Rouster v. State
| Decision Date | 16 October 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 45S00-8710-CR-914,45S00-8710-CR-914 |
| Parties | Gregory ROUSTER and Darnell Williams, Appellants (Defendants Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Scott L. King, Daniel L. Bella, Nathanial Ruff, Appellate Public Defenders, Crown Point, for appellants.
Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Arthur Thaddeus Perry, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
John and Henrietta Rease were foster parents in Gary, Indiana. They were an older couple, John seventy-four and Henrietta fifty-nine. They ran a small candy store out of the first floor of their home at 2430 Jennings Street, selling chewing gum, cigarettes and other sundries. For a welfare allowance of $160 a month per child, they undertook the responsibility of clothing, feeding and caring for fortuneless children, some of whom had proven incorrigible in their previous surroundings. One such youth was Gregory Rouster, who came from an institution for boys to live with the Reases late in 1985 when he was seventeen.
On the evening of August 12, 1986, John and Henrietta Rease were robbed and shot to death in their home. Police arrested Gregory Rouster and Darnell Williams for the crime, and a jury found them both guilty on two counts of felony murder. Ind.Code Sec. 35-42-1-1(2) (West 1986). Both were sentenced to death. Ind.Code Sec. 35-50-2-9 (West 1986).
Rouster and Williams allege several errors in this direct appeal. Both claim the trial court erred by not holding separate trials for each defendant. Both claim the death sentence is inappropriate. Rouster claims the court abused its discretion by allowing rebuttal argument by Williams' counsel during the guilt and penalty phases of the trial. Rouster also challenges the constitutionality of Ind.Code Sec. 35-50-2-9, alleging that it fails to define the term "recommendation" and that the jury was not instructed about the import of its recommendation on the sentence to be imposed. Williams claims his due process rights were violated when the State introduced evidence on a prior uncharged robbery during the penalty phase of the trial.
We affirm.
Jack Baumer, a Lake County welfare department caseworker, testified that he had placed Rouster in the Rease household in November or December 1985. Rouster lived with the Reases until his eighteenth birthday in February 1986. Shortly before 5 p.m. on the day of the murders, Baumer by chance encountered Rouster at a Gary drug store. After recognizing each other, the two had a brief conversation. Rouster asked Baumer about foster home payment procedures. He specifically asked whether the Reases received a clothing allowance on his behalf. Baumer said they did. Rouster declared that the Reases owed him money and that he was going to get it. Baumer testified at trial that a clothing allowance of five or six dollars was included in the $160 monthly payment the Reases received from the welfare department for Rouster's care.
Later that evening, about four hours after the encounter at the drug store, Rouster and Williams, and their girlfriends--Teresa Newsome and Kim Toney--rode a city bus to the neighborhood where the Reases resided. Rouster was wearing a white shirt and printed shorts. Williams wore a blue T-shirt. Newsome was dressed all in white.
Several neighborhood teenagers testified that they saw Rouster and Williams enter the Rease home, and that they heard shots. One of the youths, Eugene Powell, testified that after hearing the shots, he saw Rouster talking to Newsome outside the Rease home. Powell said he heard Rouster tell Newsome, "I killed the motherf---s," and ask Newsome if she "still loved him." Powell further testified that he saw Rouster's "friend" on the ground in front of the house, flicking a cigarette lighter for illumination as he searched for something in the grass. This testimony was corroborated by three other youths, including Jamal Pope, who identified defendant Williams as the man with the lighter, and Jimmy Gray, who heard Williams say "my shells," as he searched the front yard. Pope also testified that Rouster was outside the house talking to Newsome when the last shot was fired.
Gloria Williams, who lived next door to the Reases, heard gunshots and screams coming from the Rease home. She heard someone yell, From her second-floor window, Gloria Williams could see into the Rease bedroom. Before someone inside the Rease home pulled down the shade, she was able to see objects being tossed about the room. She called police. Looking out the window a short time later, she saw a young man outside the house say to a girl dressed in white, "You don't love me now."
A neighbor from across the street, Lelia Gray, testified that after hearing noises and cursing coming from the Rease house, she looked out her door and saw two boys wrestling. One was yelling that he "wanted his share." A girl in white wanted busfare to leave. Mrs. Gray then saw the two males go into the house. The one in the white shirt had a gun in his back pocket, she said. She heard gunfire and saw the lights go out in the Rease home. She saw flashes from inside the home. Then the boy in the white shirt came out and told the girl in white that he "killed the motherf---s ." Mrs. Gray saw the police arrive, and saw them temporarily diverted to a house down the street after a brief conversation with the girl in white.
The police officer so diverted was Rita Dorsey. Dorsey testified that she had been dispatched to the area on a report of shots fired. Upon her arrival, Dorsey asked Newsome where the trouble was. Newsome pointed down the street. As Dorsey continued around the block, she was flagged down by another youth, Derrick Bryant, who told her of the shootings at 2430 Jennings Street. Dorsey went to the house and discovered the bodies of John and Henrietta Rease. Several rooms had been ransacked.
Rouster and Williams were each apprehended a short time later: Rouster on a Gary city bus, Williams in a foot chase with police that included a dash across a busy interstate highway.
Back at the Rease home, police found a .32 caliber handgun in the backyard and a .22 caliber handgun in the house. There were several rounds of .30 caliber ammunition on the floor. Tests showed conclusively that the .32 was used to kill John Rease, who had been shot once near the shoulder. The same gun fired the bullet found in Henrietta's back. Henrietta was also shot twice in the head at point blank range with a .22. Tests showed that the .22 found at the scene could have fired one of the bullets found in Henrietta's brain. The other bullet was too mutilated to provide any clues. The .30 caliber ammunition found spilled at the scene was the same brand found on Williams when he was apprehended. Williams was also found in possession of a pouch containing wristwatches and $232 in cash.
Several packs of cigarettes were found in the Reases' driveway. Fingerprints lifted from two of the packs matched Rouster's. Rouster's white shirt was stained with blood consistent with that of John Rease. The blood on Williams' blue shirt was consistent with that of both victims.
At trial, following the introduction of this physical evidence, the State presented its twenty-ninth and penultimate witness, seventeen year old Derrick Bryant, another foster child of the Reases, who was hiding in the house when the murders occurred. He testified that on the night of the murders, he was in the living room with the Reases at about 9 p.m. He looked out the window and saw Rouster, Williams, Newsome and Toney walking down the street toward the home. The four entered the Rease home and sat down in the living room. Rouster and Henrietta Rease went into a back room. Bryant heard Rouster say to Henrietta that Jack said he was supposed to get some money.
After an angry exchange with Williams, Bryant left the living room and went to a back room of the house. From there he could hear Henrietta asking everyone to leave. He heard Williams tell Rouster, "she's gyping you out of your money." Bryant was able to hear a conversation outside between Williams, Rouster, and another teen named Edwin Taylor. Taylor said "you all have guns ... go take the money." Taylor told Williams and Rouster that the Reases had money on the dresser in their bedroom. Rouster said "let's go rob them." By now, Bryant was hiding upstairs. He tried running downstairs to warn the Reases, but before he could do so, he saw Rouster coming through the front door, so he hid behind a stairway in the back of the house. Bryant heard Williams tell Henrietta to get on the floor. He heard Henrietta plead with Williams not to hit Mr. Rease because he had a bad heart. Williams replied, "his heart is stronger than mine." Bryant heard Rouster demand to be told "where's the money at?" He heard Rouster tell Williams to "bring both of them back here." Then he heard a noise that he said sounded like someone falling into a wall. He heard Williams say, "it's your time." He heard Rouster say something like "waste them."
Mrs. Rease said, "Greg, why are you doing this." Rouster said, "my name ain't Greg." Bryant heard two shots before he ran out the back door. It was Bryant who eventually flagged down officer Dorsey. On the witness stand, Bryant identified one of the watches found in Williams' pouch as belonging to Henrietta. He said he had given it to his foster mother as a gift.
Rouster and Williams allege error in the trial court's failure to try them separately. The governing statute, Ind.Code Sec. 35-34-1-11(b) (West 1986) provides that:
Whenever two (2) or more defendants have been joined for trial in the same indictment or information and one (1) or more defendants move for a separate trial because another defendant has made an out-of-court statement which makes reference to the moving defendant but is not admissible as...
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