Hicks v. State

• Decision Date: 16 May 2014
• Docket Number: No. 82A01–1306–CR–256.,82A01–1306–CR–256.
• Citation: 5 N.E.3d 424
• Parties: Robert E. HICKS, Appellant–Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

5 N.E.3d 424

Robert E. HICKS, Appellant–Defendant,

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.

No. 82A01–1306–CR–256.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

March 11, 2014.

Rehearing Denied May 16, 2014.

John P. Brinson, Evansville, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Jodi Kathryn Stein, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

OPINION

MATHIAS, Judge.

Following a jury trial, Robert E. Hicks (“Hicks”) was convicted in Vanderburgh Circuit Court of murder and sentenced to fifty-five years in the Indiana Department of Correction. Hicks appeals and claims that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting into evidence recorded statements made by Hicks to the police in which he admitted to killing the victim.

We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

In the summer of 2012, Hicks lived with the victim in this case, his long-time girlfriend Anna Jochum (“Jochum”). The couple often argued about money and Hicks's use of alcohol and drugs. On July 2, 2012, Jochum's niece, C.D., visited her aunt. Shortly after C.D. left, Hicks and Jochum got into an argument. Jochum grabbed a knife and threatened to “kick [Hicks's] ass again,” referring to an earlier altercation in which Jochum had injured Hicks. Tr. p. 108. Hicks stated, “not this time, honey,” and grabbed her by the throat and knocked the knife out of her hands. Id. Hicks then grabbed a large block of wood that the couple used to prop open a bathroom window and hit Jochum in the head several times. After Hicks struck her in the back of the neck with the block, Jochumstopped moving. Hicks then picked up the knife Jochum had brandished and stabbed her repeatedly on the left side of her body. Hicks realized that he had killed Jochum and placed her body in the bathroom next to the side of the bathtub. He then threw a mattress on top of the tub. Hicks washed his hands, changed his clothes, and left. He eventually went across the Ohio River to Henderson, Kentucky and went to the Harbor House homeless shelter.

Jochum's niece was unable to reach her aunt by telephone and decided to go check on Jochum on July 8, 2012. When she did, she noticed a foul odor, and her knocks on the door went unanswered. Then, on July 12, Jochum's niece and her mother went to the apartment and asked the maintenance man to open the door. When they entered the apartment, they found Jochum's decomposing body in the bathroom. They then telephoned the police.

The police investigation revealed that Jochum had several blunt-force injuries to her head and neck and that her cause of death was two fractured and displaced vertebrae in her neck, which lacerated her spinal cord. This injury caused paralysis and a quick death. She also sustained over fifty stab wounds on her left shoulder, chest, and leg. The police were also informed that Hicks had been living with Jochum but was missing. The police decided to locate Hicks to see if he was a victim or knew anything about Jochum's death, but there was as of yet no evidence linking him to the crime. The police issued a bulletin to surrounding jurisdictions indicating that Hicks was a person of interest with whom they would like to speak. On July 13, 2012, Harbor House contacted local police to inform them that Hicks was staying there.

Sergeant Larry Nelson (“Sgt. Nelson”) and Detective Jeffrey Jones (“Detective Jones”) of the Evansville Police Department went to the Henderson, Kentucky homeless shelter to speak with Hicks. When they arrived, Hicks was sitting outside near the rear of the shelter, smoking a cigarette, with a local police officer standing nearby. Sgt. Nelson told Hicks that Jochum was dead, but Hicks made no response. The officers then asked if Hicks would be willing to speak with them and gave him the option of speaking with them at the local Henderson Police Department or going back to Indiana to the Evansville Police Department. Hicks agreed and chose to speak with the officers at the Henderson Police Department. Hicks was not placed in handcuffs or restrained and was driven by the police to the police station. There, he was taken to an interview room which measured approximately 4' by 8' in size. Because they did not yet consider Hicks to be a suspect, the police did not advise Hicks of his rights, nor did they record the interview. During this “pre-interview,” the police asked Hicks for general information about Jochum and precisely when he had gone to Kentucky. Hicks told the police that he left because he and Jochum had argued and that she had kicked him out of the apartment.

At this point, Sgt. Nelson began to suspect Hicks in the murder and decided to do a more in-depth interrogation of Hicks. He therefore read Hicks his Miranda rights and began to record the interview. Hicks signed a waiver of his Miranda rights and again told the police that he and Jochum had gotten into an argument. This time, however, he added that Jochum had threatened him and that the two had gotten into a physical altercation, which ended in the bathroom when Hicks struck Jochum on the head with a block of wood. Hicks claimed, however, that he did not know that Jochum was dead. He simply shut the bathroom door and left. Hicks did not mention stabbing Jochum, and at this time, the police were apparently unaware that Jochum had been stabbed. The police then arrested Hicks for Jochum's murder, and he waived extradition to Indiana.

The following day, Sgt. Nelson was given information from Jochum's autopsy which indicated that she had sustained multiple stab wounds. Sgt. Nelson decided to confront Hicks with this information and asked if Hicks would speak to him again. Hicks agreed and was again advised of his Miranda rights and signed a written waiver of these rights. This interrogation was also recorded. Hicks again admitted to striking Jochum with the wooden block. But this time, he also admitted to stabbing her several times, then dragging her body into the bathroom.

On July 13, 2012, the State charged Hicks with murder. On January 29, 2013, Hicks filed a motion to suppress the statements he had given to the police. On March 13, 2013, the trial court held a suppression hearing. On April 1, 2013, the trial court granted the motion with regard to the first “pre-interview,” but denied it as to the two recorded interviews where Hicks had been advised of and waived his Miranda rights. On April 29, 2013, a jury trial commenced. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found Hicks guilty as charged. At the conclusion of a sentencing hearing held on May 28, 2013, the trial court sentenced Hicks to the advisory term of fifty-five years. Hicks now appeals.

Standard of Review

Because Hicks appeals following his conviction, the question before us is whether the trial court abused its discretion in the admission of the evidence in question. Shell v. State, 927 N.E.2d 413, 418 (Ind.Ct.App.2010). The trial court has broad discretion in ruling on the admissibility of evidence, and we will reverse the trial court's ruling only when the trial court abuses that discretion. Fuqua v. State, 984 N.E.2d 709, 713–14 (Ind.Ct.App.2013), trans. denied. The trial court abuses its discretion only if its decision regarding the admission of evidence is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances before it, or if the court has misinterpreted the law. Id. Regardless of whether the challenge is made through a pretrial motion to suppress or by an objection at trial, our review of rulings on the admissibility of evidence is essentially the same: we do not reweigh the evidence, and we consider conflicting evidence in a light most favorable to the trial court's ruling, but we may also consider any undisputed evidence that is favorable to the defendant. Id. Additionally, we may consider foundational evidence introduced at trial in conjunction with any evidence from a suppression hearing that is not in direct conflict with the trial evidence. Kelley v. State, 825 N.E.2d 420, 427 (Ind.Ct.App.2005).

Discussion and Decision

On appeal, Hicks claims that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting into evidence the two recorded interviews wherein he admitted to striking and then stabbing Jochum. He presents several arguments to support his claim that the trial court should have suppressed his statements.

A. Request for Counsel

First, Hicks argues that he was in custody and requested counsel and that therefore the police should have immediately stopped the interrogation. When a suspect who is subject to custodial interrogation requests the assistance of counsel, all questioning must immediately cease and interrogation can be resumed only when the suspect initiates a communication with police, and when it is apparent that he knowingly and intelligently waived his right to counsel. Mendoza–Vargas v. State, 974 N.E.2d 590, 594 (Ind.Ct.App.2012) (citing Moore v. State, 498 N.E.2d 1, 8 (Ind.1986); Oregon v. Bradshaw, 462 U.S. 1039, 1044, 103 S.Ct. 2830, 77 L.Ed.2d 405(1983)).

At the suppression hearing, Hicks testified that he told the investigating officers, “I th[ink] I should talk to an attorney.” Suppression Hearing Tr. p. 72. Because neither of the officers testified directly contrary to this, Hicks claims that his request for counsel must be treated as an established fact. We disagree. While our standard of review permits us to consider uncontroverted evidence favorable to the defendant, see Fuqua, 984 N.E.2d at 714, we do not take this to mean that any testimony by the defendant that is not directly contradicted must be accepted as true by the trial court or this court. To hold otherwise would be to deny the trial court, acting as the trier of fact in such matters, the right to judge the credibility of witnesses. See Griffin v. State, 493 N.E.2d 439, 443 (Ind.1986) (noting that jury, as the trier of fact, had the right to discredit the defendant's uncontroverted alibi evidence); Morphew v. Morphew, 419...