Brewer v. State
| Decision Date | 03 March 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 49S00-9311-CR-1296,49S00-9311-CR-1296 |
| Citation | 646 N.E.2d 1382 |
| Parties | James D. BREWER, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
This case comes to us on direct appeal. Ind.Appellate Rule 4(A)(7). Appellant James D. Brewer was convicted of murder in a jury trial and the trial court imposed a sixty (60) year sentence. Appellant raises the following issues for review:
1) whether appellant was competent to stand trial;
2) whether the trial court erred in admitting appellant's confession;
3) whether the evidence was sufficient, in light of appellant's self-defense claim, to sustain the conviction; and
4) whether the sentence imposed by the trial court was manifestly unreasonable.
On Monday, June 19, 1978, Officer Smith of the Indianapolis Police Department responded to a call at the Tway Company, 902 North Park Avenue. When he arrived at the company several employees were waiting outside. Inside one of the company's offices, wrapped in a green blanket, was the body of Floyd Lancaster. Lancaster, the owner of the company, was last seen alive at approximately 2:00 p.m. on June 17, 1978. Officer Smith requested assistance from the homicide division and the coroner. In another room, Officer Smith observed a bloody drill.
Homicide Detective Donald Patton was assigned to the case. Officers unwrapped the body in order to look for wounds. There were no apparent injuries except to the head and face, which were covered with dried blood. A jar of vaseline was on a chair near the entrance to the room in which the body was found. The bloody drill was covered with vaseline. The police investigation proved fruitless.
Fourteen years later, at approximately 12:45 a.m. on March 31, 1993, appellant entered the Indianapolis Police Department, went to the Central Desk, and asked to speak with a homicide detective. Detective Monica Moore met appellant at the information desk and escorted him upstairs. She seated appellant at a table in an open area; he said that he had previously discussed some murders with a detective and wished to provide additional information about those murders. Detective Norman Matthews, at the request of Detective Moore, joined appellant and Detective Moore.
Detective Moore testified at trial concerning appellant's initial statement. She said:
[T]he Defendant stated that he wanted to talk about prior murders. The first, he stated, had occurred in the 600 block of North Park.... He stated that an older man had been killed, and that he had been hit in the head with a hard object. He stated that the incident probably occurred in '77 or '78, and more likely that it occurred in June, July or August of 1978, and that date would have been a Friday or a Saturday.... He stated that the victim's body was found on Monday, and we asked him how did he know the things that he was telling us. And he had been evasive at first, but he stated outright that he had done them.
After Detective Moore verified that such a murder had occurred, she advised appellant of his Miranda rights. Until this time, 3:20 a.m., appellant had been free to leave.
Appellant signed a waiver of rights form at 3:35 a.m. Appellant then gave a video and audio taped statement describing the other murder. After giving that statement, he had the opportunity to eat and use the toilet while the police awaited the arrival of the officer originally assigned to the case, Detective Patton. When Detective Patton arrived at 8:00 a.m., appellant was again advised of his Miranda rights and signed another waiver of rights form. Appellant began giving his statement about the Lancaster murder at 8:20 a.m. In each instance, he was advised of his rights on the tape itself, so that he received a total of four advisements of his Miranda rights. His statements contained a substantial amount of information about the murder, including many details which had never been reported in the press or revealed by the police department.
Appellant claims that the trial court erred in determining that he was competent to stand trial.
The trial and conviction of one without adequate competence is a denial of federal due process and a denial of a state statutory right as well. Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966); Tinsley v. State, (1973), 260 Ind. 577, 298 N.E.2d 429; IND.CODE ANN. § 35-36-3-1 (West Supp.1994). A hearing to determine whether the accused is competent to stand trial is required where the trial court is confronted with evidence that creates a reasonable or bona fide doubt as to the competence of the accused. The standard for deciding such competency is whether or not the defendant currently possesses the ability to consult rationally with counsel and factually comprehend the proceedings against him or her. Mato v. State (1982), Ind., 429 N.E.2d 945, 946. This test is sometimes stated as requiring that the defendant have sufficient present ability to consult counsel with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and to have a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings brought against him or her. Evans v. State (1973), 261 Ind. 148, 157, 300 N.E.2d 882, 887 (citing Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960)).
The trial court as trier of fact is vested with discretion to determine if reasonable grounds exist for believing a defendant is competent to stand trial, and on appeal a determination by the trial court of the issue is viewed from a deferential perspective. Montano v. State (1984), Ind., 468 N.E.2d 1042, 1045. Where the evidence is in conflict, we will normally only reverse this decision if it was clearly erroneous, unsupported by the facts and circumstances before the court and the reasonable conclusions that can be drawn therefrom. Ferry v. State (1983), Ind., 453 N.E.2d 207.
In this instance, Dr. Hanus J. Grosz, a psychiatrist, stated in his report that the contents of appellant's confession indicated that appellant was "medico-legally sane" at the time of the crime and "is competent to stand trial and to cooperate with his attorney[,] provided he remains adequately medicated." Dr. Ned P. Masbaum's report also alleged that Brewer "does have comprehension sufficient to understand the nature of the proceedings herein and assist his attorney in his defense." Appellant testified at trial that he was thirty-eight years old and had been delusional since using LSD and other drugs when he was a teenager. When deciding to confess to police, he was under the influence of marijuana and was deeply in debt to drug dealers. He was employed and receiving disability checks. He had become a Christian and was haunted by deep feelings that he had done something "wrong religiously" in killing. After smoking some marijuana with a friend, he got out his Bible and said to himself, Appellant's testimony was responsive, reasonable, and revealed a thought process involving the weighing of competing interests, not one driven by delusional thought. The testimony of appellant and these physicians provides adequate support for the trial court's determination of appellant's competence.
Appellant asserts that his drug use and paranoid schizophrenia made him incapable of giving a knowing and voluntary waiver of his Miranda rights. Relying solely on claims of mental illness and intoxication, he challenges the admissibility of his videotaped statement.
In a criminal proceeding where a proper objection is made, the statement of the accused while a suspect in custody, made without counsel during police interrogation, is inadmissible absent proof beyond a reasonable doubt by the state that the statement was preceded by a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent waiver of the privilege against self-incrimination and the right to counsel. Jackson v. State (1980), 274 Ind. 297, 298-99, 411 N.E.2d 609, 610-11; see also Ind. Const. art. I, § 14. Neither the influence of drugs nor severe mental problems is sufficient to require the exclusion of a statement. Intoxication or mental illness are merely factors that are included in the totality of circumstances that a trial court considers in ruling on whether to admit a statement. Pettiford v. State (1993), Ind., 619 N.E.2d 925 (citing Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 107 S.Ct. 515, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986)); Burdine v. State (1987), Ind., 515...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Wisehart v. State
...possesses the ability to consult rationally with counsel and factually comprehend the proceedings against him or her." Brewer v. State, 646 N.E.2d 1382, 1384 (Ind.1995) (citing Mato v. State, 429 N.E.2d 945, 946 (Ind.1982)). The pre-trial stipulation of trial counsel and the trial court's d......
-
Rea v. State
...132 Idaho 53, 966 P.2d 53, 58 (Ct.App. 1998); State v. Brown, 121 Idaho 385, 825 P.2d 482, 491 (1992); Indiana: Brewer v. State, 646 N.E.2d 1382, 1386 (Ind.1995); Kansas: State v. Freeman, 223 Kan. 362, 574 P.2d 950, 956 (1978); Louisiana: State v. Lobato, 603 So.2d 739, 751 (La.1992); Mass......
-
Pruitt v. State
...while under the influence of drugs, or that the defendant is mentally ill, does not render it inadmissible per se. Brewer v. State, 646 N.E.2d 1382, 1385 (Ind.1995). Intoxication, drug use and mental illness are only factors to be considered by the trier of fact in determining whether a sta......
-
Edwards v. State
...together with any reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom. See McManus v. State, 814 N.E.2d 253, 260-61 (Ind.2004); Brewer v. State, 646 N.E.2d 1382, 1385 (Ind.1995); Ferry v. State, 453 N.E.2d 207, 212 (Ind.1983); United States v. Magers, 535 F.3d 608, 610 (7th Cir. Although it is now ......
-
Toward the decentralization of criminal procedure: state constitutional law and selective disincorporation.
...(Ill. 1992) (establishing pursuant to the state constitution the doctrine of McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171 (1991)); Brewer v. State, 646 N.E.2d 1382, 1385 (Inc. 1995) (adopting a higher standard of proof than federal law demands for waiver of Miranda rights); State v. Mease, 842 S.W.2d ......