Mateo v. State

• Decision Date: 17 September 2012
• Docket Number: No. 09A04–1201–CR–17.,09A04–1201–CR–17.
• Parties: Rolando Miguel–Gaspar MATEO, Appellant–Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

974 N.E.2d 602

Rolando Miguel–Gaspar MATEO, Appellant–Defendant,

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.

No. 09A04–1201–CR–17.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

Sept. 17, 2012.

Appeal from the Cass Superior Court; The Honorable Richard A. Maughmer, Judge; Cause No. 09D02–1008–FA–9.

Matthew D. Barrett, Matthew D. Barrett, P.C., Logansport, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Karl M. Scharnberg, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

MEMORANDUM DECISION—NOT FOR PUBLICATION

BAKER, Judge.

Appellant-defendant Rolando Mateo appeals his conviction and sentence for Aggravated Battery,¹ a class B felony. Specifically, Mateo contends that the trial court erred in excluding evidence alleging that several of the State's witnesses were members of a criminal gang and that two knives were erroneously admitted into evidence. Mateo also argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for aggravated battery, that there was not sufficient evidence to disprove his claim of self-defense, that the State used “perjured” testimony when presenting its case, that the jury was improperly instructed on accomplice liability, and that he was improperly sentenced.

Finding the evidence sufficient and concluding that there was no other error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS

On August 7, 2010, seventeen-year-old Bernard and fourteen-year-old Clarence Brock (collectively, the Brocks) went to Trustin McFarland and Nicole Graves's residence in Logansport to attend a party. Several other mutual friends also attended the party.

At some point, Mateo and his “street-gang brother,” Alberto Santos, arrived at the house. Graves went outside to talk to Mateo, and repeatedly told him to leave. Mateo responded that he was going to slash the tires of a car that was parked in front of Graves's house. The car belonged to Andrew Isley, another guest at the party. Mateo, in fact, slashed the tires of Isley's car.

Thereafter, Mateo ran into a nearby alley behind the properties across the street from Graves's and McFarland's residence. As Mateo ran to the alley, he taunted the partygoers, yelling at them to come outside and fight. Graves went back inside the house and told the guests what Mateo had done. Most of the guests ran outside. Five of them chased after Mateo and Santos. At some point, Bernard saw Clarence and the others run into the alley, and Bernard followed them because he was concerned for his younger brother.

Six individuals found Mateo and Santos waiting for them in the middle of the alley. Mateo had two knives and Santos was armed with one. Paul Melton began to challenge Santos to a fight when Clarence, who was not armed, shoved Melton aside. Santos then squared off with Clarence. When Bernard noticed that Santos was armed, he took a baseball bat from one of the other individuals and stepped between Clarence and Santos. Santos slashed at Bernard with the knife, striking the bat as Bernard backed Santos away from Clarence. Mateo then ran toward Clarence and stabbed him in the side. As Mateo was preparing to stab Clarence again, Bernard threw the baseball bat at Mateo.

Clarence and the others ran from the alley. Bernard, who remained, saw Mateo and Santos run in the opposite direction. Bernard pursued Mateo and Santos. When Mateo and Santos realized that it was only Bernard who was pursuing them, they stopped and turned toward Bernard. Santos stabbed Bernard in the stomach and the chest. Mateo then stabbed Bernard in the right side of the chest, on the wrist, and three times in the back. Mateo also hit Bernard in the head with the baseball bat.

Notwithstanding the stab wounds, Bernard continued pursuing Mateo and Santos. Bernard later recalled that he paused at a street corner, lifted his shirt, and “saw [his] meat hanging out of [his] stomach.” Tr. p. 761–62. Thereafter, Bernard decided to return to McFarland and Graves's house. McFarland found Bernard and helped him back to the house. By that time, Bernard's stomach was “falling out.” Id. at 664. An ambulance arrived and Clarence remarked that he “thought [Bernard] was dying....” Id. at 704.

Clarence spent two weeks in the hospital and required three surgeries. Bernard was transported by helicopter to Fort Wayne for treatment. Bernard spent nearly one year recovering and was unable to use one of his arms because his tendons had been sliced. Bernard suffered from severe muscle spasms in his stomach, had no feeling in his forearm, and could not lift more than twenty pounds until shortly before the trial.

On August 10, 2010, Mateo was charged with attempted murder, a class A felony. And on September 30, 2010, the State filed an additional count of aggravated battery, a class B felony against Mateo. On November 10, 2011, Mateo filed “Defendant's Motion to Allow Evidence at Trial Re: Gang Membership or Affiliation of Witnesses Pursuant to Indiana Evidence Rule 404(b).” Appellant's App. p. 35–120. A hearing was conducted on Mateo's motion on December 8, 2011, which the trial court subsequently denied.

On December 9, 2011, the State filed a motion to amend the charging information to add identical charges that related to the stabbing of Clarence. Following a hearing on that motion, the trial court denied the State's request.

A three-day jury trial was conducted on December 14, 15, and 16, 2011. Following the presentation of the evidence, the jury returned a guilty verdict for the aggravated battery count but found Mateo not guilty of attempted murder.

At the sentencing hearing that was conducted on January 9, 2012, the State asked for a maximum sentence of twenty years imprisonment. The trial court found in aggravation that Mateo and Santos had inflicted multiple stab wounds on Bernard, that Mateo had been assessed as presenting a high risk of recidivism, and that Mateo had a significant criminal history. Although the trial court considered Mateo's age as a mitigating circumstance, it determined that this fact was outweighed by the aggravating circumstances. The trial court then sentenced Mateo to twenty years of incarceration. Mateo now appeals.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

I. Evidence of Gang Activity

Mateo first argues that his conviction must be reversed because the trial court improperly excluded evidence that pertained to various State's witnesses' involvement in gang activity. Mateo argues that such evidence should have been admitted because proof of gang affiliation is routinely admitted as proof of motive to commit an alleged violent crime.

In resolving this issue, we initially observe that the decision to exclude evidence lies within the trial court's sound discretion and is afforded great deference on appeal. Bacher v. State, 686 N.E.2d 791, 793 (Ind.1997). Evidence of prior crimes is admissible if (1) the evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is relevant to a matter at issue other than the defendant's propensity to commit the charged act, and (2) the probative value of the evidence is not significantly outweighed by its prejudicial effect. Hicks v. State, 690 N.E.2d 215, 219 (Ind.1997). Under the relevance prong of this analysis, the trial court may consider any factor that it would ordinarily consider under Indiana Evidence Rule 402.

Indiana Evidence Rule 404(b) specifically enumerates some of the factors that a trial court may consider when determining whether to admit evidence of past crimes, “such as proof of motive, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.”

In this case, Mateo desired to present evidence that three of the State's witnesses were members of gangs to show their motives for starting a fight with him. Mateo's counsel explained, “it's 404B, the case that we cited, gang membership, it's probative of motive to otherwise complete these types of senseless acts of violence. Gangs are violent. Membership enhances that probability that they, you know, they're gonna do something bad here.” Tr. p. 49. Ultimately, the court pressed Mateo on his reason for wanting to present the evidence:

THE COURT: And that, what, under 404(b), how does that fit in with 404(b)? You're just showing that he acted in, in conformance with the gang member, propensity to beat people up, yeah—

MR. BARRETT: Right, it's permitted.

Tr. p. 57.

When considering the above exchange, we find that Mateo's proposed inference is precisely what Rule 404(b) forbids. See Cline v. State, 726 N.E.2d 1249, 1252 (Ind.2000) (observing that the trial court properly excluded evidence of gang affiliation and the individual's prior violent conduct when the defendant sought to introduce evidence of another's prior acts for the sole purpose of demonstrating that because that individual had acted violently in the past, he likely acted in conformity with those acts).

Notwithstanding the rule in Cline, Mateo directs us to Williams v. State, 690 N.E.2d 162, 173 (Ind.1997), for the proposition that gang evidence is “routinely admitted as proof of motive to commit an alleged violent crime.” Appellant's Br. p. 17. Williams represents an exception to the general prohibition, and that exception is narrow. More specifically, the defendant's gang membership was relevant to provide a motive to an otherwise senseless violent act, which was a drive-by shooting of an apartment building in which a sixteen-year-old girl was killed in a hail of sixty-five bullets fired at the apartment building. Williams, 690 N.E.2d at 165.

Here, the motive for the confrontation between Mateo and the victims is readily explainable: Mateo had recently slashed the tires of the victims' friend's vehicle for no apparent reason. Tr. p. 347, 357, 411, 469, 656, 700, 747. Indeed, on cross-examination, Mateo acknowledged that the individuals at the party went after him and Santos because Mateo had slashed the tires. Id. at 347, 439, 670–71, 715, 788, 795, 802.

If membership in a gang was at all relevant to show motive,...