Thacker v. State

• Decision Date: 15 May 1985
• Docket Number: No. 2-185,2-185
• Citation: 477 N.E.2d 921
• Parties: Ricky THACKER, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below). A 6. 1
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 921

477 N.E.2d 921

Ricky THACKER, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below).

No. 2-185 A 6. ¹

Court of Appeals of Indiana,

First District.

May 15, 1985.

Jack Quirk, Muncie, for appellant.

Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Michael Gene Worden, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.

ROBERTSON, Judge.

Defendant-appellant Ricky Thacker appeals his conviction of arson, a class B felony. Thacker moved pre-trial to suppress certain inculpatory statements made by him at the time of his arrest. Thacker maintained that the statements were obtained under duress and that his limited intelligence quota of 67 prevented him from effecting an intelligent, knowing waiver of his right to remain silent. Unpersuaded after hearing argument, the trial court overruled the motion and proceeded to a non-jury trial. The trial court specifically determined that Thacker knowingly committed arson under circumstances which endangered human life. Thereafter, Thacker received an eight-year incarceration at the Indiana Department of Corrections.

Four issues are presented:

1. Whether it was error to overrule the motion to suppress.

2. Whether the State's witness, Ronald Lee Taylor, qualified as an expert witness.

3. Whether the corpus delecti was established as required prior to allowing in the defendant's admissions against interest.

4. Whether the trial court erred in its determination that Thacker knowingly committed arson under circumstances which endangered human life.

We affirm.

The evidence most favorable to support the conviction is as follows:

On May 1, 1983, Muncie firemen responded to a fire at 323 North Dill Street. The fire was confined to an unoccupied garage belonging to a Jean Lidy located some seventy-five to eighty feet from the house. The fire originated in an accumulation of rubbish in the garage which Jean Lidy testified was not present in the garage prior to the fire. The State's expert witness, Ron Taylor, testified that on the basis of his investigation, the fire was a result of arson.

Carl Scheib, who at one time was Thacker's juvenile probation officer, testified that on May 5, 1983, Thacker spoke with him concerning fires which had occurred in the city. Concerned, Scheib accompanied Thacker to the Delaware County Prosecutor's office where they met with the Chief Criminal Investigator Jack L. Stonebraker. Also present were other officials who listened to Thacker's tale of certain fires in the city which Thacker at first claimed were ignited by his friend Dan Brown. At one point during the day's events, Thacker directed Stonebraker and the other officials to the sites of several of these fires including that of the garage fire. Three readings of his Miranda rights were given during the day and three times were waived by Thacker.

Stonebraker testified that Thacker explained in detail how he entered the garage and used gasoline in the fire. Throughout the day, Thacker's story vacillated from one assertion that this "friend" started the fires to the assertion that it was he who actually started the fires and then back to the story of his friend.

Muncie Deputy Mayor Roy Hall, who also spent most of that day with Thacker, collaborated Stonebraker's testimony. In fact, Thacker admitted to Hall his guilt. Although given his Miranda rights several times, at no point did Thacker request a lawyer or refuse to talk openly but rather cooperated fully. On cross-examination, Hall told of how Thacker directed the officials to various locations of fires at which time Thacker would describe in detail as to which vehicle burned because flammables or papers were put in the gas tanks and which vehicles were burned because flammables were ignited under the hood.

Thacker's juvenile probation officer Carl Scheib testified that Thacker would frequently visit Scheib at the office. Whenever Scheib was too busy to devote attention to Thacker, Thacker would fabricate events to capture Scheib's attention. At one point, Thacker went through a two-week diagnostic testing at Indiana's Boys School, the results of which indicated that Thacker suffered from low self-esteem and had no family support or structure.

Dr. Mahannah's psychiatric evaluation, made pursuant to the trial court's request, provided in part:

I view Ricky Thacker at this time as being sociopathic with tendencies toward violent acts of all kinds. He has a constant need for excitement and extreme reaction. His tendencies for promoting extreme reaction appear to be toward violence and antisocial acts.

At no time in his history or in my examination do I find evidence that his thought process loses touch with reality, nor does it appear to be the result of an inability to separate fantasy from reality. I am aware that he has been at Richmond State Hospital; however, I am informed that the reason for being placed there was because of threats and violent demonstrations toward others. Again, I find no evidence of psychosis, but do find evidence of violent behavior. His pattern of behavior has remained consistent throughout the information I have reviewed to the time of my examinations at Delaware County Jail where he currently resides....

As to whether or not he was out of contact with reality or insane at the time of the alleged incident, I am unable to say absolutely since I was not there. I feel that it is unlikely that his personality pattern has varied from that exposed to me within my interview. I see no evidence of delusions,...