysis if the proposed lesser included offense is determined not to be inherently included in the crime charged under the first part of the analysis. Id. at 567. This second step involves a comparison of the statute defining the alleged lesser included offense with the charging information. Id. If the charging information alleges that the means used to commit the crime charged includes all of the elements of the lesser included offense, then the lesser included offense is factually included in the charged crime. Id. The trial court should then proceed to the third step of the analysis. Id. If the alleged lesser included offense is neither inherently nor factually included in the crime charged, then the trial court should refuse to give the tendered instruction on the proposed lesser included offense instruction. Id.

Once the trial court determines that the lesser included offense is either factually or inherently included in the crime charged, the trial court must proceed to the third step of the analysis, examination of the evidence presented by both parties in the case. Id. If there is a serious evidentiary dispute about the elements distinguishing the lesser offense from the greater offense, and a jury could reach the conclusion that the lesser offense was committed, but not the greater, then the trial court commits reversible error by refusing to give the instruction on the inherently or factually included lesser offense. Id. However, if the evidence does not support the giving of the instruction on the inherently or factually included lesser offense, then the trial court should decline the tendered...