Martin v. State

• Decision Date: 19 October 2000
• Docket Number: No. 82S00-9811-CR-00710.,82S00-9811-CR-00710.
• Citation: 736 N.E.2d 1213
• Parties: Clarence A. MARTIN, Jr., Appellant (Defendant below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

736 N.E.2d 1213

Clarence A. MARTIN, Jr., Appellant (Defendant below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below).

No. 82S00-9811-CR-00710.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

October 19, 2000.

Dennis A. Vowels, Evansville, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Jeffrey A. Modisett, Attorney General of Indiana, Sarah E. Scherrer, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

SULLIVAN, Justice.

Defendant Clarence A. Martin, Jr., appeals his conviction for murder on grounds that the trial court made three errors concerning the admission of evidence. We affirm, concluding that (1) evidence of a prior police traffic stop did not violate the proscription on prior bad act evidence, (2) a witness's prior inconsistent statement was admitted for purposes of impeachment and so was not hearsay, and (3) evidence of another witness's juvenile record was properly excluded.

This Court has jurisdiction over this direct appeal because the longest single sentence exceeds fifty years. Ind. Const. art. VII, § 4; Ind. Appellate Rule 4(A)(7).

Background

The facts most favorable to the verdict indicate that on October 13, 1997, Defendant Clarence Martin and Jason Small drove to Charles Reed's house to purchase marijuana. Reed answered the door and let both Defendant and Small into the house. As Reed entered the back bedroom to retrieve the marijuana, he informed his girlfriend, Nicole Phipps, that Defendant and Small were in the living room. Upon Reed's return to the living room, Phipps heard gunshots. From the bedroom, she peered into the kitchen and observed Small instructing someone to "shoot [Reed] in the head." (R. at 396, 402.) After the gunshots subsided, she heard Defendant tell Small, "let's go." (R. at 391.) Phipps escaped through a bedroom window and ran to her father's house. Police were summoned and found Reed shot to death.

Reed's autopsy showed gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen, buttocks, lower chest, left jaw, chin and mouth. He had died from the accumulation of blood in his chest cavity.

The State charged Defendant with Murder¹ and Robbery,² a class B felony. Both Defendant and co-defendant Jason Small were tried together before a jury on June 12, 1998. The jury convicted Defendant of murder but found him not guilty of robbery. On July 9, 1998, the trial court sentenced Defendant to sixty years.

Additional facts will be provided as necessary.

Discussion

I

At trial, Officer Hilsmeyer testified that during a traffic stop three months before Reed's death, Defendant told him that he lived at 1414 Culver Street. Defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting this testimony. His argument is that the evidence that an officer questioned him during a traffic stop improperly allowed the jury to consider that he had engaged in wrongful conduct unrelated to the crime for which he was on trial.

Generally, evidence of unrelated wrongful conduct is inadmissible. Ind. Evidence Rule 404(b).³ This rule is designed to prevent the jury from inferring present guilt from prior wrongful conduct. See Barker v. State, 695 N.E.2d 925, 929-30 (Ind.1998); Evans v. State, 643 N.E.2d 877, 883 (Ind.1994).

We do not find the prior conduct presented to the jury here, a response to a question asked during a routine traffic stop, constituted a prior bad act from which the jury might draw a forbidden inference about Defendant's character or guilt. No reference was made to the purpose of the stop or to the arrest and filing of charges that resulted. Furthermore, the officer's testimony was offered to link Defendant to an address.⁴ As such, the testimony was directly relevant to an issue at trial. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the officer's testimony.⁵

II

At trial, Detective Taylor testified to an out-of-court statement made by Sonya Steverson. Defendant contends that the trial court committed reversible error when it allowed this statement because it constituted inadmissible hearsay. The State counters that the statement was not hearsay because it was offered to impeach a witness, not to prove the truth of the matter asserted.

Jessica Compton lived across the street from her son and daughter-in-law, James and Sonya Steverson. James Steverson was a close friend of Defendant, and Defendant was at his house on the evening of Reed's death. The day after Reed was shot, Compton voluntarily went to police headquarters and spoke to Detective Taylor, who was assigned to investigate the death of Reed. Based on the information obtained from Compton, Detective Taylor searched the Steverson home. Detective Taylor testified that during the search, Sonya told him that if he was unsuccessful in locating the murder weapon in her home, he should search the basement of a vacant house with a wheelchair ramp located at a three-way stop sign on Culver Street. Based on this information, Detective Taylor and three other officers searched a home matching this description, located at 1414 Culver Street, and discovered two guns and ammunition in the basement.

On June 9, 1998, the State deposed both James and Sonya Steverson. James Steverson denied telling his wife that Defendant told him where the murder weapons were hidden. Sonya Steverson denied having any recollection that she told officers that they should search the house at 1414 Culver Street for the guns. Defendant filed a motion in limine to prohibit the State from introducing testimony from any officer identifying Sonya Steverson as the source of the police investigation information without first conducting a hearing outside the presence of the jury.

Prior to Sonya Steverson's testimony at trial, the trial court conducted such a hearing. Sonya Steverson repeatedly denied that she told Detective Taylor to search for the guns in the basement of a vacant house on Culver Street. The State argued that it had to question her in the presence of the jury regarding this statement because if she denied it, Detective Taylor would be called to impeach her with her prior inconsistent statement to him.

Defendant argued that Sonya Steverson's alleged out-of-court statement offered by Detective Taylor constituted hearsay and denied him his right to a fair trial. The trial court overruled Defendant's objection on grounds that the out-of-court statement was offered as a matter of impeachment.

After the jury returned to the courtroom, the State proceeded with its direct examination of Sonya Steverson. She testified that she observed her husband talking to Defendant the morning after the shooting. She also acknowledged that police officers came to search her house but denied telling Detective Taylor to search the house on Culver Street for the guns. The next day Detective Taylor testified that during the search of the Steverson house, Sonya Steverson had pulled him aside and told him "that if the gun was not located in her house to search the basement of a vacant house at a three[-way] stop sign with a wheel chair ramp on Culver for the gun." (R. at 1375.) Detective Taylor also testified that the murder weapons were ultimately located at the home on Culver street. The trial court overruled Defendant's timely objections. No jury admonition was requested of or given by the trial court to limit the use of Detective Taylor's testimony.

A

Hearsay testimony is excluded from judicial proceedings because its admission defeats a defendant's right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against him. Williams v. State, 544 N.E.2d 161, 162 (Ind.1989); Ind. Evidence Rule 802. Hearsay is defined as a "statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted." Ind. Evidence Rule 801(c). Consequently, a witness may not testify about an out-of-court statement to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Taylor v. State, 659 N.E.2d 535, 543 (Ind.1995). An exception to this rule does exist for certain prior inconsistent statements: "A statement is not hearsay if ... [t]he declarant testifies at the trial or hearing and is subject to cross-examination concerning the statement, and the statement is ... inconsistent with the declarant's testimony and was given under oath subject to the penalty of perjury at a trial, hearing or other proceeding, on in a deposition...." Ind. Evidence Rule 801(d)(1)(A). But because Sonya's prior statement was not made under oath, that exception is not available here.

B

The State argues that its principal purpose for offering this out-of-court statement was to impeach Sonya Steverson.⁶ Defendant contends that the admission of the statement permitted the jury to consider the statement as substantive evidence of the location of the murder weapon, allowing the jury to link him to Reed's murder. As such, Defendant argues that this prior inconsistent statement constituted inadmissible hearsay.

If the State offered Sonya Steverson's statement to challenge her credibility, it is not hearsay. It is well established that a prior inconsistent statement may be used to impeach a witness. See Birdsong v. State, 685 N.E.2d 42, 46 (Ind.1997); Humphrey v. State, 680 N.E.2d 836, 839 (Ind.1997) (citing 13B Robert Lowell Miller, Jr., Indiana Practice: Courtroom Handbook on Indiana Evidence 176 (1996-97 ed.)); Lewis v. State, 451 N.E.2d 50, 54 (Ind.1983); LaBine v.State, 447 N.E.2d 592, 595 (Ind.1983); Davis v. State, 456 N.E.2d 405, 410 (Ind.1983); Stutzman v. State, 250 Ind. 467, 235 N.E.2d 186 (1968). And when a prior inconsistent statement is used to impeach a witness, it is not hearsay because the statement is not used to prove the truth of the matter asserted.⁷ See Birdsong, 685 N.E.2d at 46; 13 Robert Lowell Miller, Jr., Indiana Practice § 801.409, at 522-23 (2d ed.1995).

Defendant cites Mason v. State, 689 N.E.2d 1233 (Ind.1997). In Mason, where a police officer testified as to an out-of-court statement, we reversed the conviction because there was no...