Batchelor v. State
| Decision Date | 18 March 2019 |
| Docket Number | Supreme Court Case No. 18S-CR-436 |
| Citation | 119 N.E.3d 550 |
| Parties | Christapher BATCHELOR, Appellant (Defendant) v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff) |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: Stacy R. Uliana, Bargersville, Indiana
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: Curtis T. Hill, Jr., Attorney General of Indiana, Larry D. Allen, Stephen R. Creason, Andrew A. Kobe, Deputy Attorneys General, Indianapolis, Indiana
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 11A01-1707-CR-1574
The purpose of a jury instruction "is to inform the jury of the law applicable to the facts without misleading the jury and to enable it to comprehend the case clearly and arrive at a just, fair, and correct verdict." Campbell v. State , 19 N.E.3d 271, 277 (Ind. 2014). Because the challenged instruction here fell short of this objective, we disapprove of its use going forward. But because we find that the jury charge, as a whole, cured the instructional defect, and because the evidence clearly sustained the defendant's conviction, we affirm the trial court.
On a rainy, mid-December evening, Clay County Deputy Sheriff James Switzer noticed Christapher Batchelor driving without a seatbelt. As the deputy approached him from behind at a four-way stop, Batchelor reached over to fasten his seatbelt before signaling and turning left. The deputy, driving in a marked police cruiser, then activated his emergency lights. But Batchelor failed to immediately stop. For the next minute and thirty-eight seconds, Batchelor passed a gas station and wound
his way through a well-lit residential area at about thirty-five miles per hour, making complete stops at two intersections and passing several illuminated side streets along the way. Even as other vehicles came to a stop during this low-speed pursuit, and despite the piercing ring of the deputy's siren, Batchelor simply kept driving. When the deputy directed his LED spotlight onto the truck's side and rearview mirrors, Batchelor finally pulled over into a gravel parking spot on the side of the road.
As Batchelor exited his truck, the deputy ordered him to the ground. Batchelor initially complied. But as the deputy approached to arrest him, he resisted, and a struggle ensued. It took two more backup officers to finally subdue Batchelor. In the end, the deputy injured his ankle
, one of the back-up officers jammed his finger, and another received a black eye.
The State charged Batchelor with three crimes: Level-6 felony resisting law enforcement by fleeing, Level-6 felony battery on a police officer, and Class-A misdemeanor resisting arrest. See Indiana Code §§ 35-44.1-3-1(a)(3), (b)(1)(A) (2014) (felony resisting); I.C. §§ 35-42-2-1(b)(1), (d)(2) (2014) (felony battery); I.C. § 35-44.1-3-1(a)(1) (2014) (misdemeanor resisting).
At the conclusion of evidence at trial, the State proposed several jury instructions, including one which defined the act of fleeing, as that term applied to the felony-resisting charge. Under that instruction—Instruction 22—a person "flees" when he or she "attempts to escape from law enforcement or attempts to unnecessarily prolong the time before the person must stop." App. Vol. III, p.71. Instruction 22 also required the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the "defendant acted with the intent to escape" or, in the alternative, that a "reasonable driver in the Defendant's position" would have stopped sooner. Id.
After summarizing all proposed final jury instructions, the trial court asked the parties, "We good?" Tr. Vol. III, p.98. Defense counsel responded "Yeah" while the prosecution replied with "No objection." Id.
In his closing arguments, Batchelor claimed that he had not attempted to flee, as there was no high-speed chase, it was dark, it was raining, and the gravel parking spot where he stopped was "a good and safe place to pull over." Tr. Vol. III, pp. 108–09. He also argued self-defense, claiming the deputy had used unlawful force in subduing him. But the State argued that Batchelor was fleeing, citing the numerous places he could have stopped, the well-lit streets, and the lack of evidence supporting a reasonable safety concern.
Following deliberations, the jury found Batchelor guilty on all counts and the trial court entered judgment of conviction. Batchelor appealed, arguing that Instruction 22 expanded the definition of fleeing, which invaded the province of the jury and diminished the State's burden of proof.
In a unanimous opinion, our Court of Appeals reversed the felony-resisting conviction while affirming all other convictions. Batchelor v. State , 97 N.E.3d 297, 305 (Ind. Ct. App. 2018), vacated . The panel concluded that the jury instruction, by allowing a conviction based on what a "reasonable driver" would have done, permitted the State to convict Batchelor on a civil negligence standard, resulting in fundamental error. Id. at 303. Both parties unsuccessfully sought rehearing.
We granted the State's petition to transfer and now address Batchelor's claim of instructional error as it relates to his felony-resisting conviction. Because he fails to explain how this error affected his felony-battery and misdemeanor-resisting convictions, we summarily affirm those convictions.
We generally review a trial court's jury instruction for an abuse of discretion. Kane v. State , 976 N.E.2d 1228, 1231 (Ind. 2012). Under this standard, we look to whether evidence presented at trial supports the instruction and to whether its substance is covered by other instructions. Id. at 1230–31. When the appellant challenges the instruction as an incorrect statement of law, we apply a de novo standard of review. Id. at 1231. We reverse the trial court only if the instruction resulted in prejudice to the defendant's "substantial rights." Hernandez v. State , 45 N.E.3d 373, 376 (Ind. 2015).
A person commits the crime of resisting law enforcement, a Level 6 felony, when that person, using a vehicle, "knowingly or intentionally ... flees from a law enforcement officer" after that officer has, "by visible or audible means, including operation of [a] siren or emergency lights, identified himself or herself and ordered the person to stop." I.C. § 35-44.1-3-1.
Although the felony-resisting statute offers no definition of the term "flees," our Court of Appeals offered some guidance in Cowans v. State , 53 N.E.3d 540 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016), trans. not sought . There, the court affirmed the defendant's resisting-by-fleeing conviction, rejecting as a mistake of law his belief that he could delay stopping for police due to safety concerns. Id. at 543. See Yoder v. State , 208 Ind. 50, 58, 194 N.E. 645, 648 (1935) () (internal quotation marks omitted). In speculating that the defendant was "far from alone" in his mistaken belief, the Cowans panel decided to "address some of the underlying issues" of that case, issues "likely to reoccur for other citizens of Indiana." 53 N.E.3d at 543. While finding "no express sanction" in the resisting statute for delaying a stop due to safety concerns, the panel concluded that a driver with an "adequate justification" may still "have some discretion to choose the location of a stop." Id. at 544 ().
Based on this conclusion, the Cowans panel determined that a defendant charged with resisting would be entitled to a jury instruction defining the word "flee." Id. at 545–46. This definition, the panel opined, should explain "that if a reasonable driver in the defendant's position would have felt unsafe to come to an immediate halt, and if the defendant took reasonable steps to increase the safety of the stop without unnecessarily prolonging the process, then the defendant was not fleeing." Id. at 546.
Instruction 22 tracks this language from Cowans :
App. Vol. III, p.71. (bold emphases added.)
Batchelor argues that, by using a civil negligence standard to establish criminal culpability, Instruction 22 relieves the State of its burden to prove, under the felony-resisting statute, that he knowingly or intentionally fled. Permitting the jury to convict on a lesser mens rea , he insists, violates due process and conflicts with "well-established precedent" holding that similar instructional defects amount to fundamental error. Resp. to Pet. to Trans. at 6. Batchelor also contends that, by expanding the statutory definition of fleeing, Instruction 22 invades the province of the jury in violation of article 1, section 19 of the Indiana Constitution. He specifically faults the instruction for inviting the jury to focus on whether "reasonable" safety concerns justified his actions, thus minimizing other relevant factors, like the speed at which he drove or the complete stops he made at intersections.
The State counters that Batchelor invited the alleged instructional error,...
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