McCants v. State

Citation686 N.E.2d 1281
Decision Date03 November 1997
Docket NumberNo. 49S00-9606-CR-453,49S00-9606-CR-453
CourtSupreme Court of Indiana
PartiesKeith McCANTS, Defendant-Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Plaintiff-Appellee.

Kurt A. Young, Nashville, for Defendant-Appellant.

Pamela Carter, Attorney General, Cynthia L. Ploughe, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

SELBY, Justice.

Defendant Keith R. McCants was convicted on two counts of attempted murder, one count of criminal confinement, one count of resisting law enforcement, and one count of carrying a handgun without a license. The jury also found him to be a habitual offender. The trial court ordered defendant to serve the following sentences concurrently: thirty (30) years on count one, attempted murder; sixty (60) years on count two, attempted murder, enhanced by the habitual offender finding; and one (1) year on count six, resisting law enforcement. The trial court ordered the defendant to serve the following sentences consecutively: twenty (20) years on count four, criminal confinement, to be served consecutively after count two, attempted murder; and eight (8) years on count eight, carrying a handgun without a license, to be served consecutively after count four, criminal confinement. Defendant raises the following issues in this direct appeal.

1. Did the trial court err when it overruled defendant's objection to the State's use of a peremptory challenge excusing the only prospective African-American juror?

2. Did the trial court err when it denied defendant's request for a mistrial upon discovery that one of the State's witnesses and a juror worked at the same university?

3. Did the trial court erroneously enter judgment as resisting law enforcement, a class D felony, when the jury found defendant guilty of resisting law enforcement, a class A misdemeanor, a lesser included offense of the crime charged?

4. Did the trial court err when it entered judgment of conviction for carrying a handgun without a license as a class C felony?

5. Did the trial court err in imposing consecutive sentences for criminal confinement and carrying a handgun without a license?

FACTS

In the early morning of August 12, 1995, Larry Hardy and Rebecca Woodson arrived at a Church's Chicken. The couple encountered "K.J." Howard and defendant outside the restaurant and an argument ensued. At one point during the argument, Howard struck Hardy. Hardy backed away and headed toward a phone booth nearby. In the meantime, defendant was arguing with Woodson and threatening to shoot her and Hardy. Defendant struck and injured Woodson. Woodson got into her car, picked up Hardy at the phone booth, and fled. Defendant drove after them while Howard fired shots out the passenger window at Woodson's car.

An off-duty police officer saw a flash from the passenger side of the pursuing car. The officer allowed passage to the cars, which were heading the wrong way on a one way street, and then turned on his emergency lights and followed them. The pursuing car fled. Another police officer, Officer Greer, who drove a marked police car, responded to the broadcast of the shooting. He followed the fleeing car, but fell behind. Eventually Officer Greer found the car which was parked diagonally across a sidewalk and faced the wrong direction. Either one or both car doors were open. Shotgun shells and live rounds for a handgun were found inside the car. A shotgun was discovered in the vicinity of the parked car.

In the meantime, defendant and Howard fled the car and broke into a house nearby. Defendant and Howard encountered Catherine Welch, the homeowner, at the top of the stairs and forced her to return to her bedroom. Defendant held a gun to Welch while in the bedroom. After learning that the house had a basement, defendant and Howard forced Welch to her basement. Defendant threatened that, if she tried to escape or make a noise, he would shoot her.

At one point, defendant relinquished the gun to Howard. Howard ordered Welch to squat on the ground. He instructed Welch to take off all of her clothes and pretend that she was the defendant's quarreling lover if the police should happen to find defendant first. Howard and Welch were hiding in a different part of the basement than defendant.

The K-9 police unit tracked the scent from the abandoned car to a house one half block

from the parked car. Two officers noticed freshly broken glass inside the door on the floor. One officer knocked on the door and identified himself, but there was no response. The officers entered and found two young children sleeping on the second floor. The officers then searched the basement and found defendant hiding behind a water heater. When the police found defendant, Howard pushed Welch from their hiding spot. Welch told the police that she was the defendant's girlfriend and they were fighting. When Welch had positioned herself behind the police officer, she recanted her story. She then directed the police to Howard. The police arrested defendant and Howard immediately. A handgun was found on the basement floor.

DISCUSSION
I. Peremptory Challenge

Defendant claims that the trial court erred when it overruled his objection to the State's peremptory challenge to the only African-American prospective juror.

This court will not set aside a trial court's finding regarding discriminatory intent to excuse a juror unless clearly erroneous. Kent v. State, 675 N.E.2d 332, 340 (Ind.1996). To establish a prima facie case of racial discrimination in the process of jury selection, a defendant must show that (1) the excused juror is a member of a cognizable racial group; (2) the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges to remove that group's members from the jury; and (3) the facts and circumstances of the case raise an inference that the exclusion was based on race. Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Once the prima facie case is established, the burden shifts to the State to provide a race-neutral explanation for challenging such juror. Batson, 476 U.S. at 97, 106 S.Ct. at 1723. If the explanation, on its face, is based on something other than race, the explanation will be deemed race neutral. Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 360, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1866-67, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991). The trial court must then decide whether the defendant has shown that the state committed purposeful race discrimination in the process of jury selection. Batson, 476 U.S. at 98, 106 S.Ct. at 1723-24. The trial court's finding is accorded great deference. Id. at 98, 106 S.Ct. at 1723-24. Thus, the trial court's finding will be set aside by this Court only when found to be clearly erroneous. Kent, 675 N.E.2d at 340.

In the case at bar, the State exercised one peremptory challenge removing the only prospective African-American juror. Defendant objected to the State's challenge and argued that, of the eighteen (18) prospective jurors, the State challenged the only prospective African-American juror that could have served on the petit jury. 1 These facts and circumstances do raise an inference that the juror was excluded on the basis of race. Therefore, the burden shifted to the State to offer a race-neutral explanation for peremptorily challenging this prospective juror. The State explained that the juror had previously served on a criminal panel and voted to acquit and that the juror spends her spare time watching soap operas. These explanations are facially race-neutral as required by Hernandez, 500 U.S. at 360, 111 S.Ct. at 1866-67. Thus, the trial court was required to determine whether the defendant proved that the State committed purposeful discrimination in the process of jury selection. The trial court accepted the State's explanations as race-neutral and overruled defendant's objection. We conclude that the trial court's finding is not clearly erroneous.

II. Motion for Mistrial

Defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in denying defendant's motion for mistrial based on defendant's claim that one of the State's witnesses worked at the same university as a juror.

Juror bias may be actual or implied, based upon a finding that a certain relationship exists. Threats v. State, 582 N.E.2d 396, 398 (Ind.Ct.App.1991). The trial court must weigh the nature and extent of the relationship versus the ability of the juror to remain impartial. Id.

In Threats, the juror disclosed to the trial court that he knew defendant and his wife, who was a witness. The juror indicated that the relationship with defendant's wife was casual and he assured the trial court that he could remain impartial. The juror was subsequently dismissed for failing to disclose that he knew defendant's wife at the earliest possible time. However, the appellate court suggested that the juror could have remained impaneled under the circumstances if the juror had disclosed this information earlier. Threats, 582 N.E.2d at 399.

In a similar case, this Court upheld a trial court's decision to deny defendant's motion for mistrial after the trial court learned that a juror and a State's witness were employed at the same location, had casual contact because of their employment, but had no discussions concerning the trial. Creek v. State, 523 N.E.2d 425, 427 (Ind.1988). These two cases establish that timely disclosure of a juror's casual relationship with a witness or a party, coupled with an assertion that the juror will remain impartial, adequately protect a defendant's right to an impartial jury.

Defendant cites to Haak v. State, 275 Ind. 415, 417 N.E.2d 321 (1981) and Mooberry v. State, 157 Ind.App. 354, 300 N.E.2d 125 (1973) as dispositive. In Haak, the trial court discovered that a jury member's spouse had accepted a position as a deputy prosecutor in the same county where the case was being tried. Haak, 275 Ind. at 424-25, 417 N.E.2d at 325. In Mooberry, the trial court declared a mistrial after learning that two jury members were acquainted...

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  • Addison v. State , 49S05–1105–CR–267.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Indiana
    • February 22, 2012
    ...that the juror was excluded on the basis of race.’ ” McCormick v. State, 803 N.E.2d 1108, 1111 (Ind.2004) (quoting McCants v. State, 686 N.E.2d 1281, 1284 (Ind.1997)). See also Johnson, 545 U.S. at 173, 125 S.Ct. 2410 (finding that striking all three African Americans in the venire was suff......
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    • September 15, 2005
    ...have served on the petit jury" does "raise an inference that the juror was excluded on the basis of race." Id. (quoting McCants v. State, 686 N.E.2d 1281, 1284 (Ind.1997)); see also Ashabraner v. Bowers, 753 N.E.2d 662, 667 (Ind.2001) (noting that the preemptory removal of the "only black m......
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    ...a member of a cognizable racial group and present an inference that the juror was excluded because of his or her race. McCants v. State, 686 N.E.2d 1281, 1284 (Ind.1997). Juror 92 was the only African American in the venire for Highler's trial. The removal of some African American jurors by......
  • Ashabraner v. Bowers, 49S02-0010-CV-00603.
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    • August 30, 2001
    ...the explanation, on its face, is based on something other than race, the explanation will be deemed race neutral." McCants v. State, 686 N.E.2d 1281, 1284 (Ind.1997).3 Our experience is that the typical Batson claim turns on the sufficiency of a proffered race neutral explanation for exclus......
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