Moore v. State
| Decision Date | 23 May 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 49A02-0405-CR-436.,49A02-0405-CR-436. |
| Citation | 827 N.E.2d 631 |
| Parties | Paul A. MOORE, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Hilary Bowe Ricks, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.
Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, George P. Sherman, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.
Paul A. Moore appeals his convictions and sentence for two counts of murder, two counts of class B felony criminal confinement, and one count of class B felony arson. We affirm.
We restate Moore's three issues as follows:
The facts most favorable to the convictions indicate that Moore's mother purchased a .45-caliber Ruger handgun in 2001 and kept it at Moore's home in the 4300 block of East 39th Street in Indianapolis. On the afternoon of January 25, 2002, Indianapolis Police Department Sergeant David Wisneski responded to a report of a burglary in progress at the home of Linda Jordan. Sergeant Wisneski heard the yelling of gang names and saw an unidentified person push Linda aside and forcibly enter her home. Yonic Jordan then forcibly removed someone from the home. After the situation calmed down, Sergeant Wisneski learned that Derrick Dempsey had lost a fight with Yonic and had driven to the Jordan residence with Moore and a third person "to seek revenge." Tr. at 593. Sergeant Wisneski asked Dempsey if he could "look inside" his car, which was parked in the driveway with the engine running. Id. at 579. Dempsey consented.
In the trunk, Sergeant Wisneski found an assault rifle and a shotgun. A records check indicated that Moore had reported these firearms stolen. Under the front passenger seat, Sergeant Wisneski found a "chrome and black" .45-caliber Ruger handgun, which had not been reported stolen. Id. at 583. Moore stated that he owned the handgun and produced a valid handgun permit. Sergeant Wisneski made no arrests but confiscated the firearms "because things were in a very, very dangerous state at that time[.]" Id. at 594. Sergeant Wisneski sent the firearms to the police property room. On January 28, 2002, as part of his duties in operating the Integrated Ballistic Identification System ("IBIS"), firearms technician John Brooks test-fired the confiscated handgun and entered the relevant ballistics information into the IBIS computer.1 In April 2002, Moore's mother retrieved the handgun from the property room and gave it to Moore.
Late one night in June 2003, Moore telephoned Eric Bettis, the uncle of his friend Curtis Ward, and asked for a ride. Eric complied, and Moore gave him $30. The next morning, Moore informed Eric that he had left his gun in the car. Eric's wife, Theresa, stopped by Moore's residence to give him the gun, but he was not at home. Theresa gave the gun to Eric's brother, Herman Bettis, because she did not want to keep it in her car. Herman informed Moore that he had the "[b]lack and silver" .45-caliber handgun, and Moore told him to "hang on to it[.]" Id. at 705, 706. Herman kept the handgun in his restaurant.
On the evening of Friday, July 18, 2003, Adrian Beverly was riding around with Brandie Coleman and Gregory Johnson, who was dressed as a female and went by the name of Nireah. The trio saw Moore and Ward riding in Moore's car and asked them to pull into a gas station parking lot. Johnson and Moore exited their vehicles, talked briefly, and exchanged phone numbers. Johnson hugged Moore and kissed him on the cheek. Id. at 798. Moore was attracted to Johnson. Id. at 799. Coleman and Ward also exchanged phone numbers. On July 21, 2003, Herman Bettis delivered the handgun to Moore at his home. At 12:51 a.m. on July 23, 2003, Coleman called Moore's home phone to speak with Ward. Coleman and Johnson then drove to Moore's home in Coleman's mother's Jeep Grand Cherokee. Coleman, Johnson, Ward, and Moore chatted briefly outside and entered Moore's home. Ward and Coleman went into Ward's room, and Moore and Johnson went into Moore's room.
Later, Moore entered Ward's room with a "[b]lack and gray" Ruger .45-caliber handgun and said, "Man, I need to holler at you." Id. at 456, 454. The two men went into the kitchen, and Moore asked Ward whether he knew "if Nireah is a man or a female." Id. at 455. Ward told the "[d]isturbed" and "upset" Moore that Nireah looked like a woman to him. Id. Moore and Ward went into the living room, where Moore "interrogat[ed]" Johnson and Coleman regarding whether Johnson was male or female. Id. at 456. After approximately forty minutes of questioning, Johnson had to use the restroom. Moore followed him there and exclaimed in a "stunned, startled" voice, "Man, this is a boy." Id. at 457. Moore became "real irate" and talked about feeling "like his manhood's been violated[.]" Id. Moore stated that Johnson "was kissing on him." Id. at 457. Moore stated that he should "[w]hip [their] ass" or "possibly kill them[.]" Id. at 458. Moore asked Johnson, "What did you think, I was a faggot?" Id.
Moore asked Ward to get some wire, which they used to bind Coleman's and Johnson's hands behind their backs. Johnson sobbed that he "didn't mean nothing" and would "never do nothing like that again" and "turn straight." Id. at 459. Moore put Coleman and Johnson in the backseat of the Jeep and told Ward to follow him in Ward's car. Moore drove the Jeep from East 39th Street to a small park on Fall Creek Parkway North Drive, where he drove over a curb, around a locked gate, and into a wooded cul-de-sac. Ward drove past the gate, made a U-turn, and returned to see Moore walking up the road. Moore entered Ward's car, took the handgun out of his pocket, dismantled it, and threw the pieces out the window. Moore said, "Man, I had to do it." Id. at 463. Moore told Ward that he had to "calm [Coleman] down" after he shot Johnson. Id. at 464. The pair went back to Moore's home, returned a roto-rooter to a rental store, and went their separate ways.
That afternoon, Moore called Ward and stated that "he might have to go back and burn the truck up." Id. at 467. Ward later spoke with Moore's brother, Clarence McGee, who had seen the bodies in the Jeep. McGee asked Ward to pick him up at Moore's home so that "they could go burn the Jeep up." Id. at 468. Ward arrived at Moore's home after dark. Moore told Ward that the Jeep had to be burned to "cover his tracks." Id. at 469. McGee asked Ward to get a gas can, and the two men drove back to the Jeep. Ward let McGee out of the car near the Jeep, made a U-turn, and retrieved McGee, who smelled of gasoline and said that he had almost burnt himself. Ward saw that the Jeep was in flames. Upon their return, Moore described how Johnson "flopped back in the seat" when he was shot. Id. at 472. Moore told Ward that he was like a brother and that "if anything goes down that [they] wouldn't have anything to worry about." Id. at 472-73.
Just after 9:00 p.m., firefighters were dispatched to the burning Jeep and extinguished the flames. Inside, they discovered the charred bodies of Johnson and Coleman, both of whom had been fatally shot in the forehead before the fire started. Coleman's larynx and chest had suffered blunt force trauma. The .45-caliber bullets recovered from the victims' skulls matched the January 2002 ballistics test of Moore's handgun. Investigators determined that gasoline had been poured in the backseat of the Jeep and ignited. On July 29, 2003, Adrian Beverly identified Ward as the passenger in the car that she had seen in the gas station parking lot on July 18 while riding with Coleman and Johnson. Ward initially denied any involvement in the crimes but eventually implicated Moore.2
On August 5, 2003, the State charged Moore with two counts of murder, two counts of class B felony criminal confinement, and one count of class B felony arson. Moore and McGee were tried together in April 2004.3 On April 8, 2004, the jury found Moore guilty as charged. On May 5, 2004, the trial court imposed an aggregate sentence of 120 years. Moore now appeals.
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