Haviland v. State
| Decision Date | 13 March 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 53S00-9510-CR-1124,53S00-9510-CR-1124 |
| Parties | Donald J. HAVILAND, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Petitioner Below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
William G. Smock, Terre Haute, for Appellant.
Pamela Carter, Attorney General of Indiana; Priscilla J. Fossum, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, for Appellee.
A jury found appellant Donald J. Haviland guilty of murder, a felony, Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-1-1 (West Supp.1996). The trial court sentenced him to sixty years in prison. In this direct appeal, Haviland raises the following issues:
1. Whether the trial court should have suppressed his confession, in particular, whether Haviland's statement, "I'm through with this," constituted an invocation of his right to remain silent;
2. Whether the court erred by not ordering an additional competency hearing during trial and by not finding Haviland incompetent;
3. Whether there was sufficient evidence to support the conviction; and
4. Whether the sentence of sixty years was manifestly unreasonable.
We affirm.
On June 13, 1992, Haviland went to his uncle's home after he and his roommate, Harold Williams, Sr., argued over some money. Haviland and his uncle watched a movie, drank some alcohol, and smoked "some weed and dope and crack." His uncle took a shower and then he called for Haviland to come into the bedroom. Haviland entered the bedroom and saw his uncle lying on the bed, naked. Haviland's uncle wanted him to get in bed and have sex. Haviland was not interested. His uncle then told him that he could not stay if he did not have sex. While his uncle was lying in bed, Haviland took out his knife and stabbed him in the chest. His uncle got out of bed, fell on the floor, and died. Haviland then took his uncle's wallet and coin purse, removed the money, and discarded the wallet and purse.
Haviland returned to his apartment between three and five in the morning on June 14, 1992, and gave all the money to Williams. At breakfast that morning, Haviland told Harold Williams, Sr., and his two sons, Harold, Jr., and Mike, that he had killed his uncle. He asked Williams to dispose of his clothes and the knife. Haviland and Williams then left town for three or four days.
After the victim failed to show up at work for four days, the victim's superintendent went to his home on June 18th. Noticing a bad smell, he summoned the police. Officer Rich Hunter of the Bloomington Police Department arrived at the residence, entered, and found the victim face down on the floor of the bedroom. He noticed blood on the stereo near the body. Officer Hunter searched for keys and a wallet. He found one set of keys to a vehicle, but no wallet.
The county coroner arrived. Among other things, he observed a small amount of blood on the bed and on pants lying across a chair. An autopsy placed the time of death at about June 13th. The pathologist later testified that there were two stab wounds to the chest, one reaching the victim's heart. He would later testify that the murder weapon could have been the knife entered into evidence.
A police evidence technician returned to the victim's home on June 19th. He found the door to the home open with a rug caught in it, though the door had been secured the previous night. The evidence tape placed across the doorway was torn. The bathroom window was open. A set of house keys were found in the pants on the chair; this aroused suspicion because these pants had been searched the previous evening and yielded no keys. The technician videotaped the home and took fingerprints.
Police later found a shirt, jeans, shoes and knife that had been discarded outside of town. Evidence at trial indicated these belonged to Haviland. There was no blood found on those items.
Police removed from the victim's house part of an interior door frame found to hold fingerprints. FBI fingerprint comparisons showed that the two prints on the door frame matched Haviland's left index finger, though not identically. A State Police DNA technician testified that the knife and the piece of the door frame tested positive for blood.
Bloomington police unsuccessfully attempted to contact Haviland at his residence. The police then learned that Haviland had an appointment with his probation officer on Thursday, June 23, 1992. Detective Helms met Haviland on this visit and said he needed to speak with him. The two proceeded to an interview room. Detective Helms spoke with Haviland for ten to fifteen minutes, during which time he gave Miranda warnings and Haviland signed a notification of rights form. The portions of the interrogation relevant to this appeal proceeded as follows:
Q: Tell us what happened. We know what happened, we just need to hear it from you, we need to clear it up. You were there, did Danny make advances toward you? Is that what happened?
A. No.
(R. at 1022-26.) The videotaped interrogation lasted approximately an hour and thirty-nine minutes.
Haviland first declared, "I'm through with this," about five minutes into the videotaped statement, denying involvement in the murder. Detective Helms then asked Harold Williams, Sr., to enter the interrogation room. Williams had already informed the police about Haviland's declaration he had murdered his uncle and about his request for help in disposing of the clothes and knife. After encouragement from Detective Helms "to tell the truth," Haviland made a statement implicating himself in the homicide. Haviland did not ask to consult with an attorney at any time during the interrogation.
At trial, Haviland objected to admission of his videotaped statement. Haviland argued for suppression on either of two grounds: (1) the police failed to cease their questioning when he invoked his right to remain silent ("I'm through with this,"); or (2) he did not voluntarily and intelligently waive the right.
The burden of proof is on the State to prove that a defendant knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived his rights under Miranda. Buie v. State, 633 N.E.2d 250 (Ind.1994). The State can prove this waiver by the actions and words of the defendant. Light v. State, 547 N.E.2d 1073 (Ind.1989). In reviewing a motion to suppress we do not reweigh the evidence. Buie, 633 N.E.2d at 256. We look at the totality of the circumstances and "consider all uncontroverted evidence together with conflicting evidence that supports the trial court's decision." Id.
Haviland claims that the confession was taken in violation of his privilege against self-incrimination, citing the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, section 14 of the Indiana Constitution. 2 He says his statement, "I'm through with this," unequivocally invoked his right to remain silent. The State contends Haviland was merely saying he did not want to hear that he killed anyone. The prosecutor compared Haviland to someone putting hands over his ears and yelling, "I can't hear you, I can't hear you." He believed Haviland was merely "avoid[ing] Detective Helms' ... questioning...." (R. at 930-31.) The prosecutor also argued, "He knows how to say the words, I'm not going to answer [any more] questions." (Id.) The advisement of rights form Haviland signed said, "If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present you will still have the right to stop answering at anytime." (R. at 900.)
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