Yates v. State
| Decision Date | 28 July 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 34A05-1009-CR-582,34A05-1009-CR-582 |
| Parties | MICHAEL L. YATES, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Pursuant to Ind.Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited before any court except for the purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT:
JOSHUA E. LEICHT
GREGORY F. ZOELLER
Attorney General of Indiana
JODI KATHRYN STEIN
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
APPEAL FROM THE HOWARD SUPERIOR COURT
The Honorable William C. Menges, Judge
MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATIONFRIEDLANDER, Judge Following a jury trial, Michael L. Yates was convicted of Aiding, Inducing, or Causing Murder,1 a felony, and two counts of Aiding, Inducing or Causing Attempted Murder,2 class A felonies. The trial court sentenced Yates to a total aggregate sentence of one hundred sixty-five years. On appeal, Yates presents five issues for our review:
We affirm.
On April 4, 2008, Yates (a/k/a "Fool" or "Foolish") and Launden "L-Stone" Luckett attempted to rob Keith "Evil" Taylor at Taylor's apartment in the Gateway Gardens housing complex in Kokomo.3 Later that night, Yates, Luckett, Jesse "Baby Stone" Harris, and Yates's girlfriend, Shateeka Allen, were at Little Daddy's strip club in Kokomo. Yates was armed with a "long silver" .22 caliber handgun, Luckett was armed with a .45 caliber handgun, and Harris was armed with a .40 caliber handgun. Transcript at 1018.
Around 1:30 a.m. on April 5, 2008, Mark "PeeWee" Matthews called his friend, nineteen-year-old Abby Rethlake, and asked her to come pick him up. Abby agreed, and she and her friend, Morgan Vetter, drove in Abby's white, two-door Monte Carlo and picked up Matthews at Scotty's (another bar in Kokomo) and then took him to Little Daddy's. There, Matthews met up with his friends Keith Taylor and Tyrell "Stacks" Taylor.4 Abby and Morgan waited outside Little Daddy's for Matthews to return.
Inside Little Daddy's tension between Matthews and his friends (the Taylor brothers) and Yates and his group of friends was high because it had become known that Luckett had been involved with the attempted robbery of Keith Taylor earlier that day (i.e., on the 4th). The rumor was that Matthews and the Taylor brothers were going to retaliate for the attempted robbery with a drive-by shooting targeting Yates and his friends at the intersection of Taylor and Purdum streets. Yates, Luckett, and Harris decided to kill Matthews and the Taylor brothers before Matthews and the Taylor brothers could take action against them.
At the 3:00 a.m. closing time, Yates, Luckett, Harris, and Allen left Little Daddy's and got into a four-door Mazda 6 that Allen had rented that day. Allen got into the driver's seat, Yates got in the front passenger seat, and Luckett and Harris got in the back seat of the car. When Allen started the car and turned on the vehicle's lights, Yates told her to "hold up" because they wanted to wait for Matthews and the Taylor brothers to leave the club so they could follow them. Id. at 925. Eventually, Matthews and the Taylor brothers exited the club and got into the back seat of Abby's vehicle as she had agreed to take all three of them home. Abby drove and Morgan was seated in the front passenger seat.
Yates told Allen to follow the white Monte Carlo. Allen became uncomfortable as they drove through town, but no one would tell her what was going on. At the intersection of Ohio and Jefferson Streets, Allen pulled over, got out of the car, and started walking to her friend's house where her daughter was staying. Yates got into the driver's seat and Harris moved up to the front passenger seat while Luckett remained in the back seat of the Mazda. In the time it took for Yates and Harris to change seats, they had lost sight of the Monte Carlo. The three men started driving around in search of the vehicle. A few minutes later, they spotted the Monte Carlo as the Taylor brothers were walking up to a house near the intersection of Monroe and Purdum streets. Yates, Harris, and Luckett decided that the distance between the two vehicles was too far to shoot at them. Luckett noted that Matthews was still in the back seat of the Monte Carlo, so they decided to continue with their plan to kill Matthews. When Yates and/or Luckett asked about the fate of the two girls in the Monte Carlo, Harris said that they needed to kill them as well because they would be witnesses. The plan thus became to follow the Monte Carlo and kill all three occupants, those being Matthews, Abby, and Morgan.
After dropping off the Taylor brothers, Abby drove to the Meadowlawn Apartments where Matthews lived, but she drove past the entrance into the adjacent parking lot. As Abby continued ahead to turn around, Yates pulled into the parking lot and waited for the Monte Carlo to return. Abby was attempting to correct her position in a parking spot when Yates pulled behind her car and blocked her car in. Luckett put on a black ski mask, jumped out of the Mazda, and approached the passenger window of the Monte Carlo. Morgan saw Luckett approaching and could see that there were two other men in the car that had blockedthem in. Morgan screamed as she rolled up her window and yelled at Abby to go. Luckett opened fire with his .45 caliber handgun, shooting a total of eleven to twelve shots through the passenger window. Harris stood up out of the Mazda and began shooting his .40 caliber handgun into the rear of the Monte Carlo until his handgun was empty. Yates remained in the driver's seat. When the shooting began, Matthews dove to the floor of the car while Abby and Morgan ducked down. When Luckett and Harris were done shooting, the screaming had stopped. Believing he had shot and killed everyone in the car, Luckett returned to the Mazda and jumped in the back seat as Yates quickly drove away. The passenger side of the Mazda struck the back of the Monte Carlo, causing damage to both vehicles.
Matthews, who was wounded on his face and leg, was able to crawl from the Monte Carlo and yell for help. Morgan, who was shot in the chest, abdomen, and leg, regained consciousness and stumbled from the car, crying for help. Some of Morgan's injuries were deemed life threatening and she spent over a week in the hospital. Abby sustained several gunshot wounds, the primary two of which entered her back. One of the bullets entered Abby's mid-back, perforated her lung, struck her collarbone, fractured her jaw, and entered her brain. Abby was revived at the local hospital and transported to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis where she died.
After the shooting, Yates dropped Luckett off at the Gateway Gardens housing complex and then he met up with Allen at Allen's friend's house where Allen was getting her daughter ready to go home. Yates did not have the Mazda, so Allen, her daughter, and Yates got a ride to Allen's home. The following day Allen rented another vehicle so she could goto work. Yates, Luckett, and Harris went to Chicago to dispose of their handguns. Arrangements were also made for the damage to the Mazda to be repaired before it was returned to the rental company.
On November 4, 2009, Yates was charged by grand jury indictment with Count I, aiding, inducing, or causing murder, a felony; Count II, conspiracy to commit murder, a class A felony; Count III, aiding, inducing, or causing attempted murder, a class A felony; Count IV, aggravated battery, a class B felony; and Count V, aiding, inducing, or causing attempted murder, a class A felony. An initial hearing was held on November 20, 2009, at which time Yates was appointed a public defender and an omnibus date was set for January 22, 2010. On December 7, 2009, Yates filed a motion for change of venue, which was denied following a hearing. On July 21, 2010, the State filed an amended information for Count II and Count IV.5 Also on that date, the State filed two motions in limine. The State filed two additional motions in limine on July 28, 2010.
On July 23, 2010, the trial court received a letter from Yates citing issues between him and his trial counsel and requesting a continuance of his jury trial so he could gatheradditional evidence. Three days later, on July 26, 2010, Yates's appointed counsel filed a motion in limine, a motion to suppress, and a motion for continuance based upon the State's late amendment to the charging informations. That same day, the trial court received another letter from Yates in which he indicated that he planned to hire private counsel. On July 28, 2010, the trial court held a hearing on all pending motions and ultimately denied Yates's motions for continuance,6 granted the State's motions in limine, and took Yates's motion to suppress under advisement. Also during the hearing, Yates, by counsel, orally moved for a change of venue from the judge, which the trial court denied.
On July 29, 2010, the day before trial, Yates's appointed counsel filed a motion for change of venue. That same day, the trial court received a letter by fax from attorney Caroline Briggs regarding Yates's intention to hire her as private counsel. Attorney Briggs explained that she was out of the country, but would review Yates's case when she returned. Because Attorney Briggs was out of the country, Yates made an oral motion for continuance on the morning of trial. On the first morning of the trial, prior to the start of the trial, the trial court held a hearing on Yates's motion to suppress, ...
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