Sanchez v. State
| Decision Date | 05 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 92A03-9908-CR-322.,92A03-9908-CR-322. |
| Citation | 732 N.E.2d 165 |
| Parties | Guadalupe A. SANCHEZ, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Susan K. Carpenter, Public Defender of Indiana, Gregory L. Lewis, Deputy Public Defender, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellant.
Jeffrey A. Modisett, Attorney General of Indiana, Barbara Gasper Hines, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellee.
Appellant, Guadalupe A. Sanchez, appeals his convictions for Rape,1 a Class A felony, and Confinement,2 a Class B felony. Specifically, he contends that the trial court instruction, informing the jury that it could not consider evidence of his voluntary intoxication, violates the Due Course of Law provision of the Indiana Constitution. In 1996, the United States Supreme Court held that states could prevent defendants from presenting evidence of voluntary intoxication to show that they did not have the requisite intent to commit the charged offense. Sanchez acknowledges this holding but argues that the right is preserved under the Indiana Constitution and in particular, the Due Course of Law provision. Our review of the history at the time of the 1851 convention does not reveal that the drafters intended to guarantee a defendant the right to present evidence of intoxication under the Indiana Constitution. Additionally, subsequent case law, analyzing claims under the Due Course of Law provision, have utilized federal due process analysis. Therefore, we disagree that Sanchez is entitled to present evidence of intoxication under the Due Course of Law provision. Moreover, we conclude that even if our constitution does preserve such a right, because Sanchez was not entitled to an instruction on voluntary intoxication, no error can arise from the instruction given. We affirm.
On July 6, 1998, seventeen-year-old H.S. went to the birthday party of Caesar Montezuma at a trailer situated on a horse farm. Sanchez was a guest at the party that began around 9:30 p.m. During the evening, Sanchez drank alcoholic beverages. After a while, the guests, including Sanchez, began dancing. While dancing with some of the female guests, Sanchez began touching their buttocks and between their legs. As a result, Montezuma's girlfriend, Jessica Alvarez, asked Sanchez to leave the party.
Around 11:30 p.m., most of the guests left the party. H.S. remained behind with two of her friends. Shortly thereafter, Sanchez returned and knocked on the door of the trailer. Montezuma opened the door and saw Sanchez carrying a 25 caliber semi-automatic handgun. Although H.S., Jessica and another girl attempted to flee, they were summoned back to the trailer. Sanchez then questioned them concerning the whereabouts of another girl who had been at the party. Although they informed Sanchez she was not there, he continued to ask about her. Sanchez then instructed them to bring him all of the telephones in the trailer. Jessica complied with this instruction. Shortly thereafter, Sanchez became convinced that the young woman he was looking for was not at the trailer. Consequently, he grabbed H.S. and forced her at gunpoint to leave with him. He then informed the others that if they moved, he would kill them.
Sanchez led H.S. to a cornfield where he ordered her at gunpoint to take off her clothes. The defendant then took off his clothes, except for his pants which were at his ankles. Still holding the gun, Sanchez ordered H.S. to lie on the ground where he forced her to engage in sexual intercourse. Sanchez then performed oral sex on H.S. and kissed her. In disgust, H.S. spit which made Sanchez angry. He told her that if she spit again, he would kill her. Sanchez then lay on top of H.S. and began to have sexual intercourse with her again. Before he was finished, he instructed H.S. to get on her hands and knees and penetrated her from behind. Sanchez then ordered H.S. to straddle him and forced her to engage in sexual intercourse again.
Following the series of rapes, Sanchez allowed H.S. to get dressed. Once H.S. dressed and stood up, Sanchez began kissing her again. He then ordered her to lie on the ground, took off her clothes and engaged her in sexual intercourse again. Sanchez placed his penis in H.S.'s face and taunted her by asking, "You want, you want?" Record at 382.
At that point, H.S., believing that the police would be looking for them, suggested that Sanchez take her to his house. Sanchez agreed and led H.S. by foot to his home which was about three and half miles away. They followed a road for most of the way. Whenever a car approached, Sanchez would hide H.S. in the bushes or ditch. At one point, when they were close to Sanchez's house, H.S. attempted to escape by suggesting that they take different routes to the house. Sanchez refused.
Eventually they entered Sanchez's house. Sanchez took H.S. to the basement. Because H.S. was cold, she asked Sanchez for a blanket. While Sanchez was upstairs retrieving the blanket, H.S. heard him say to another occupant of the house, "I have a b—ch downstairs, Don't mess with us." Record at 390. When Sanchez returned with the blanket he again forced H.S. to engage in sexual intercourse. At one point during the night, both Sanchez and H.S. saw flashing lights and believed that the police had arrived. When this occurred, Sanchez responded, "Oh—it, [t]he f—ing cops," and instructed H.S. to tell the police that she was his girlfriend. Record at 392. Shortly thereafter, Sanchez and H.S. fell asleep.
During the early morning hours, the police arrived and found Sanchez and H.S. asleep in the bed. The gun, which Sanchez had been carrying, was positioned on the bed near Sanchez's right hand. Sanchez's other hand was positioned under H.S.'s head and neck. Sanchez was placed under arrest and charged with rape and confinement.
A jury trial commenced on June 15, 1999. During the trial, the jury was instructed, over Sanchez's objection, that voluntary intoxication was not a defense to the charged offenses. The jury was further instructed that it was not permitted to consider Sanchez's intoxication in determining whether he acted knowingly or intentionally. Thereafter, the jury found Sanchez guilty as charged.
Sanchez challenges the trial court's instruction which prohibited the jury from considering evidence of voluntary intoxication. That instruction provided as follows: Record at 766. According to Sanchez, the instruction improperly removed consideration of his voluntary intoxication from the jury in violation of the Due Course of Law provision of Article 1, Section 12 of the Indiana Constitution.
The instruction given by the trial court is based upon IND.CODE § 35-41-2-5, which went into effect in July 1997. That statute provides that "[i]ntoxication is not a defense in a prosecution for an offense and may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state that is an element of the offense unless the defendant meets the requirements of IC XX-XX-X-X." I.C. § 35-41-2-5. Those requirements include becoming intoxicated without the person's consent or not knowing that the substance might cause intoxication. I.C. § 35-41-3-5(1)(2). Sanchez does not suggest that either exception applies. Rather, he argues that our constitution, and in particular, the Due Course of Law provision, guarantees a defendant the right to present evidence of voluntary intoxication.
In support of his argument, Sanchez relies on our supreme court's decision in Terry v. State, 465 N.E.2d 1085 (Ind.1984). There, the court concluded that the legislature could not prohibit a defendant from offering evidence of voluntary intoxication in his defense. At issue was a prior version of I.C. § 35-41-3-5, which provided that voluntary intoxication was a defense only to the extent it negated an element of an offense "referred to by the phrase `with intent to' or `with an intention to.' " Id. at 1087. Relying primarily on Sills v. State, 463 N.E.2d 228 (Ind.1984) and incorporating the rationale of that opinion, our supreme court concluded that the statute violated both the state and federal constitutions because it prevented the jury from considering a factor which tended to show whether the defendant possessed the requisite mens rea. Id. at 1088. The court explained its decision as follows:
In order to form intent in any event the perpetrator must be acting consciously and competently. Any situation which renders the perpetrator incapable of forming intent frees him from the responsibility of his acts. . . . [I]f intoxication, whether it be voluntary or involuntary, renders that individual so completely non compos mentis that he has no ability to form intent, then under our constitution and under the firmly established principles of the mens rea required in criminal law, he cannot be held accountable for his actions, no matter how grave or how inconsequential they may be.
Id. (quoting Sills, 463 N.E.2d at 242) (emphasis in original) (citations omitted). The court further explained:
Any factor which serves as a denial of the existence of mens rea must be considered by a trier of fact before a guilty finding is entered. Historically, facts such as age, mental condition, mistake or intoxication have been offered to negate the capacity to formulate intent. The attempt by the legislature to remove the factor of voluntary intoxication, except in limited situations, goes against this firmly ingrained principle.
Id. Finally, the court concluded by stating that "a defendant in Indiana can offer a defense of voluntary intoxication to any...
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Sanchez v. State
...of law claim under the Indiana Constitution, and therefore evaluated this issue under federal due process doctrine. Sanchez v. State, 732 N.E.2d 165, 173 (Ind.Ct. App.2000). The Court of Appeals found Montana v. Egelhoff, 518 U.S. 37, 116 S.Ct. 2013, 135 L.Ed.2d 361 (1996), dispositive. The......