Riffe v. State, 1182

• Decision Date: 22 June 1984
• Docket Number: No. 1182,1182
• Citation: 464 N.E.2d 333
• Parties: Jackie RIFFE, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee. S 422.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 333

464 N.E.2d 333

Jackie RIFFE, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.

No. 1182 S 422.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

June 22, 1984.

William P. Hufford, Columbia City, for appellant.

Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Louis E. Ransdell, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.

DeBRULER, Justice.

Defendant-appellant, Jackie Riffe, was convicted by a jury of robbery, battery, criminal deviate conduct, and rape. A consecutive sentence order established appellant's total imprisonment at sixty years. On appeal claims are made that the evidence was insufficient to convict.

The gravaman of the offenses was that after meeting and drinking in a bar, appellant and the alleged victim, Debora Jean, bought some beer and drove together to a secluded area, where he beat her with his fists, stole approximately $140 from her purse, burned her breast with his cigarette, forced a tire iron or other metal object into her vagina and struck her repeatedly with it, forced his penis into her vagina and anus, and abandoned her, nude and beaten in a cornfield. Appellant contends that the evidence serving to prove the burning, penetration, and taking of property was wholly insufficient to support the jury verdicts. In determining this question we do not weigh the evidence nor resolve questions of credibility but look to the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom which support the verdict. Smith v. State, (1970) 254 Ind. 401, 260 N.E.2d 558. The conviction will be affirmed if from that viewpoint there is evidence of probative value from which a reasonable trier of fact could infer that appellant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Glover v. State, (1970) 253 Ind. 536, 255 N.E.2d 657.

Indiana law defines battery at Ind.Code Sec. 35-42-2-1 as a rude, insolent, or angry touching of another person, and requires that it be a class A misdemeanor if it results in bodily injury. Bodily injury includes "any impairment of physical condition, including physical pain." Ind.Code Sec. 35-41-1-2. Physical pain resulting from repeated slapping and pushing is sufficient to establish bodily injury. Lewis v. State, (1982) Ind., 438 N.E.2d 289. The alleged victim testified that after appellant forced her to undress, he burned her twice in the same spot on her left breast with his lighted cigarette. It hurt her and when she tried to fend him off, he struck her again in the face. State's Exhibit 10, duly admitted in evidence, is a photo of her left breast, several days after the alleged attack, and shows several small, round, reddish wounds. Appellant argues that this evidence is insufficient because the victim did not mention the burning incident to the physicians who examined her after the attack, and the physicians themselves did not note any burn marks in their examinations of her.

The alleged victim suffered multiple bruises and contusions to her face, back and legs, and therefore the breast injuries were but a few among many on the body. Under such extreme circumstances it would not have been greatly unreasonable or contrary to human experience to have overlooked or to have ignored them. The uncertainties in testimony from sources such as this are for the trier of fact to weigh. Miller v. State, (1977) 266 Ind. 461, 364 N.E.2d 129. The victim's testimony from the record is sufficient on the point on appeal.

Indiana law defines rape at Ind.Code Sec. 35-42-4-1 as intentional and forcible sexual intercourse with a member of the opposite sex. The alleged victim testified that appellant hit her repeatedly with a tire iron or other metal object, threatened to kill her, and ordered her to lie flat on her back. He then put his penis into her vagina, and that process caused her pain. Appellant argues that the evidence is insufficient because an examination following the alleged attack produced no evidence of sperm or foreign pubic hairs about the victim's genital area, and because immediately after the offense the victim twice answered the direct inquiry of Deputy Sheriff James Horne whether she had been raped, in the negative. These items of evidence tend to undermine the...