Lloyd v. State
| Decision Date | 07 August 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 71S03-9505-CR-578,71S03-9505-CR-578 |
| Parties | Kenneth Jerome LLOYD, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Lloyd appeals from his conviction for Neglect of a Dependent, a Class B felony, I.C. § 35-46-1-4, for which he was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. 1 After considering his appeal, we conclude that the decision of the trial court is in all respects affirmed.
Angela Green resided in South Bend, Indiana with her four children, Shawna, Steven, Shane, and eighteen-month old Shawn. In December of 1992, Angela Green met the defendant, Kenneth Lloyd. That same month, on Christmas Eve, Green and Lloyd began cohabitating at Green's residence. Lloyd immediately assumed a role in the household disciplining the infant Shawn.
On January 11, 1993, Green's eldest daughter, Shawna, then age eleven, informed Green that Shawna had seen a "whep" on Shawn's leg. At trial, Shawna defined for the trial court the meaning of "whep:" "a mark that looked like a sore." (R. at 223). Later that month, Green herself noticed similar injuries on her children's legs. She told Lloyd to "stop whupping the kids this hard." (R. at 226). Annoyed at Green's comments, Lloyd argued with Green. After Lloyd and Green took their disagreement to another room, Shawna discovered a large hole in the wall of the room in which Lloyd and Green had been arguing. (R. at 227).
In March of 1993 Lloyd assumed the task of toilet training Shawn. Lloyd warned the infant that he would punish him with a belt if he failed to use the bathroom. Shawna reported that she heard Lloyd hit Shawn with a belt and warn Shawn to stop soiling himself. (R. at 228-31).
Additional evidence suggests that Shawn was suffering from abuse. On March 26, 1993, the owner of the day care center at which Lloyd usually dropped off Shawn, Steven and Shane noticed that Shawn was absent from day care. The owner expressed her concern to Green; Green advised the owner that Lloyd was toilet training Shawn. Shawn never returned to day care. Four-year-old Steven later reported to the day care owner that Shawn had bruises on his head and a black eye. The owner of the day care center confronted Lloyd about these injuries when he later dropped off Steven and Shane for day care. Lloyd denied that Shawn had such severe injuries.
A few days before April 11, 1993, Shawna heard Shawn "falling from somewhere" inside the house. Investigating, she found Lloyd, Green, and Shawn in a bedroom. When she inquired about Shawn's swollen head, Green and Lloyd told Shawna that Shawn had fallen down the stairs.
On the morning of April 12, 1993, Lloyd and Shawna dropped off Steven and Shane at day care, Shawna advising the owner that Shawn was not coming. Shawn soiled himself again that morning. Green's sister, who lived in a basement apartment below Green, heard Shawn crying at about 9:30 a.m. When Shawn stopped crying, Green's sister went to sleep. A little over an hour later, Lloyd woke Green's sister, asking for her help, claiming Shawn was choking.
Green's sister discovered Shawn's body lying on a bed upstairs, "real cold and just limp." She immediately sought emergency help. Emergency personnel arrived, attempted resuscitation, and then transported Shawn's body to the hospital, where Dr. Joseph Lee continued resuscitation attempts for an additional hour, to no avail. Dr. Lee's examination of Shawn's body revealed a body temperature of 91.4 degrees, suggesting that Shawn had been dead for at least two hours. Emergency medical personnel, as well as Dr. Lee, noted numerous injuries on Shawn's body, injuries inconsistent with Lloyd's story that Shawn had choked on food.
South Bend police officer Brian Young arrived at Green's home immediately after the emergency medical personnel. Lloyd identified himself with the pseudonym "Dwayne Proctor" and told Officer Young that Shawn began choking after eating grits or a sandwich, and that, after attempting CPR for fifteen to twenty minutes, Lloyd summoned Green's sister. Lloyd claimed to be unaware of anything else that could be wrong with Shawn. South Bend Police Officer Steve Noonan then transported Lloyd to the emergency room. Lloyd continued to identify himself as Dwayne Proctor, and told Officer Noonan that he gave Shawn a sandwich, and then left the room for about twenty minutes to make a phone call. Lloyd told Officer Noonan that Shawn bruised his eye and nose two weeks earlier when Shawn fell down some stairs.
At the emergency room, Lloyd presented yet a third variation on his description of the events of the morning. Lloyd told Dr. Lee that he had been feeding oatmeal to Shawn, that Shawn choked on the oatmeal, and that Lloyd administered CPR to Shawn when he realized that Shawn was not breathing. Lloyd explained to Dr. Lee that Shawn's bruises were the result of his falling down two weeks earlier.
That afternoon, after waiving his Miranda rights, Lloyd gave a statement to police. He explained that he returned home that morning, changed Shawn's pants, made a sandwich and gave part of the sandwich to Shawn. He claimed to have then answered the telephone and that ten to fifteen seconds later he returned and found Shawn on the bedroom floor. Advised that his story was inconsistent with Shawn's injuries, Lloyd then claimed that Shawn had fallen down both outside and inside the house that morning. Additionally, Lloyd stated that he had accidentally knocked Shawn down a stairway inside the house.
Shawn's autopsy revealed bruises to Shawn's forehead, temple, cheeks, abdomen, forearm, chin, back, groin, and buttocks. Except for some of the bruises on Shawn's head, all of these bruises were less than three to five days old. The doctor performing the autopsy determined that the forehead bruises were consistent with a blow with knuckles. The abdominal bruises were consistent with a squeeze requiring "a considerable amount of force." The autopsy revealed that internal bleeding caused Shawn's death. Specifically, Shawn's small bowel had been completely ripped in two, causing his abdomen to fill with blood. An initial injury, which occurred five to fourteen days prior to Shawn's death, when Shawn's abdomen was squeezed with marked force, forced his bowel against his backbone and caused his bowel to split. The doctor performing the autopsy testified that this injury, unusual because it was in a relatively protected area of the body, would cause extreme pain. A second injury to the bowel, which may have occurred spontaneously, or may have been the result of multiple repetitive bouts of trauma, severed the bowel sections entirely, initiating the bleeding which resulted in Shawn's death.
Lloyd again waived his Miranda rights and gave a second statement to police. Confronted with the results of the autopsy, Lloyd explained that he had failed to mention in his earlier statement that "I accidentally stepped on the baby after he fell down the stairs."
On May 11, 1993, an Information issued charging Green and Lloyd with Neglect of a Dependent, a Class B felony. After a trial, the jury acquitted Green, but convicted Lloyd as charged. The trial court sentenced Lloyd to twenty years imprisonment.
This Court has original appellate jurisdiction over sentences in excess of fifty years. Ind.Appellate Rule 4(A)(7). Lloyd was sentenced to only twenty years, thus his appeal was properly brought before the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals dismissed his claim on procedural grounds, without ever reaching the merits of the appeal. Because the Court of Appeal's decision to dismiss was based on an erroneous understanding of the applicable filing deadlines in this case, we granted Defendant's Petition to Transfer. The following events lead us to this decision. On September 20, 1993, Lloyd filed with the trial court a Petition for Leave to File Belated Motion to Correct Errors. His Petition was granted, and Lloyd was given until October 20, 1993 to file his Belated Motion. However, at an October 15, 1993 hearing, the court extended that deadline by two days, to October 22, 1993. The chronological docket entry sheet for the October 15 hearing on Lloyd's case states:
State appears by Keith Doi. Defendant appears by appellate counsel, Deborah Hays. State moves for continuance for hearing on motion to produce videotape. Motion granted. Cause reset for hearing October 18. Defendant's time within which to file belated motion to correct error is now extended to October 22.
(R. at 6).
On October 22, Lloyd filed his Belated Motion to Correct Errors, and on December 6, 1993, the trial court denied his motion. On January 5, 1994, Lloyd filed his praecipe to prepare the record for his appeal to the Court of Appeals, and proceeded to bring his appeal before that court.
On May 5, 1994, Lloyd's appellate counsel filed Appellant's brief with the Court of Appeals. Counsel failed, inadvertently, to inform the Court of Appeals of the trial court's decision to extend the deadline for filing the belated motion. The Court of Appeals, reviewing the record filed with the appeal and Lloyd's statement of the case, believed that Lloyd's belated motion to correct errors had been untimely filed, and, acting on that belief, dismissed Lloyd's appeal.
Lloyd, in his Petition for Transfer, points out the erroneous information under which the Court of Appeals labored, and argues that this matter be reviewed on the merits. We agree that Lloyd has complied with all relevant procedural deadlines, and, therefore granted his Petition for Transfer.
Lloyd first argues that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his conviction. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court neither weighs the evidence nor judges the credibility of the...
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