Woodcox v. State
| Decision Date | 27 May 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 15S00-8912-CR-890,15S00-8912-CR-890 |
| Citation | 591 N.E.2d 1019 |
| Parties | Paul D. WOODCOX, Appellant, (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee. (Plaintiff Below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Susan K. Carpenter, Public Defender, M.E. Tuke, Deputy Public Defender, Indianapolis, for appellant.
Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Richard C. Webster, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
Paul D. Woodcox (Appellant-Defendant below) files this direct appeal from his convictions for rape, as a class A felony, attempted murder, as a class A felony, confinement, as a class B felony, and the finding that he was an habitual offender. He alleges that the trial court erred by:
(1) Failing to instruct the jury on the element of specific intent for the crime of attempted murder;
(2) Refusing to give two instructions tendered by Woodcox;
(3) Violating Woodcox's constitutional rights by imposing sentences based upon a pre-sentence investigation report that did not contain mandatory statutory provisions;
(4) Imposing maximum consecutive sentences;
(5) Sentencing Woodcox for rape as a class A felony and confinement as a class B felony, because those felonies were aggravated based upon the same allegation of serious bodily injury contained in the attempted murder charge; and
(6) Admitting evidence and testimony regarding DNA testing performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI").
We affirm Woodcox's convictions and sentences for rape as a class A felony, confinement as a class B felony, and the determination that he was an habitual offender. We reverse the conviction for attempted murder and remand for a new trial.
The facts necessary for resolution of the issues follow. The victim and her friend, Darlene, were in a Cincinnati bar when Darlene introduced her to Woodcox. Eventually, the victim and Darlene invited Woodcox and two other men to join them for a party. The victim wanted Darlene to ride with her, but Darlene wanted to ride in another car. The victim drove her car with Woodcox, whom she had never seen prior to that night, accompanying her as a passenger. The victim followed and accidently ran into the back of the car in which Darlene and the others were riding. When the victim got out to inspect the damage, the other car drove away. At that point, Woodcox, still in the passenger seat, started giving directions to the victim. After a period of time, Woodcox directed the victim to pull over, took her car keys, and instructed her that he was going to take over driving the car. The victim acquiesced, but was uncomfortable and afraid. She repeatedly asked Woodcox to return her keys, but Woodcox merely responded that they were going to Indiana. She argued with him and, eventually, he pulled the car over and began strangling her to the point at which she was unable to breathe. He told her to "shut up" and threatened to hurt her if she didn't comply. As they continued to drive, however, she began to argue again. In response, Woodcox again pulled over and strangled her, instructing her that he would not hurt her if she "shut up."
Eventually, after several of these episodes, Woodcox drove down a gravel road in a remote area in Dearborn County The victim's next memory was of awakening, covered with blood, in a wooded area. She crawled, walked, and ran from the area, periodically passing out, regaining consciousness and continuing to flee. She was discovered passed out in the yard of a house at approximately 9:45 a.m. on Sunday morning five hours after commission of the crime. She was taken by helicopter to the University of Cincinnati Hospital where she was determined to be suffering from hypothermia. She had several lacerations on the top of her head, six lacerations down the side of her face, and a tearing laceration on the right side of her mouth. She had a great deal of facial swelling and blood around her right eye with damage to her right eardrum. She had abrasions and contusions around her neck and on her upper right arm, as well as on her right lower ribcage. The tips of her third and fourth fingers on her right hand were crushed and nearly torn off, requiring subsequent amputation. She had suffered significant blood loss as well as liver and muscle damage. While in the hospital recovering from her injuries, she selected the defendant's photograph from a photo array as a photograph of the man who had raped and beaten her.
Indiana. He stopped the car and began to strangle the victim and hit her in the face. He threatened to kill her if she didn't do what he wanted. He ordered her to climb into the back seat of the car and remove her clothing. She complied because she was in fear for her life if she did not comply with his demands. While she was in the back seat of the car, Woodcox engaged in vaginal intercourse with her. When he was done, he began to beat and strangle her again until she lost consciousness.
The scene of the rape was not located until the day after the victim was discovered. Evidence was recovered from the scene by police evidence technicians. The victim's car was located at a body shop within approximately 200 yards of a house from which Woodcox's brother was in the process of moving. Police evidence technicians recovered evidence from the car as well. Evidence including samples of the victim's and the defendant's blood and hair were sent to the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C., for standard analysis as well as for "DNA" analysis and testing.
Additional evidence at trial revealed that Woodcox confided to his brother-in-law on the day after the occurrence that he had met a woman in a bar the previous night. He also said that he had had sex with her and that she had freaked out and threatened to prosecute him for rape. Woodcox admitted to his brother-in-law that he had beaten and killed the woman and had thrown her body over an embankment. Woodcox asked his brother-in-law if fingerprints could be recovered from a rock and if proof could be found that he had had sex with the woman.
After his arrest, Woodcox admitted being with the victim and having sex with her. He also admitted beating her, but only with his fists. Woodcox was found guilty of attempted murder, a class A felony, rape, a class A felony, confinement, a class B felony, and was determined to be an habitual offender. He was sentenced to 50 years on count 1, 50 years on count 2, 10 years on count 3, and 30 years for being an habitual offender. All of the sentences were to run consecutively.
Woodcox contends that the trial court's instructions to the jury concerning the crime of attempted murder were deficient because they failed to instruct the jury that it must find that he had a specific intent to kill the victim in order to find him guilty of attempted murder. He admits that he neither objected to the instructions nor tendered proper instructions on this omitted element, but, nevertheless, argues that the trial court's instructions constitute fundamental error pursuant to Zickefoose v. State (1979), 270 Ind. 618, 388 N.E.2d 507, and subsequent cases through and including Spradlin v. State (1991), Ind., 569 N.E.2d 948. We agree that the court's instructions on the attempted murder charge were deficient, and that such deficiency constitutes fundamental error requiring The court instructed the jury on the general statutory definition of murder as a "knowing or intentional" killing and of the statutory definition of attempt. In that same instruction, the court specifically instructed the jury as follows:
reversal of the attempted murder conviction.
To convict the defendant of Attempted Murder, the State must have proved each of the following elements:
The defendant
1. knowingly
2. threatened to kill Amber Androne and did choke her and strike and beat at and against her face, head, torso and hand with a certain blunt object and with his fists
3. that said conduct was a substantial step toward the commission of the crime of Murder
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 Murder, a Class A felony.
Recently, in Spradlin v. State, we traced the history of this Court's rulings on the requirement that the jury must be informed that in order to convict for attempted murder, it must find that the defendant had a specific intent to kill the victim. See Zickefoose v. State (1979), 270 Ind. 618, 388 N.E.2d 507; Smith v. State (1984), Ind., 459 N.E.2d 355, Abdul-Wadood v. State (1988), Ind., 521 N.E.2d 1299. We believe that the law is clear that it is fundamental error to fail to instruct the jury on an essential element of the crime of attempted murder, viz., an intent to kill the victim.
The State acknowledges this requirement, but maintains that the jury was adequately instructed on this element because of the court's preliminary instructions, as well as the final instruction, which statutorily defined murder and attempt. Unlike Jackson v. State (1991), Ind., 575 N.E.2d 617, and Allen v. State (1991), Ind., 575 N.E.2d 615, where we held that fundamental error was not committed where the jury was instructed that the State must prove that the defendant was "attempting to kill" the victim at the time that the defendant shot the victim, no instruction in the present case sufficiently conveyed the State's burden to prove intent to kill. This failure has long been held to constitute fundamental error. Therefore, Woodcox's conviction on attempted murder must be reversed and remanded for a new trial.
Woodcox tendered instructions 5 and 6 regarding the credibility of witnesses. Instruction 5 would have instructed jurors, in part, that they
should specifically consider evidence of resentment or anger which some State's witnesses may have...
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