Fansler v. State, Supreme Court Case No. 27S02–1710–CR–672

• Decision Date: 21 June 2018
• Docket Number: Supreme Court Case No. 27S02–1710–CR–672
• Citation: 100 N.E.3d 250
• Parties: Aaron L. FANSLER Appellant (Defendant below) v. STATE of Indiana Appellee (Plaintiff below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

100 N.E.3d 250

Aaron L. FANSLER Appellant (Defendant below)

v.STATE of Indiana Appellee (Plaintiff below).

Supreme Court Case No. 27S02–1710–CR–672

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Argued: November 21, 2017

Filed June 21, 2018

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: Evan K. Hammond, Grant County Public Defender, Marion, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: Curtis T. Hill, Jr., Attorney General of Indiana, Eric P. Babbs, Stephen R. Creason, Ian McLean, Angela Sanchez, Deputy Attorneys General, Indianapolis, Indiana

On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 27A02–1610–CR–2325

David, Justice

In this case we address whether, under Indiana Evidence Rule 617, admission of incriminating statements made in a motel room¹ during the course of a custodial interrogation required the State to make available an electronic recording of those statements at trial. We find that the trial court did not err in admitting the defendant's statements without such a recording because the motel room in question was not a "place of detention," as defined by the rule.

Facts and Procedural History

On June 18, 2015, Aaron Fansler ("Fansler") accepted a Facebook friend request to connect with a user who appeared to be a twenty-one-year-old woman named "Kenzie Allen" ("Kenzie"). Kenzie was not a real person; a fake Facebook account using that name was set up by a drug task force team investigating drug dealing in Grant County. Communicating first through social media, and then through private text messages, Fansler agreed to sell two-tenths of a gram of heroin to Kenzie at the Hart Motel, located in Marion, Indiana.

The next day, lured by the prospects of sexual intercourse and a drug sale, Fansler visited Kenzie's motel room where he was greeted by Detective Wesley McCorkle, a member of the Joint Effort Against Narcotics ("JEAN") Team. Detective McCorkle identified himself as Kenzie's brother and assured Fansler that Kenzie had just stepped out to purchase cigarettes and would return soon. Fansler, who appeared visibly nervous, decided to wait for Kenzie outside the room. As Fansler walked along the outside of the motel, a second officer, Detective Sergeant John Kauffman, approached Fansler and arrested him. Fansler was brought back into the motel room, where officers noticed a syringe protruding from an open flap in his cargo pants. Officers retrieved the syringe and, upon searching Fansler further, they recovered over a dozen clonazepam and oxycodone pills, numerous empty plastic bags, a scale, a tourniquet, a hypodermic needle, two cigarette packs, and more than $250 in cash.

After Fansler's pockets were emptied and his Miranda warnings were read, Fansler made two incriminating statements. The first statement came in response to officers' questions about the drugs he promised to sell. When officers asked Fansler "where the two points of heroin were,"² he told them that the "points" should be in the baggies. Tr. Vol. I at 147. Officers then searched inside one of the cigarette packs and recovered two small ziplock baggies containing a substance that later tested positive for heroin. Within that same cigarette pack, officers found "another clear baggy that contained a large amount of gray compressed powder." Tr. Vol. I at 149. That substance also later tested positive for heroin. When officers asked Fansler "why he didn't tell [them] about [the large amount of compressed powder] being in the cigarettes in his possession," Fansler made a second incriminating statement, claiming that he did not want to "get caught with it" and "go to jail for it." Tr. Vol. I at 152.

On June 24, 2015, Fansler was charged with possession of heroin with intent to deliver, felony possession of heroin, misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, and misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia. Fansler filed a motion to suppress his incriminating statements, which the trial court denied after holding a preliminary hearing.

A jury trial was held on August 1–2, 2016. Fansler admitted possession, but denied intent to deliver and raised an affirmative entrapment defense. During the State's case in chief, Detective Sergeant Kauffman testified as to Fansler's two self-incriminating statements—that the two points he promised to sell to Kenzie were in the baggies and that he didn't tell officers about the large amount of compressed powder in his possession because he didn't want to go to jail for it. Ultimately, the jury found Fansler guilty on all four counts.

On September 9, 2016, Fansler was sentenced to thirteen years for dealing, with ten years executed in the Department of Correction and three years suspended. He was also sentenced to concurrent terms of two years executed for possession of heroin, one year executed for possession of a controlled substance, and one year executed for possession of paraphernalia.

Fansler appealed, alleging the two post-Miranda self-incriminating statements he made to officers should not have been admitted into evidence because no electronic recording of the statements was made available at trial, as required by Indiana Evidence Rule 617. Fansler further alleged that the sentencing court "failed to consider that the victim of the crime induced or facilitated the offense" as a mitigation factor in his sentence. Appellant's Br. at 12.

In a unanimous published opinion, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court's conviction, finding that although the trial court erred in admitting Fansler's statements without an electronic recording, any error committed was harmless because Fansler's own admissions at trial and the generally uncontested nature of his possession of heroin eliminated the likelihood that the challenged statements contributed to the verdict. Fansler v. State , 81 N.E.3d 671, 678 (Ind. Ct. App. 2017). As to the sentencing issue, the Court of Appeals found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in not considering the proposed mitigating factor. Id.

The State sought transfer, which we granted, thereby vacating the Court of Appeals opinion. Ind. Appellate Rule 58(A).

Standard of Review

Challenges to the admission of evidence are ordinarily reviewed for an abuse of trial court discretion. Williams v. State , 43 N.E.3d 578, 581 (Ind. 2015). In those instances, we will reverse only where the decision is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances. Joyner v. State , 678 N.E.2d 386, 390 (Ind. 1997). However, when a trial court's evidentiary ruling rests upon the proper interpretation of a statute or rule of evidence, it inherently presents a question of law, which we review de novo. Patchett v. Lee , 60 N.E.3d 1025, 1028 (Ind. 2016).

Discussion and Decision

Although the Court of Appeals affirmed Fansler's conviction, the State challenges the Court of Appeals' determination that the trial court erred in admitting Fansler's incriminating motel room statements without an electronic recording. Fansler did not file a response to the State's petition, but made his opposition clear at oral argument; he argued that the Court of Appeals was correct in finding that the trial court erred and that the booking exception did not apply, but disputed whether the harmless error exception saved the statements from exclusion.

Since our Court has yet to construe Rule 617, we elect to address whether the trial court erred in admitting Fansler's incriminating statements without an electronic recording. As for the other issue the Court of Appeals addressed—whether the trial court correctly heard and considered Fansler's proffered mitigator—we summarily affirm.

I. The trial court did not err in admitting Fansler's statements.

Indiana Evidence Rule 617 is not a constitutional requirement or a prophylactic rule meant to enforce the Constitution; rather, it is a rule of judicial administration. Thus, assessing the admissibility of Fansler's statements requires only examining the rule for intent. In doing so, our goal is to determine whether it applies to the circumstances before us. We find that it does not.

Rule 617 heightens the requirements for admissibility of statements in certain circumstances by specifically providing that, "[i]n a felony prosecution, evidence of a statement made by a person during a Custodial Interrogation in a Place of Detention shall not be admitted against the person unless an Electronic Recording of the statement was made, preserved, and is available at trial ...." Ind. Evidence Rule 617(a). Subsection (b) further defines several terms found in subsection (a). For example, an "electronic recording" is defined as "an audio-video recording that includes at least not only the visible images of the person being interviewed but also the voices of said person and the interrogating officers." Ind. Evidence Rule 617 (b). A "custodial interrogation" is defined as "an interview conducted by law enforcement during which a reasonable person would consider himself or herself to be in custody." Id.

The State did not make available at trial an electronic recording of Fansler's statements and concedes that the statements were made in the course of a custodial interrogation. Indeed, a review of the record confirms that any reasonable person in Fansler's position would have considered himself in custody. Thus, whether Rule 617's electronic recording mandate for admission of statements applies here turns on whether the motel room used to conduct the custodial...