Rawley v. State, 53S00-9803-CR-153.
| Decision Date | 25 February 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 53S00-9803-CR-153.,53S00-9803-CR-153. |
| Citation | 724 N.E.2d 1087 |
| Parties | James R. RAWLEY, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Susan K. Carpenter, Public Defender of Indiana, J. Michael Sauer, Deputy Public Defender, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellant.
Jeffrey A. Modisett, Attorney General of Indiana, Arthur Thaddeus Perry, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellee.
James R. Rawley was convicted of the murders of Renee Rawley and Kristina Jenkins and was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment without parole to run consecutively. In this direct appeal Rawley contends that the trial court erred by: (1) admitting statements he gave to police while in custody and (2) failing to comply with statutory and decisional law requirements in imposing his sentences of life without parole. We affirm the convictions, but remand for a new sentencing order.
On August 23, 1996, police found two dead bodies in a trailer owned by Renee Rawley. Both were severely decomposed and could not be identified by sight, but police inferred that they were the bodies of the residents of the trailer, Renee and her daughter Kristina Jenkins. Both had been shot in the head with a .22 caliber gun and police found .22 caliber casings and a flattened bullet in the trailer. Several items were missing, including two televisions, a computer, a game system, a cordless telephone, and Renee's van.
James Rawley, Renee's ex-husband, had reportedly threatened her, and the investigation soon focused on him. At the time, Rawley was living in Kentucky with Linda Carter. Police interviewed Carter and learned that Rawley had returned from Indiana on August 19 in Renee's van with a cordless telephone of Renee's and had sold the van a few days later. Further investigation revealed that Rawley had been in Indiana at the time of the murders and had pawned a game system, two televisions, and a computer in Madison, Indiana. A Browning .22 caliber gun had been stolen from Carter's neighbors and on August 20, Rawley had attempted to sell a .22 caliber gun to an acquaintance.
Rawley called Carter several times during the course of the investigation. After one of these calls Carter led police to an arranged rendezvous near Carter's home in Carroll County, Kentucky. Rawley was arrested at approximately 7:00 p.m. on August 25. Detective Swain of the Monroe County Indiana Sheriff's Department interviewed him in the Carroll County jail until 11:00 p.m. when Rawley requested an attorney and the interview was stopped. For two days Rawley was held in an isolation cell in Carroll County. On August 27, he was allowed to call either Carter or Sheriff Maiden of Carroll County. Rawley called Carter. Carter was upset by the murders and told Rawley that the police were threatening to arrest her. Rawley told Carter he would talk to Sheriff Maiden if Carter would be permitted to see him. Carter then called Maiden and reported that Rawley had called her and wanted to talk to him. After Rawley was again advised of his Miranda rights and signed a waiver, he spoke at length with Maiden until again invoking his right to counsel.1
In this statement, Rawley told Maiden that he had been in Indiana with Renee the weekend before she was killed. He claimed that they had spent Friday and Saturday together and that Renee had given him her van if he would make the payments on it. He also told Maiden that he had a .22 caliber gun and had thrown it in the river when he learned that police were looking for him in connection with Renee's murder. Finally, Rawley said he did not know who had killed Renee and Jenkins.
Later that same day, Rawley phoned Carter. Sheriff Maiden was at the time conducting a search on Carter's property for a gun. Rawley ended up speaking to Maiden and told Maiden that he had thrown a gun into a pond on Carter's property. A gun recovered from the pond proved to be the one stolen from Carter's neighbor and was conclusively determined to be the murder weapon. Rawley was convicted in a jury trial of two counts of murder. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Rawley to two terms of life imprisonment without parole.
Rawley contends that the trial court erroneously admitted his statements to Sheriff Maiden because his interrogation continued after he requested an attorney and also because his waiver of rights was the result of "psychological coercion" by the police. More specifically, Rawley argues that because he was held incommunicado for forty-eight hours and then allowed to call only the Sheriff or Carter, who he contends was actively cooperating with the police, the police initiated contact with Rawley and "effectively resumed interrogation" in violation of Rawley's Miranda rights. Rawley also contends that the waiver of rights he signed before his communication with Maiden was not knowing, intelligent, and voluntary because of police pressure on Carter and his incommunicado detention. The State replies that the statement was properly admitted because Rawley initiated the conversation with the police after asserting his right to counsel and there were no threats or promises made to obtain his waiver of rights or his statement. The State also argues that Carter was not Rawley's spouse or even his girlfriend, and therefore any threats against her would not rise to the same level of coercion as threats against a spouse. Moreover, holding a suspect incommunicado for forty-eight hours is claimed to be justified, indeed routine, in Carroll County where courts do not sit every day.
Carter's relationship to the police is controverted. Carter testified that there was none and that she contacted Sheriff Maiden at Rawley's request and was motivated to act only "because I wanted to know ... if he would tell me anything, I guess I was curious...." Rawley's version of these events is slightly different. He claims that when he called Carter, she was upset and crying and told him that the police were threatening to arrest her. Rawley further claims that it was Carter's idea, not his, that he talk to the Sheriff. Although the State may have plausible support for its position as to what seems at least an unusual series of events, w...
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