Galloway v. State

• Decision Date: 06 May 2011
• Docket Number: No. 33S01-1004-CR-163.,33S01-1004-CR-163.
• Citation: 938 N.E.2d 699
• Parties: Gregory L. GALLOWAY, Appellant (Defendant below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

938 N.E.2d 699

Gregory L. GALLOWAY, Appellant (Defendant below),

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below).

No. 33S01-1004-CR-163.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Dec. 22, 2010.

Rehearing Denied May 6, 2011.

Stacy R. Uliana, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Stephen Creason, Angela N. Sanchez, Deputy Attorneys General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 33A01-0906-CR-280

SULLIVAN, Justice.

Despite nonconflicting expert and lay opinion testimony that defendant Gregory Galloway was insane, the trial court rejected the insanity defense after concluding that the defendant could continue to be a danger to society because of an inadequate State mental health system. This was insufficient to sustain the trial court's finding because there was no probative evidence from which an inference of sanity could be drawn.

Background

The defendant, Gregory Galloway, was found guilty but mentally ill for the October, 2007, murder ¹ of his grandmother, Eva B. Groves. The defendant raised the "insanity defense" ² at his bench trial. The trial court found that although the defendant had a long history of mental illness, he did not meet his burden of proving that he was "insane" at the time of the crime.

The trial court concluded, based on the expert testimony and the numerous medical records introduced into evidence, that the defendant suffers from bipolar disorder, an Axis I psychiatric disorder.³ This evidence showed that prior to his killinghis grandmother, the defendant had had a long history of mental illness, and he had had many "contacts" with the mental health system.⁴ He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder by up to twenty different physicians, often with accompanying psychotic and manic symptoms. He had also been voluntarily and involuntarily detained or committed for short-term treatment more than fifteen times.

The defendant was first diagnosed with an Axis I mental illness in 1989, when he was a senior in high school. By 2000, his mental health became more problematic; he had difficulty holding a steady job, he struggled with substance abuse,⁵ and his marriage failed. Despite these difficulties, he had very few encounters with law enforcement that were not traffic or mental illness related. After his divorce, the defendant moved in with his grandmother, who lived next door to his parents. He had a great relationship with his grandmother; "he loved [her] very much and considered [her to be] his best friend." Appellant's Br. 3; see also Appellant's App. 183; Tr. 40- 41, 83- 84, 175.

Since 2001, the defendant experienced psychotic episodes with increased frequency and severity. See Galloway v. State, 920 N.E.2d 711, 713-14 (Ind.Ct.App.2010) (chronicling the defendant's psychotic episodes). For instance, in February, 2002, he was involuntarily committed after his parents found him with a gun and looking for ammunition—he planned to kill his grandmother because she was the devil and he was Jesus Christ, and he planned to kill his neighbor because he believed his neighbor was controlling his son. Then in June, 2004, the defendant drove to Dayton, Ohio, after God told him to leave his job; he was hospitalized in Ohio after being found in a stranger's driveway looking for the perfect wife for the son of God. In July, 2005, the defendant was admitted to a hospital after crashing his car during a car chase with his mother; he believed she was the devil and was chasing her so that he could kill her, and he believed he was protected because he was an alien.

In the year leading up to the murder, the defendant had at least twelve contacts with the mental health system. In January, 2007, he pulled over on the side of the interstate near Lafayette, Indiana, got out of his car, and began erratically yelling and talking to himself. Because the air temperature was 27 degrees, concerned bystanders called the police. When the medics arrived, he was sitting in the back of a police car; his skin was cold to the touch, and there were ice particles in the facial hair under his nose. At the emergency room, the defendant was uncooperative, mumbling to himself, acting aggressively toward staff, and reacting to audio and visual hallucinations; he was admitted to a Lafayette hospital for a few days.

In March, 2007, after refusing to eat or sleep for one week because he was fearful of something bad happening to him, the defendant lacerated his stomach while tryingto get into his grandmother's house through a window after he was accidentally locked out. At the emergency room, he was attending to internal stimuli, having difficulty concentrating, and experiencing auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions. He was transferred to an Anderson hospital, where he was confused and disoriented, detached from reality, and in a catatonic-like state; he was discharged after a few days. Several days later, the defendant was involuntarily committed after the court found him to be a danger to himself because he did not know who or where he was, he had been staying awake all night, he had been trying to sleep with his parents in their bed because he believed someone was in his room, and he was hearing voices; again, he was released after a few days.

In June, 2007, the defendant was admitted to a hospital in Tennessee after police found him driving a semi-truck full of gasoline, threatening to blow up a gas station; he was confused and disoriented, responding to internal stimuli and laughing inappropriately, experiencing racing thoughts and auditory hallucinations, and had not slept for three days. He was discharged from the Tennessee hospital within days. A few days later, he went to counseling where he was delusional about raping a girl (there was no evidence that any rape had occurred). He did not take medications prescribed for him in Tennessee.

In the days leading up to the murder, the defendant heard voices and thought that his grandmother's trailer was haunted. To abate his fears, he slept on the floor next to his parents' bed while holding his mother's hand. The night before the murder, he drank a pint of whiskey, finishing around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., and did not sleep.

The defendant reported feeling strange on October 26, 2007, the morning of the murder. He was supposed to pick up his friend from work, but he refused to do so because he was feeling strange. When the friend called to ask about the ride, the defendant uncharacteristically yelled at him. The defendant also spoke with his father that morning, and during their conversation, his father became concerned because his son was not acting normal and seemed to be in another world. The defendant told the police that during this conversation, his father was telling him through coded verbal messages that he needed to kill his grandmother.

During the early afternoon, the defendant went shopping with his grandmother and his aunt (the victim's daughter). They shopped for only fifteen minutes and then went to lunch, though the defendant did not eat much. While eating lunch, the defendant began thinking that his grandmother was against him and "that life should be more colorful" and that it would be if she were gone—life would be better again once he killed his grandmother. Appellant's App. 194. He believed that she was the devil, that she was out to get him, and that he needed to kill her to restore his powers. As they sat there eating, he was hoping that his grandmother would die. After lunch, they stopped at a gas station, where the defendant pumped their gas and purchased cigarettes. They returned home a little more than an hour after they had originally left; there had been no arguments, and nothing unusual had occurred during their outing. On the way home, the defendant's grandmother remarked that it had been a wonderful day.

Once they arrived home, the defendant went next door to his parents' house while his grandmother and aunt sat on a couch inside the grandmother's trailer and talked. While at his parents' house, the defendant began believing that he wasreading his father's mind; his father was communicating telepathically, telling the defendant that he needed to kill his grandmother "to feel good again[,] to see like the bright lights and the flowers and the pretty things." Appellant's App. 194.

The defendant then went back to his grandmother's house and sat on the porch swing. Shortly thereafter, the defendant's fifteen-year-old son, Cory, arrived and said "hi" to his dad. Cory had seen his father cycle from normal to psychotic before and could tell that something was not quite right. At the same time, the defendant's father, who had come over from next door, was entering the grandmother's house.

The defendant entered the house at the same time as his father and went to his bedroom, grabbed his knife, and came back down the hallway to the living room, where his aunt and grandmother were sitting on a couch. According to his aunt, the defendant had a "wild look" in his eye that she had seen before—it was the look he gets right before he "lose[s] it." Tr. 60. With his father, son, and aunt in the room, and with no plan or motive, the defendant jumped on top of his grandmother, straddled her, and stabbed her in the chest while yelling "you're going to die, I told you, you're the devil." Tr. 50, 74-75. His father yelled, "What have you done!," and the defendant responded that she "was going to kill me." Tr. 86.

As soon as everyone started screaming, the defendant realized that he did not feel better like he thought he would, and he hoped that his grandmother would survive. His father was able to commandeer the knife and store it in a safe place until the police arrived. As the defendant's son applied pressure to the wound, the defendant told his grandmother that he loved her and that he did not mean to do it. He pleaded for the paramedics to save his grandmother's life. When...