Lee v. State

• Decision Date: 27 March 2012
• Docket Number: No. 49A02–1108–CR–784.,49A02–1108–CR–784.
• Parties: Aaron LEE, Appellant–Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

964 N.E.2d 859

Aaron LEE, Appellant–Defendant,
v.
STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.

No. 49A02–1108–CR–784.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

March 13, 2012.Ordered Published March 27, 2012.

[964 N.E.2d 860]

Michael R. Fisher, Marion County Public Defender Agency, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Michael Gene Worden, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

OPINION BROWN, Judge.

Aaron Lee appeals his convictions for criminal confinement as a class B felony ¹ and intimidation as a class C felony.² Lee raises one issue, which we revise and restate as whether the trial court abused its discretion by rejecting Lee's proposed instruction regarding the presumption of innocence. We reverse and remand.

The relevant facts follow. In the afternoon of June 19, 2010, Lee entered Patty's Show Club, which was a strip club located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and met K.F., who was working her first day at the club. Lee paid K.F. for a private dance which lasted for one song. Before K.F. left Patty's with another dancer to go to a bar, Lee asked K.F. for her phone number and she gave it to him because Lee “seemed like ... a really nice guy.” Transcript at 72. When the bartender would not serve K.F., who was not yet twenty-one years old, alcohol, K.F. called her mother to ask for her to pick her up. Her mother informed K.F. that she could not pick her up, and she told K.F. that “this number had been calling” and K.F. assumed it was Lee “because we had planned on going to get something to eat,” and K.F. then asked her mother to give her the number. Id. K.F. called Lee and Lee agreed to pick her up from the bar.

When Lee arrived, K.F. asked him to take her to her house to change clothes and to speak to her mother, and Lee agreed. Lee reluctantly entered the house with K.F. and briefly spoke with K.F.'s mother while K.F. changed clothes. Lee and K.F. then stopped at a liquor store,

[964 N.E.2d 861]

Lee purchased alcohol for them, and the two drove to a Denny's restaurant. K.F. started to exit the vehicle, but Lee told her that “he was just going to run in and get it, which [she] didn't understand” because she “didn't know if ... he wanted to just, you know, hang out for a second and then leave because he had to be somewhere.” Id. at 78. Lee then drove to an EconoLodge hotel where he had a room and asked if K.F. would like to “come in and hang out,” and K.F. thought that it was “kind of weird that he wanted to hang out at a hotel,” and she began “texting [her] friends ... to see if they wanted to hang out so that ... [she] wouldn't be ... alone with someone....” Id. at 80. The two then proceeded to the hotel room.

After talking in the room and drinking alcohol, Lee and K.F. drove to an apartment to purchase marijuana for K.F., and they then went back to the room. K.F. continued to text friends in an attempt to have them pick her up because she did not plan to spend the night at the hotel. At some point, Lee began to ask K.F. to have sex with him, and K.F. responded that they “just met” and that she was “just trying to get to know [Lee],” but Lee continued to ask. Id. at 88. Lee attempted to kiss K.F. which made her want to leave the hotel, and she started to gather her belongings including her purse and flip flops.

As K.F. bent down to pick up her belongings, Lee asked her if she had “ever played Russian Roulette,” and when she looked at Lee he had a gun pointed at her face at a distance of about seven or eight feet. Id. at 95. Lee then told K.F. that she “had five seconds to take [her] clothes off or he was going to f– – – – – – kill” her and he began to count, but K.F. did not comply. Id. at 97. After repeated threats from Lee, K.F. began to cry, Lee asked her to calm down and told her that he loved her, and the two then began to talk. K.F. did not try to leave the hotel room because she “thought that if [she] screamed or if [she] tried to run out ... that [she] could possibly lose [her] life,” and Lee also at one point slapped K.F.'s cell phone from her hand when she attempted to dial 911. Id. at 100. After about twenty minutes of talking, K.F. convinced Lee to give her the ammunition and clip for the gun. Lee again asked K.F. if they could have sex, and K.F. agreed but told Lee that she wanted to smoke a cigarette first, and when the two exited the room K.F. made sure the door completely closed because she had observed that the room key was still on the table in the room.

While outside, Lee apologized to K.F., and after about ten minutes he realized that he could not reenter the room and the two walked towards the lobby to obtain another key. While walking, K.F. “turn[ed] around and [took] off running,” and she eventually ran back to the Denny's restaurant. Id. at 107. K.F. then spoke with the manager, told him that “someone had tried to kill” her, and showed the manager the clip and ammunition. Id. at 108. The manager called 911. K.F. also called the same person who had sold her marijuana earlier and who was her “best friend” because she “wanted a male” to “protect” her. Id. at 109. Lee soon after entered the Denny's, but the manager told him to leave, which Lee did. Subsequent to the police arriving, Lee returned with K.F.'s cell phone, and the police arrested him.

On June 23, 2010, the State charged Lee with Count I, criminal confinement as a class B felony; Count II, intimidation as a class C felony; Count III, intimidation as a class C felony; Count IV, pointing a firearm as a class D felony; and Count V, interference with reporting a crime as a

[964 N.E.2d 862]

class A misdemeanor. On July 18 and 19, 2011, a jury trial was held in which facts were presented consistent with the foregoing. At trial, K.F. testified that she initially lied to the police officer, telling the officer that she “had known him for a couple of weeks and [ ] had seen him at ... a couple of parties, because [she] was too embarrassed” to admit that she was working at a strip club, and that even after the officer told K.F. that she thought K.F. was lying, K.F. continued to lie. Id. at 111. K.F. also indicated that she had told the Denny's manager that she had known Lee for a couple of months, and that she had stated this to the manager because she was embarrassed. The prosecutor asked K.F. about lab results which showed that Lee's DNA had been found on her underwear, and K.F. testified that it could have been a result of the private dance she had performed for Lee at the strip club earlier on the date in question. K.F. also testified that, about thirty minutes later, at the police station, she “redid the statement and [she] told [the officer] how [she] actually met [Lee].” Id. at 116.

At the close of trial, Lee tendered a final instruction regarding the presumption of innocence which the court refused to give because it believed that other instructions it was giving “fulfill[ed] the need of what [the] intention is in these instructions, that the burden's on the State to prove it.” Id. at 451. The jury found Lee guilty of Counts I and II and not guilty on Counts III–V. On August 5, 2011, the court sentenced Lee to eight years with two years suspended on Count I, criminal confinement...