Riggs v. State
| Decision Date | 03 March 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 774S138,774S138 |
| Parties | Michael Terry RIGGS, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Robert R. Riggle, Jeffersonville, for appellant.
Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., James N. Shumacker, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
The Appellant, Michael Terry Riggs, was convicted on January 28, 1974, of the first degree murder of one Larry Gillespie. Sentenced to life imprisonment on February 14, 1974, the Appellant filed a Motion to Correct Errors with the trial court on April 3, 1974. It is from the overruling of this motion on April 29, 1974, that the Appellant now presents this appeal.
The evidence at trial revealed that the body of the victim was discovered by an officer of the Indiana State Police on April 3, 1973. The officer had been directed to the Clark County mobile home of the victim to investigate a shooting and soon called for investigative assistance. Photographs of the scene were taken, physical evidence was seized, and a plaster imprint of a footprint found at the scene was cast. This imprint was found to match that of a boot found in a later search of the Appellant's hotel room.
That same day a Sharon Lay telephoned police authorities and reported that the Appellant had called her and had admitted killing Gillespie. Police proceeded to Lay's home for further information. It was learned that the Appellant had repeatedly threatened to kill the deceased because he had been seeing a Sharon Fleming. The Appellant had married Fleming only to have her leave him when she discovered he was already married. Lay also informed police that she believed the Appellant could be found in Louisville, Kentucky. Officers then placed a call to authorities in that city.
The Louisville police were thus informed that the Appellant was a murder suspect when they received a phone call from him during the late morning hours of April 3. The Appellant had been serving as an informant for Louisville authorities following his arrest on a number of armed robbery charges. The Appellant spoke to a Detective Dobbs and said he was coming to see him.
When the Appellant arrived to see Detective Dobbs, four other police officers were also there to receive him--Captain Hogan and Policewoman Green of the Louisville police, Sergeant Technician Mead and Detective Sergeant Hays of the Indiana State Police. Hays brought a warrant for the Appellant's arrest. The Appellant was advised of his rights and signed forms waiving extradition and consenting to a search of his truck.
The Appellant was taken to the office of the prosecutor in Jeffersonville, Indiana, shortly after his waiver of extradition. Before departing for Indiana, the Appellant confessed to police that he had killed Gillespie. He repeated this confession to the prosecutor in Jeffersonville. The Appellant challenges the admissibility of these statements in this appeal. Corroborating them was the testimony of Sharon Lay's son, Carl D. Ferguson, to the effect that he had on April 2 observed a shotgun in the Appellant's truck. He was grabbed by the Appellant and told that if he told anyone about the shotgun the Appellant would kill him and his family.
The Appellant's first contention of error is that the evidence at trial was insufficient to warrant a finding by the jury that the Appellant was sane on the date of the alleged offense. The Appellant entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and the burden of proving sanity beyond a reasonable doubt accordingly was placed on the state. Johnson v. State, (1970) 255 Ind. 324, 264 N.E.2d 57. Our standard of review on whether this burden is met is well-settled:
Blake v. State, (1975) Ind., 323 N.E.2d 227.
The evidence here is sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict. Lay testimony established that the Appellant was 'cool' and 'calm' in his recitation of the details of the crime on April 3, 1973, the day of the crime. Police officers testified that the Appellant conducted himself on April 3, 1973, as would a normal man. Testimony regarding the Appellant's previous threats against the deceased revealed that the Appellant had said he would 'get off' by pleading temporary insanity.
Four physicians were called by the trial court to testify regarding the Appellant's sanity. One physician would not speculate about the day of the crime, though he was of the opinion that the Appellant was sane on the day of his examination. The other three physicians were all of the opinion that the Appellant was not legally insane on or about the day of the crime. Only the psychiatrist called by the Appellant to testify was of the opinion that the Appellant was legally insane on the day of the crime.
The Appellant correctly points out that expert testimony is not conclusive upon the issue of a criminal defendant's sanity. Fitch v. State, (1974) Ind.App., 313 N.E.2d 548 and cases cited therein. The Appellant combines this with the fact that the prosecution presented no expert witnesses testifying that the Appellant was not legally insane to somehow conclude that the evidence of sanity was not sufficient. This argument is without merit.
' The jury had the right to accept any one of the statements of the psychiatrists or any part of them, or to reject them all, where there was contradictory evidence, and to weigh all the facts in the case on the issue of sanity.' Johnson v. State, (1970) 255 Ind. 324 at 328, 264 N.E.2d 57 at 59. The state was under no duty to present its own expert witnesses. Indeed, lay testimony and experts called by the court made such a presentation unnecessary.
The Appellant's second contention is that the trial court erred in denying the Appellant's request to challenge a prospective juror peremptorily and in overruling the Appellant's challenge of that juror for cause. The Appellant's claim to a peremptory challenge here is based on Ind.Code § 35--1--30--2 (Burns 1975) which provides:
The trial court found that the Appellant had already exercised ten peremptory challenges when the juror in question was challenged. Because Furman v. Georgia, (1972) 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 and Adams v. State, (1972) 259 Ind. 164, 284 N.E.2d 757, had at the time eliminated the possibility of a death penalty for the Appellant, the trial court ruled that the Appellant was not entitled to the twenty peremptory challenges possible when a prosecution is for a capital offense. This conclusion was correct.
In Martin v. State, (1974) Ind., 314 N.E.2d 60, we reiterated the interpretation of 'capital offense' as referring to crimes where there is a possibility of the imposition of death as a punishment. We concluded that this interpretation and the Furman and Adams decisions had the following effect on a defendant's peremptory challenges:
The Appellant exercised all of his peremptory challenges and could challenge the prospective juror in question only for cause. He did so and was...
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