Frentz v. State

• Decision Date: 31 October 2007
• Docket Number: No. 59A05-0610-CR-559.,59A05-0610-CR-559.
• Parties: David Mark FRENTZ, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

875 N.E.2d 453

David Mark FRENTZ, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.

No. 59A05-0610-CR-559.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

October 31, 2007.

Matthew Jon McGovern, Evansville, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, Jodi Kathryn Stein, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

OPINION

CRONE, Judge.

Case Summary

David Mark Frentz appeals his convictions and fifty-nine-year aggregate sentence for murder, class C felony methamphetamine possession, class C felony cocaine possession, and class D felony marijuana possession. We affirm.

Issues

We reorder and restate the issues as follows:

I. Whether the trial court committed reversible error in joining and then denying Frentz's motions to sever the drug possession counts from the murder count II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying Frentz's motions for mistrial;

III. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in imposing consecutive sentences; and

IV. Whether Frentz's sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his character.

Facts and Procedural History

The facts most favorable to the jury's verdict indicate that twenty-three-year-old Zackary Reynolds lived with the fifty-three-year-old Frentz and worked on his Orange County farm. On Saturday, January 22, 2005, Frentz's doctor told him that he would die if he did not stop drinking. Frentz had been drinking for thirty years and quit "cold turkey" that day. Tr. at 1244.¹ Frentz's doctor gave him pills to alleviate "the DT's[.]" Id. at 1264. On Sunday, January 23, Frentz ran some errands, came home to work on a pickup truck with Reynolds, and then ran additional errands. On his way home, Frentz stopped at a fast-food drive-through in Salem between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. While there, he talked on his cell phone with his friend Carl Brock. Frentz told Brock that he had been "feeling bad" and had been hallucinating, with "either light poles or salt shakers dancing or something like that, uh, dogs running across the road laughing at him and stuff like that." Id. at 1730. Brock became concerned and asked Frentz to call him when he got home.

Brock went online for an hour or two, thereby tying up his telephone line. Brock then called Frentz's cell phone. Frentz asked both Brock and his wife if they had heard from his ex-girlfriend, Dusty Austin, with whom he had broken up several weeks earlier. Frentz stated that he had been "fucked over" by his long-time friend Chuck Woolsey, who he thought was having a sexual relationship with Austin. Id. at 1733. During the course of the conversation, Frentz went from "feeling ill and hallucinating to someone who was very sober and [not] really talkative at all." Id. at 1734. In an attempt to smooth things over, Brock made some humorous remarks.² Frentz hung up. Brock believed that Frentz had "snapped" and tried calling him several times, to no avail. Id. at 1735.

At approximately 3:00 a.m. on Monday, January 24, Frentz's neighbor Debra Sayles drove by his house on her way home from work and noticed that all the lights were on, which was not unusual. At approximately 3:30 a.m., Brock finally reached Frentz by telephone. Frentz was "freaked out" and told Brock to call the police. Id. at 1736. Frentz told Brock that "he put PCP in that shit[³] and people [are] up here to fuck with us." Id. Frentz "said something about [who's] out there, get back in here, who broke that light." Id. Frentz "kept hollering" at Reynolds, but Brock never heard Reynolds reply. Id. Brock offered to pick up Frentz, and Frentz agreed. When Brock asked to talk to Reynolds, Frentz hung up. As Brock got dressed, his wife called Frentz and asked to talk to Reynolds. Frentz hung up again. Brock then called a phone number that Austin had given him after breaking up with Frentz. Woolsey answered the phone. Brock told Woolsey to tell Austin that Frentz had "snapped." Id. at 1765. Brock's wife refused to let Brock go to Frentz's home.

Early that morning, two of Frentz's neighbors saw and heard what appeared to be Frentz's pickup truck driving down the road at a high rate of speed. At approximately 5:30 a.m., Frentz called 911 on his cell phone and stated that several people were trying to break into his house. The phone line went dead several times during the course of the call. Frentz reported that the intruders had broken into the house, that one of the intruders was shooting, that his friend had been shot in the chest, that his friend was still breathing, that the intruders were still in the home, that the intruders were "trying to get in the windows" and doors, and that he had "locked the door back." Id. at 812. The call ended when the operator confirmed with Frentz that assistance had arrived.

Officers from Washington and Orange Counties responded to Frentz's 911 call. None, of them observed any vehicle or foot traffic or anything unusual on their way to Frentz's home. They saw Frentz standing in the kitchen. Appearing disoriented and agitated, Frentz opened the door and motioned for them to come in. One of the officers saw an SKS assault rifle lying on a kitchen chair and "secured it" for their safety. Id. at 842. The SKS was a semiautomatic firearm, which fires a bullet each time the trigger is pulled. Another officer handcuffed Frentz, who was dressed in underwear and a t-shirt and was "sweating really bad." Id. at 844. Frentz told the officers that Mexicans on motorcycles had broken into his house and that there was someone in his bed. The officers found no one in Frentz's bed and no signs of a struggle or forced entry.

From the kitchen, a third officer saw Reynolds lying face-up in a hallway in a pool of blood, on top of a loaded .22-caliber rifle. Reynolds's body was cool to the touch and showed no signs of life. He had been struck by three bullets: one that passed through his right wrist and deeply grazed his right abdomen; a second that entered the middle of his chest, lacerated his liver and adrenal gland, and lodged near his spine; and a third that entered the upper right side of his chest, fractured the ribs and collarbone, extensively damaged his right lung, and exited above the scapula. The two chest wounds exhibited stippling from gunshot residue, which indicated that the firearm's muzzle had been within two feet of Reynolds when the bullets were fired. All the wounds were lethal, and Reynolds bled to death within minutes. A toxicology exam revealed traces of methamphetamine and amphetamine in Reynolds's blood. A ballistics test established that the bullet that lodged near Reynolds's spine was fired from the SKS. Genetics testing revealed traces of Reynolds's DNA on Frentz's t-shirt. In the hallway, police recovered four shell casings of the same caliber as the SKS. Three bullets had penetrated the closet door in front of which Reynolds had been standing when he was shot. Police noticed that Reynolds's bedroom window had been shot through several times from the inside and found similar shell casings nearby.

Orange County Sheriff's Detective Michael Dixon arrived and asked another officer to Mirandize Frentz and remove his handcuffs. Detective Dixon then questioned Frentz about the incident. Frentz stated that he had been asleep in his bedroom and heard a scuffle at the other end of the house. He grabbed the .22, walked down the hallway, and saw two Hispanic men exiting the back door. Frentz saw Reynolds fighting with a third Hispanic man over the SKS. Frentz set the .22 down, grabbed the intruder, and heard two gunshots. The intruder left the home and drove away with his companions in a sport utility vehicle. Frentz stated that the three men had broken into his home through a window.

Thereafter, Indiana State Trooper Bill Flick transported Frentz to Detective Dixon's office for an interview. Frentz read and signed an advisement of rights form. Frentz told Trooper Flick that when he went to bed at 11:00 on Saturday evening, Reynolds was playing cards and drinking beer with two unknown young white men at the kitchen table. Between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m., Frentz heard Reynolds yell and saw three Hispanic men, two of whom went out the back door. Frentz grabbed the .22, called 911, and went into the hallway, where Reynolds was scuffling with the third intruder over the SKS. Frentz placed the .22 on the floor, grabbed the intruder, and heard a gun go off. The intruder went out the back door. Frentz heard a motorcycle and saw a black sport utility vehicle drive off. Frentz heard someone outside the house and fired shots through the window and out the back door.

At Frentz's home, police found marijuana in plain view and obtained a search warrant. Police found a total of 39.49 grams of marijuana in a mug near the kitchen, underneath Frentz's mattress, in a sewing basket, and in a jar wrapped with black electrician's tape. Police also found cocaine residue in a one-hitter above the refrigerator, as well as methamphetamine residue on a mirror next to a rolled-up dollar bill in a kitchen cabinet. A toxicology exam revealed traces of ephedrine and cocaine metabolites in Frentz's blood. At trial, the court excluded Frentz's toxicology report pursuant to a motion in limine.

After further investigating the scene and questioning Frentz's mother, Trooper Flick and Detective Dixon interviewed Frentz a second time that same day. Frentz told the officers that he had stopped drinking "cold turkey" on Saturday after thirty years and had been given medication. Id. at 1244. He denied telling his mother that he was hallucinating and claimed that he had told her he felt "fuzzy" from the medication. Id. at 1227. Frentz stated that Reynolds had been "just outside of his door" when he was shot and that he remembered hearing three gunshots. Id. at 1228. He stated that he put his hands "over [Reynolds's] bleeding" at the urging of the 911 operator and that he loved Reynolds "like my boy."...