Tibbs v. State

• Citation: 59 N.E.3d 1005
• Decision Date: 08 September 2016
• Docket Number: No. 46A03–1501–CR–19.,46A03–1501–CR–19.
• Parties: Jason TIBBS, Appellant–Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Indiana

59 N.E.3d 1005

Jason TIBBS, Appellant–Defendant,

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff.

No. 46A03–1501–CR–19.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

Sept. 8, 2016.

Scott King, Russell W. Brown, Jr., Scott King Group, Merrillville, IN, Attorneys for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Michael Gene Worden, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

BARNES

, Judge.

Case Summary

[1] Jason Tibbs challenges his conviction for murder and the trial court's subsequent denial of his Indiana Trial Rule 60(B)

motion for relief from judgment. We affirm.

Issues

[2] Tibbs raises three issues, which we restate as:

I. whether the trial court abused its discretion by excluding evidence of an alleged third-party perpetrator;

II. whether the trial court abused its discretion by excluding impeachment evidence; and

III. whether the trial court properly denied Tibbs's Trial Rule 60(B)

motion for relief from judgment.

Facts

[3] On March 26, 1993, sixteen-year-old Rayna Rison was working at the Pine

Take Veterinary Hospital (“the clinic”) in LaPorte County. She had a date scheduled that evening with her boyfriend, Matt Elser. Rison was scheduled to finish work at approximately 6:00 p.m., and Elser was waiting for Rison at her house. When Rison failed to return home, Elser called the clinic and then began looking for her. Elser first went to the clinic and noticed Rison's car was not there.

[4] At approximately 7:30 p.m. that same day, someone observed what would later be identified as Rison's car parked along a road with its hood up. The police recovered the car the next day. Inside, police found a ring, which was later identified as belonging to Tibbs. On April 27, 1993, Rison's dead body was discovered in a pond. The forensic pathologist who performed Rison's autopsy concluded the cause of her death was asphyxia

due to cervical compression—strangulation—and that her death was a homicide.

[5] Tibbs and Rison were friends and dated briefly in middle school or junior high school. By 1993, Tibbs had dropped out of high school but was still in touch with Rison and still had strong romantic feelings for her. On the day Rison disappeared, Tibbs contacted his friend Eric Freeman in the late afternoon and asked Freeman to pick him up and drive him to the clinic. Freeman borrowed his girlfriend Jennifer Hammons's (“Jennifer”) Buick and picked Tibbs up at his house. Tibbs had previously introduced Rison to Freeman as his girlfriend, and, on the day Rison disappeared, Tibbs told Freeman he “wanted to try to work things out with [Rison].” Tr. p. 81.

[6] When Freeman and Tibbs arrived at the clinic, Tibbs went inside to speak with Rison. After a short time, Tibbs and Rison came out of the clinic and talked; then they began to argue about their relationship. Tibbs and Rison got in the back seat of Jennifer's car, and the three “went driving.” Id. at 84. Tibbs and Rison continued arguing. Either Tibbs or Rison asked Freeman to pull over. He did, and Tibbs and Rison got out and continued arguing behind the car. According to Freeman, Rison “just didn't want to be with [Tibbs].” Id. At some point, Freeman got out of the car and told Tibbs and Rison that he wanted to leave. Tibbs and Rison continued to argue, and Freeman observed Tibbs hit Rison then choke her with his hands. Freeman got back in the car, and Tibbs told him to open the trunk. Tibbs put Rison in the trunk, and Freeman drove back to the home of Rick and Judy Hammons, Jennifer's parents, where Freeman lived at the time.

[7] When they arrived, Freeman parked the car in the Hammonses' pole barn. Freeman and Tibbs argued, and Tibbs stated, “If I can't have her nobody can.” Id. at 87. After a short time, they left to get Rison's car. After Freeman and Tibbs left the Hammonses' barn, they returned to the clinic. Tibbs drove Rison's car away, and Freeman followed him in Jennifer's car. Together, the men dumped Rison's body in a pond, and Tibbs weighed it down with logs. Freeman, alone, then returned to the Hammonses' house in Jennifer's Buick. Later that evening, Tibbs stopped by the Hammonses' house, and Freeman gave him the letter jacket that had been left in the back seat of the Buick. The jacket was later discovered hanging in a tree and identified as belonging to Elser.

[8] Unbeknownst to Freeman and Tibbs, Rickey Hammons (“Rickey”), Rick and Judy Hammons's fourteen-year-old son, was in the loft of the barn smoking marijuana when they arrived at the Hammonses' property. Rickey observed someone back Jennifer's car into the pole barn. He saw Tibbs close the barn doors and Freeman get out of the driver's seat. Rickey heard Freeman and Tibbs arguing and saw Freeman open the trunk of the car. Rickey saw a young, white woman in the trunk. “She was an off color, like—she wasn't moving. She was—I don't know. She didn't look like she had a lot of color in her face.” Id. at 138. Rickey did not say anything to Freeman and Tibbs. After the men argued about what to do next, Rickey saw them leave in the car. When Rickey saw Rison's picture in the newspaper the next day, he recognized her as the girl he saw in the trunk of his sister's car. He did not tell anyone about what he saw in the pole barn.

[9] Ray McCarty was Rison's brother-in-law. He was married to Rison's sister Lori McCarty (“Lori”). In 1991, McCarty plead guilty to Class D felony child molesting. Rison was the victim, and she became pregnant as a result of that molestation. McCarty was sentenced to serve three years on probation and was still on probation when Rison was killed. McCarty was indicted for Rison's murder near the time she was killed, but the State later dismissed the charges.

[10] For fifteen years, Rison's murder remained unsolved. In 2008, Rickey, who now was serving a sentence for an unrelated murder, contacted the police in order to tell them what he saw in his parents' barn in 1993. Rickey testified he neither received nor sought any benefit in exchange for his testimony. As a result of Rickey's information, investigators located Freeman and granted Freeman immunity in exchange for the information he had regarding Rison's murder. In 2013, the State charged Tibbs with murder. Freeman gave eyewitness testimony against Tibbs during Tibbs's trial.

[11] McCarty testified during Tibbs's case-in-chief that at approximately 5:40 or 5:45 p.m. on the night Rison disappeared, he looked at a house for sale directly across the street from the clinic. McCarty testified that after he left the house, he drove to the clinic to ask Rison if she knew where Lori was. McCarty testified the exchange with Rison took “[h]alf a minute,” and then he left the clinic. Tr. p. 858. McCarty admitted he told police more than one story regarding his whereabouts the night Rison disappeared. McCarty stated that he initially lied to police in order to prevent Lori from learning he had picked up a female hitchhiker that night because it might upset her. McCarty testified he did not threaten to harm Rison if she told anyone about his illegal sexual contact with her. Lori testified she did not recall telling a police officer that she vacuumed out the back of McCarty's car before police searched it, nor did she remember McCarty asking her to do so.

[12] During his trial, Tibbs attempted to ask Officer Timothy Short, who interviewed both McCarty and Lori, whether McCarty asked Lori to vacuum out his car before the police searched it. The trial court sustained the State's objection to the question. Tibbs also sought to question McCarty about the details of his divergent stories to police, but the trial court prohibited him from doing so.

[13] During an offer of proof, McCarty testified he was indicted for Rison's murder but was not tried. He also testified that he initially told police he was at a pig farm in the southern part of the county around or at the time Rison disappeared. As part of his offer of proof, Tibbs offered Rison's 1989 statement to police regarding McCarty's molestation. The statement states, “[McCarty] said that ‘if I didn't do as he asked of me he would hurt me, and he said that if I ever told, he would KILL me.’ ” Ex. AA.

[14] Detective Brett Airy, who began re-investigating Rison's death in 2008, testified during an offer of proof that he reviewed the reports made during the original murder investigation. He testified McCarty did not admit he had contact with Rison at the clinic until May 11, 1993, approximately six weeks after Rison disappeared, and further testified about the details of McCarty's differing stories regarding his whereabouts at the time Rison disappeared.

[15] In November 2014, a jury found Tibbs guilty of murder. The trial court sentenced Tibbs to forty years in the Department of Correction. This appeal ensued. Before filing his Appellant's Brief, however, Tibbs requested, and this court gave him, permission to file a Trial Rule 60(B)

motion for relief from judgment in the trial court. Tibbs filed his motion and argued the State, in violation of Brady v. Maryland, withheld exculpatory evidence that Rickey received a benefit as a result of his testimony. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on Tibbs's motion. Shortly after that evidentiary hearing, Tibbs filed an amended motion for relief from judgment and argued he had newly discovered evidence to support his contention the State committed a Brady violation. The trial court denied Tibbs's requests pursuant to Trial Rule 60(B). Tibbs now appeals his conviction and the trial court's denial of his motion for relief from judgment.

Analysis

I. Exclusion of Alleged Third–Party Perpetrator Evidence

[16] Tibbs first contends the trial court denied him his right to present a complete defense by excluding: 1) testimony that McCarty was indicted for Rison's murder; 2) Rison's 1989 statement that McCarty threatened to kill her if she disclosed that he sexually abused her; 3) statements that McCarty asked Lori to clean out his car; and 4) the details of McCarty's...