John R. Berry Iv v. State
| Decision Date | 20 July 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 49A04–1008–CR–536.,49A04–1008–CR–536. |
| Citation | 950 N.E.2d 821 |
| Parties | John R. BERRY IV, Appellant–Defendant,v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Patricia Caress McMath, Marion County Public Defender, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Richard C. Webster, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.
John R. Berry IV, told a man that he was going to kill him and assaulted the man with a hammer. The State charged Berry with class A felony attempted murder.1 At trial, Berry argued that he was not responsible by reason of insanity at the time of the crime pursuant to Indiana Code Section 35–41–3–6. The trial court rejected Berry's insanity defense, finding that Berry's psychotic symptoms at the time of the crime were caused by his voluntary use of alcohol and that Berry was able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. The trial court found Berry guilty as charged.
On appeal, Berry argues that there is no evidence that he was intoxicated at the time of the crime and that it is improper, as a matter of law, to conclude that his psychotic symptoms were voluntarily induced. He also argues that his conduct before, during, and after the offense does not support a reasonable inference of sanity.
We conclude that there is no evidence that Berry was intoxicated when he committed the offense. We adhere to the longstanding principle that a defendant suffering from a mental disease or defect caused by severe, prolonged, and chronic alcohol abuse that renders that person unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her conduct is not responsible for prohibited conduct committed while in that condition. We conclude that the evidence is undisputed that at the time of the offense Berry suffered from psychotic symptoms caused by his prolonged and severe alcohol abuse and that he was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court erred in rejecting his insanity defense. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand with instructions to find Berry not guilty by reason of insanity and for further proceedings as required by the Indiana Code.
Berry is an alcoholic. Born in May 1971, he began drinking when he was nine years old and was drinking to intoxication on a daily basis by the time he was a high school sophomore. When he was fifteen, his mother sent him to Koala Hospital for substance abuse treatment, but he resumed drinking shortly thereafter. Berry also used marijuana and cocaine on a daily basis and took LSD, ecstasy, and methamphetamine. When he was thirty years old, he went to Fairbanks Hospital for alcoholism. After age thirty, he continued to drink large amounts of alcohol, but he stopped using the other drugs.
In 1999, following two arrests for driving under the influence, Berry was hospitalized at Community North Hospital and diagnosed with bipolar disorder.2 He was treated with Depakote, a mood-stabilizing medication. At that time, he was twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. Since 1999, Berry has been hospitalized multiple times at Community North and Wishard Hospitals, usually for a combination of symptoms of bipolar disorder, methamphetamine abuse, and alcohol dependence with withdrawal seizures, including at least one instance of delirium tremens. Delirium tremens, also referred to as DTs, is a severe form of alcohol withdrawal in which a person may experience seizures and hallucinations and become psychotic. 3 Tr. at 275. Berry has been treated with a variety of medications including lithium, a mood-stabilizing medication; Seroquel, Risperdal, and Zyprexa, antipsychotic medications; Klonopin, an antianxiety medication; and Paxil, an antidepressant.
In 2009, Berry lived with his father, John Berry III (“Father”). On Tuesday, February 3, 2009, Berry left Father's house to go to a “Plainfield party house.” Id. at 310. Berry drank heavily on Saturday and had a couple drinks on Sunday. On Sunday, he returned to Father's house. Berry had last been treated with psychiatric medications fourteen months earlier.
Early Monday morning, February 9, 2009, Father went to the basement to work out and found Berry sitting on the couch reading the Bible. For about an hour, Berry continued to read the Bible while Father worked out. Afterward, Father and Berry got ready to go to Gary Monday's house, which they were helping to repair. On the way there, they stopped to buy plumbing supplies. When they got to Gary's house, Father parked his truck on the street in front of the house, and they went inside.
Gary's brother, Tony Monday, was also doing work on the house. Tony had tiled the bathroom the previous day and was in the bathroom cleaning it up when Father and Berry arrived. Father and Tony greeted each other, and Tony told Father that he had borrowed his cordless drill and hammer and the tools were in the bathroom. Father told him that was fine. Berry and Tony did not know each other. Father took Berry into a bedroom to install drywall. Father explained the job to Berry and told him that he needed the drill and hammer in the bathroom. Father then went to the living room to make a pot of coffee.
Tony was still in the bathroom cleaning up. Berry entered and told Tony that he was going to kill him. Id. at 84. Tony asked him why. Berry told him to “shut up” and repeated that he was going to kill him. Id. Berry hit Tony multiple times in the head with a hammer and also struck Tony's hand when he attempted to protect himself.
Father was in the living room making coffee when he heard somebody say “damn.” Id. at 123. He thought that maybe Tony had broken a tile. Father heard another sound that made him turn around, and he saw Tony in the hall bleeding profusely from the head. Father sat Tony down and asked him what happened. Tony told him that Berry had hit him with a hammer. Father realized that the injuries were serious and called 911. Father tried to stop the bleeding by putting direct pressure on Tony's injuries with a roll of paper towels.
As Father was tending to Tony's injuries, he saw Berry walking back and forth in the kitchen, wiping the hammer with a white towel. Father asked Berry, “Did you hit him with the f* * *ing hammer?” Id. at 131. Berry was staring off into space. He turned and said, “I guess so,” in a questioning manner. Id. Father noticed that Id. Father told Berry to put the hammer away and go to the garage. Id. at 165. Berry went out the back door and walked around to the front of the house. He put the hammer and towel in a chest of drawers that was lying in the bed of Father's truck. Berry came back into the kitchen and told Father that he could not find the garage. Father explained where the garage was (about ten to twelve feet behind the house) and told Berry to go there. Berry complied.
Police and medics arrived at the house. Father told the police that Berry was in the garage. The police went to the garage and found the door locked. They knocked and asked if Berry was inside, and he answered yes. The police asked Berry to open the door, but he did not respond. When the medics arrived to care for Tony, Father came out to the garage and told Berry to open the door and come out. Berry obeyed, and police handcuffed him. Police described Berry as “calm, cool” and said that he provided “no resistance.” Id. at 213. Police asked Berry where the hammer was, and he told them it was in a drawer in the truck. Police described Berry's speech as clear and understandable. When the police went to a truck parked in back of the house, Berry told the police that the hammer was in the truck parked in front of the house. Police found the hammer wrapped in a towel where Berry told them it would be.
The police questioned Berry about what happened, and he was cooperative. Berry admitted that he hit Tony with a hammer and that he knew he was hitting Tony. When asked why he wrapped the hammer in a towel and put it in the drawer in the truck, Berry stated that Father had told him to. Id. at 238–39. However, some of Berry's answers were “nonsensical.” Id. at 232. He told one officer that he had been reading the Bible, and that when he arrived at the house, God told him that it was time to go. He stated that he hit Tony because Tony was caught playing with the eagle, and God told him to hit Tony. He told a different officer that Tony was attacked by an eagle.
Berry was taken to Wishard Hospital and was admitted to Midtown Community Mental Health Center for stabilization of psychosis. The treating physician, Dr. Kimberly Mayrose, noted, Appellant's Addendum to Br. at 4. Dr. Mayrose's admission summary indicates that Id. Dr. Mayrose's Axis I diagnosis of Berry was “Bipolar Disorder, type I, mixed and Alcohol dependence, possible withdrawal (not DT's).” 4 Id. Berry was treated with lithium and Seroquel and was discharged on February 16, 2009. His discharge diagnosis was “Bipolar I Disorder, Mania Stabilizing[ ]; and Alcohol Dependence.” Ex. at 81.
As a result of Berry's attack, Tony suffered eight lacerations to his head and one on his right hand. Tony underwent surgery to repair his nose, sinuses, eye sockets, and broken jaw. Titanium plates were implanted into his skull to repair his head and facial injuries. Tony has lost vision in one eye and suffers diminished vision in the other. In addition, he can no longer use his dentures due to the injury to his jaw.
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Berry v. State
...reversed, finding that “the circumstances of Berry's case fall squarely within the doctrine of settled insanity.” Berry v. State, 950 N.E.2d 821, 835 (Ind.Ct.App.2011). We granted transfer.Insanity Defense The issue before this Court is not whether the State failed to establish beyond a rea......