Phillips v. State Of Ind., 49A02-1008-CR-907
| Decision Date | 23 March 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 49A02-1008-CR-907,49A02-1008-CR-907 |
| Parties | JAMES PHILLIPS, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Pursuant to Ind.Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited before any court except for the purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT:
JOHN PINNOW
GREGORY F. ZOELLER
Attorney General of Indiana
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
APPEAL FROM THE MARION SUPERIOR COURT
The Honorable Robert Altice, Judge
Following a jury trial, James Phillips was convicted of Murder, 1 a felony. Phillips waived his right to a trial by jury on a second charge of Possession of a Firearm by a Serious Violent Felon, 2 a class B felony, of which the trial court found Phillips guilty. The trial court subsequently sentenced Phillips to consecutive terms of fifty-five years and six years, respectively. On appeal, Phillips presents one issue for our review: Is the evidence sufficient to sustain his convictions?
We affirm.
On October 8, 2009, several neighbors living on Roy Road near Franklin Road, in Marion County, noticed two vehicles in the street, one parked behind the other. The vehicle in the front was a Ford F-150 pickup truck and the vehicle behind it was a blue SUV. The engines of both vehicles were running. The neighbors heard six or seven gunshots. After the gunshots rang out, some of the neighbors saw a thin black man wearing black clothing, including a hoodie, get out of the passenger side of the SUV and, in a "crouched position", run and get into the truck on the driver's side. Transcript at 119. The individual rapidly drove away heading west on Roy Road and then south on Franklin Road. One neighbor, Brian Harris, who is 6'4", described the individual as shorter than he and told the police the man looked like he was in his mid-twenties. Another neighbor, Darra Ferguson, told police that the individual was 5'9" to 5'10" tall, but noted that her perspective was skewed because the individual she saw was crouching down. A few minutes after the shots were heard andwhen no one got out of the SUV, Ferguson called 911.
At approximately 7:24 p.m., Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Brian Lambert responded to a dispatch of shots being fired in the area. Officer Lambert arrived within a minute of the dispatch and saw a dark-colored Chevy Tahoe SUV parked with its engine running, on the north side of the street. Detective Juan Hale and Lieutenant Belle McAtee also responded to the dispatch. As the officers approached the vehicle, they saw that the driver, later identified as Lawane Chaney, was slumped over and had gunshot wounds to his head. There was a white substance, later determined to be cocaine, and a cigarette lighter in Chaney's lap, and there was a substantial amount of blood, a cell phone, and shell casings on the floor board of the SUV. Chaney had a faint pulse and was transported to the hospital where he later died as a result of his injuries. The autopsy disclosed that Chaney suffered nine gunshot wounds, many of them to his head.
Hospital staff discovered that Chaney had a large amount of cash, $2859, in the pocket of his pants. After Chaney was removed from the SUV, police discovered a plastic glove that had fallen off of Chaney's lap and a box of plastic gloves in the back seat. The police also discovered a bag containing approximately four grams of cocaine, an amount more than what is considered normal for personal use. During their investigation, police officers spoke with several of Chaney's acquaintances and learned that some people had planned to rob Chaney and that "as much as $6,000 was owed to Lawane Chaney at the time that the [sic] died." Transcript at 407.
Phillips had purchased a Ford F-150 at Car Biz on August 31, 2009. During the purchase process, Phillips provided Car Biz with his cell phone number of 317-728-1114.On September 23, 2009, when Car Biz was unable to provide the title within twenty-one business days as specified by its own policy, Phillips signed a letter demanding that Car Biz provide him with either the title or a full refund within ten business days. Because Car Biz was unable to produce the title within the specified time period, Phillips returned the truck on October 10, 2009, two days after the shooting of Chaney. When the truck was cleaned and the bed of the truck was sprayed with a water hose, a shell casing to a bullet was discovered.
On October 12 and 14, 2009, police received anonymous phone calls directing the police to the possible location of the truck matching the description of the suspect truck seen leaving the scene of the shooting. Eventually, officers located the truck Phillips had returned to Car Biz. The police collected the shell casing found when the truck was cleaned by Car Biz. Ballistics testing revealed that the shell casing had been fired out of the same weapon as the casings found at the crime scene. The weapon that fired the shots was never recovered.
Further investigation revealed that several calls were exchanged between Phillips's cell phone (i.e., the same number Phillips provided to Car Biz) and Chaney's cell phone between 6:41 p.m. and 7:08 p.m. on October 8, 2009. The call originating from Phillips's cell phone at 7:04 p.m. was routed through a cellular telephone tower between Arlington and Shadeland Avenue close to 30th Street. A call originating from Chaney's cell phone at 7:08 p.m. was routed through a tower at 6455 East Street. Chaney did not make any further calls after this one on his cell phone. Phillips received a call at 7:18 p.m. that was routed through a tower at 16th Street and Post Road, which was in the vicinity of Roy Road where the shooting occurred. Police also learned that Phillips was still using the same cell phone on October 2, 5, and 6, 2009. When police spoke with Phillips's parents, they both indicatedthat they knew Chaney. Phillips was arrested in January 2010. A buccal swab was obtained from Phillips and testing determined that Phillips's DNA matched a partial DNA sample obtained from the exterior door handle of Chaney's SUV.
On January 5, 2010, the State charged Phillips with Count I, murder, and Count II, possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.3 A three-day jury trial commenced on July 12, 2010, and resulted in the jury finding Phillips guilty of murder. Phillips waived his right to trial by jury on Count II, and the court subsequently found him guilty of possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. The trial court sentenced Phillips to consecutive terms of fifty-five years for murder and six years for the firearm conviction, for a total aggregate sentence of sixty-one years. Phillips now appeals his convictions.
Phillips argues that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions for murder and possession of a...
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