Taylor v. State
| Decision Date | 21 December 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 70A01-9503-CR-86,70A01-9503-CR-86 |
| Parties | William Fred TAYLOR, Appellant-Defendant Below, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff Below. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
William Fred Taylor appeals his conviction of attempted escape, a class C felony for which he received an eight-year sentence. He presents several issues on appeal:
I. Did the trial court commit fundamental error by allowing the prosecution to introduce at trial Appellant's allegedly incriminating post-custodial statement, elicited by police without advising Appellant of his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights or obtaining a waiver of such rights, as proof of an essential element of the State's case?
II. Did the State fail to introduce substantial probative evidence of an essential element of the crime of attempted escape: that Appellant had the capacity to form, and actually formed, a specific intent to escape?
III. Did the trial court commit fundamental error in giving the jurors an instruction on the crime of attempted escape that did not require them to find that Appellant had intended to escape from lawful detention?
IV. Did the trial court err in refusing to give the jury Appellant's tendered instruction on lesser-included offenses?
V. Did the numerous prejudicial errors committed by Appellant's court-appointed counsel, including her failure to object to clearly inadmissible evidence, deprive Appellant of the effective assistance of counsel at trial?
VI. Was the trial court's imposition of an eight (8) year sentence on Appellant for his Attempted Escape conviction manifestly unreasonable and insufficiently based on balancing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances?
The evidence most favorable to the verdict reveals that police officers stopped a truck in which Taylor was a passenger and arrested him for public intoxication. An officer handcuffed Taylor's hands behind his back, placed him in the passenger seat of a patrol car, and buckled the seat belt around him. The officer told Taylor to stay in the car and went back to the truck. The officer heard a car door slam shut and saw Taylor run from the car. Taylor ran across the road and fell, face first, into a ditch. The officer helped retrieve Taylor from the ditch and again placed him in the passenger seat of the patrol car. The officer again buckled the seat belt around Taylor and told him to stay in the car. As he walked back to the truck, the officer observed Taylor unbuckle the seat belt. The officer returned to the patrol car and told Taylor to leave the seat belt buckled. The officer buckled the seat belt around Taylor again and closed passenger door.
Taylor first claims the trial court improperly admitted his post-custodial statement into evidence. As a police officer transported Taylor to jail, he twice asked Taylor why he had run. The officer testified that, after the second inquiry, Taylor stated that the officer would also have run if he were going to jail. Taylor contends that the statement is fruit of a custodial interrogation, obtained without the advisement of his rights, and that the trial court should have excluded it. Inasmuch as trial counsel did not object to the introduction of the statement, Taylor maintains that the erroneous admission constitutes fundamental error.
No objection was made to the admission of the testimony, and the error may not be assigned on appeal. Foster v. State (1985), Ind., 484 N.E.2d 965, 966 (). A defendant has the right to exclude such evidence but also has a right to forego that right. Id. Having elected the latter, he cannot now complain of a denial of due process. Id. The admission of the statement did not constitute fundamental error, and the issue has been waived for purposes of appeal.
A person who intentionally flees from lawful detention commits escape. Ind.Code 35-44-3-5(a). An attempt involves the culpability required for commission of the crime attempted. I.C. 35-41-5-1(a). Taylor claims the evidence is insufficient to prove entertained the specific intent to attempt escape. Specifically, he draws attention to his defense of intoxication and contends he was too intoxicated to have formed the requisite intent.
Whether the accused was so intoxicated or otherwise impaired as to negate intent is a question for the trier of fact, and one upon which he bears the burden of proof. See Morse v. State (1995), Ind.App., 646 N.E.2d 332, 334 (criminal recklessness). As a general proposition, a defendant should not be relieved of responsibility when he was able to devise a plan, operate equipment, instruct the behavior of others, or carry out acts requiring physical skill. Id. (quoting Terry v. State (1984), Ind., 465 N.E.2d 1085, 1088).
The evidence shows that the officer handcuffed Taylor and buckled him into the passenger seat of the patrol car. The officer told Taylor to stay in the car. Although his hands were handcuffed behind him, Taylor managed to unbuckle the seat belt, which was an act fairly characterized as an act requiring physical skill. After the officer had again buckled him into the passenger seat, Taylor again managed to unbuckle the seat belt. Further, when asked why he had run, Taylor responded that the officer would have run, too, if he were going to jail. The evidence is sufficient to support the determination that Taylor entertained the specific intent to flee from lawful detention.
Taylor claims the trial court improperly instructed the jury about the elements of attempted escape. He further claims that the defect in the instructions amounts to fundamental error. Trial counsel did not object to the attempt instruction, and the State contends the issue is waived for purposes of appeal.
A person who attempts to commit a crime must act with the culpability required for commission of the crime. I.C. 35-41-5-1(a). Any instruction that purports to set forth the elements of an attempt to commit a specific intent crime must include the element of the specific intent to commit the crime. Greer v. State (1994), Ind., 643 N.E.2d 324, 326 (attempted murder). A trial court commits fundamental error when the instructions as a whole fail to inform the jury that the defendant must have intended to commit the crime attempted. Id. ().
The trial court instructed the jury on the charge of attempted escape, as follows:
The crime of Attempt is defined by statute as follows: A person attempts to commit a crime when, acting with the culpability required for commission of the crime, he engages in conduct that constitutes a substantial step toward commission of the crime.
The crime of Escape is defined by statute as follows: A person who intentionally flees from lawful detention commits Escape, a Class "C" Felony.
To convict the defendant, the State must have proved each of the following elements:
1. William Fred Taylor
2. intentionally
3. engaged in conduct of fleeing from lawful detention
4. which was a substantial step toward the commission of the crime of escape, the intentional fleeing from lawful detention.
If the State failed to prove each of these elements, you should find the defendant not guilty.
If the State did prove each of these elements beyond a reasonable doubt, you should find the defendant guilty of the crime of Attempted Escape, a Class "C" Felony.
A person who intentionally flees from lawful detention commits escape. I.C. 35-44-3-5(a). With elements 2 and 3 of the instruction, the trial court informed the jury that Taylor must have "intentionally engaged in conduct of fleeing from lawful detention." The instruction sufficiently informed the jury that Taylor must have acted with the specific intent to commit escape. Therefore, the trial court committed no error, fundamental or otherwise.
Taylor claims that the offense of resisting law enforcement is a lesser included offense of attempted escape. He contends that the trial court committed reversible error when it refused to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense. Our supreme court recently decided that a trial court applies a three step analysis in the determination about whether an instruction on a lesser included offense should be given. See Wright v. State (1995), Ind., 658 N.E.2d 563, 566-67.
First, a trial court must compare the statute which defines the crime charged with the statute which defines the alleged lesser included offense. Wright, 658 N.E.2d at 566. If (a) the alleged lesser included offense may be established by proof of the same material elements or less than all the material elements which define the crime charged or (b) the only feature which distinguishes the alleged lesser included offense from the crime charged is that a lesser culpability is required to establish the commission of the lesser offense, then the alleged lesser included offense is inherently included in the crime charged. Id. (). The wording of a charging instrument never forecloses or precludes an instruction on an inherently lesser included offense. Id.
Second, if a trial court determines that an alleged lesser included offense is not inherently included in the crime charged under step one, then it must compare the statute which defines the alleged lesser included offense with the charging instrument in the case. Wright, 658 N.E.2d at 567. If the charging instrument alleges that the means used to commit the crime charged include all...
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