Young v. State

• Decision Date: 19 August 1998
• Docket Number: No. 49S00-9701-CR-15,49S00-9701-CR-15
• Parties: Raylon YOUNG, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 252

699 N.E.2d 252

Raylon YOUNG, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below).

No. 49S00-9701-CR-15.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Aug. 19, 1998.

Patricia Caress McMath, Indianapolis, for Appellant.

Jeffrey A. Modisett, Attorney General, Preston W. Black, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, for Appellee.

SHEPARD, Chief Justice.

A jury convicted Raylon Young for the murder ¹ of Korey Roney. The trial court sentenced Young to sixty-five years in prison. Young contends that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter. We agree it was error to refuse the tendered instruction on reckless homicide. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for a new trial.

Facts

On the night of November 19, 1995, the victim, Korey Roney, and several friends, about nine people in total, were wrestling in the front yard of Tijuan Johnson's home at 3142 North Orchard in Indianapolis. By around 8 p.m., the others had stopped in order to watch the continuing contest between Korey and Marvin Graves which was taking place near the house, just south of the front porch. Though it was dark, the small, treeless front yard was illuminated by the home's porch light, by the neighbor's lights, and by the street light to the south of the house. Tijuan Johnson estimated the distance from his front porch to the road at about twenty feet.

As the spectators cheered Korey and Marvin, a blue 1979 Oldsmobile Ninety-eight with a white top moving south on North Orchard pulled up north of the home's driveway and stopped abruptly between two cars parked on the street such that the Oldsmobile's passenger side faced the front of the house. All five eyewitnesses who testified said that it was Raylon Young they saw in the passenger side of the car. Young was "hanging out the window with a gun" and yelled three times to the crowd gathered outside: "What's up now, punk m_____ f______?" or some variation thereof. (Id.) Raylon told the driver to "pull off", raised a handgun in his right hand and fired twice. The car then went north up the avenue.

When asked to describe the apparent target of this first series of shots, the witnesses gave various answers. Willie Pargo responded to the prosecutor's question, "Did he shoot towards the group of people or away from them?" by answering, "Like I guess towards." (R. at 189-90.) Pargo later added "[I] don't know who he was shooting at." (R. at 215.) Danille Hampton, who was approximately seven feet away from Raylon when he fired the first two shots, responded "No" when Young's lawyer asked whether she knew if Raylon was shooting at a specific person or whether she knew if he was shooting "in the ground, at the sky, [or] just wild shooting?" (R. at 222, 230.) Glen Underwood testified the gun was aimed "[a]t all of us .... in the direction by the front porch and around that whole area." (R. at 247.) Damon Brookins said he saw only the first shot, but with regard to that shot; "He [Raylon] was just shootin'. I don't know if he had a main target, I don't know what, you know, I'm just seein' the gun, boom, dude was pullin' off you know." (R. at 269.)

The physical responses of the crowd to the shots differed according to where each individual stood. Brookins and Pargo were standing on the front porch when the Oldsmobile pulled up. Pargo recognized Raylon and said: "that's Raylon. Open up the door." (R. at 262.) Brookins scrambled into the house when he saw the pistol and heard Raylon say "pull off" to the driver. (R. at 263.) The others standing in the front yard dropped to the ground. Everyone except Korey got up after the car pulled away. Korey had been hit in the back of the head and was bleeding.

The Oldsmobile turned around after moving down the street a short ways and came "flyin' right back". (R. at 247.) When the others realized that the car was returning they left Korey on the ground and ran indoors. Raylon was seated on the edge of the passenger-side door with his arms extended over the car. He fired about four more shots as the car passed. The Oldsmobile continued north up Orchard until it reached 33rd, and then turned left towards Arsenal Street.

Korey lay prone on the ground. The others called the police who arrived about two minutes later. The coroner reported at 8 a.m. the next morning that Korey Roney was dead and that the cause of his death was a gunshot wound to the head.

A subsequent police investigation provided additional details. Several bullet holes and a spent bullet were discovered at 3138 North Orchard Avenue, the house immediately south of 3142 North Orchard. This neighbor reported that her house had been "shot up" at the same time as the shooting described above took place. (R. at 428.) Police discovered another possible spent bullet where bloody towels which Korey's friends had used to cover Korey's wound were found, i.e., near the bushes where Korey was before the shooting began. James Myer, a crime scene specialist from the Indianapolis Marion County Forensic Services Agency, was unable to say whether the bullets recovered were fired in random fashion or specifically aimed by the shooter.

I. Instructions on Lesser Included Offenses

Patricia Caress McMath has filed an excellent brief on Young's behalf, arguing among other things that the trial court wrongly refused instructions on lesser included offenses. The analysis set forth in Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563 (Ind.1995), determines whether a court should accept a party's instructions on lesser included offenses. Under this test the court must first decide whether the lesser included offense is either inherently or factually included within the crime charged by the prosecutor's information. Id. If the lesser offense is inherently or factually included, the trial judge must consider whether the evidence provided by both parties creates a serious evidentiary dispute about the element or elements which distinguish the greater from the lesser offense. Id. The failure of a trial court to accept and give a properly tendered instruction when a serious evidentiary dispute exists is reversible error if a jury could conclude that the lesser offense was committed but not the greater. Id.

The first two steps of the Wright test involve matters of law and an appellant need only demonstrate error to prevail on appeal. When an instruction is refused on grounds that a serious evidentiary dispute does not exist, we reverse only when there is an abuse of discretion. See Champlain v. State, 681 N.E.2d 696, 700 (Ind.1997). Where it is not apparent that the instruction was refused on that basis, we review the trial court's decision de novo. Id.

II. Young's Reckless Homicide Instruction

Reckless homicide ² is an inherently included lesser offense of murder and thus the first part of the Wright test is satisfied. Wright, 658 N.E.2d at 567. The only difference between the two crimes is the mens rea the State must show to obtain a conviction. Compare Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-1-1 (West Supp.1997) with Ind.Code Ann § 35-42-1-5 (West 1986). The issue in Young's case is thus whether there is a serious evidentiary dispute about whether Young knowingly or recklessly killed Roney when he fired the first shots from the Oldsmobile. ³

A person engages in conduct knowingly if, when he engages in the conduct, he is aware of a high probability that he is doing so. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-41-2-2(b) (West 1986). One engages in conduct recklessly if he or she engages in the conduct in plain, conscious, and unjustifiable disregard of harm that might result and the disregard involves a substantial deviation from acceptable standards of conduct. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-41-2-2(c) (West 1986).

The trial court did not make findings regarding whether a serious evidentiary dispute existed on the issue of Young's mens rea. Instead, the judge simply stated to the defense counsel that Young was not entitled to lesser included instructions because he had raised an alibi defense. ⁴ (R. at 516.) Presenting an alibi defense does not automatically bar instructions on a lesser included offense. See, e.g., Shelby v. State, 258 Ind. 439, 440, 281 N.E.2d 885, 886 (1972) (defendant was charged with robbery and presented an alibi defense but was convicted of theft, a lesser included offense of robbery). On the other hand, it may be somewhat pertinent in making the central inquiry which remains whether there is a serious evidentiary dispute in regard to the element or elements differentiating the greater offense from the lesser. Wright, 658 N.E.2d at 567. ⁵

The evidence about Young's state of mind at the time he fired the shot that killed Korey Roney is both conflicting and obscure. Several witnesses acknowledged that they knew Raylon from the neighborhood and there had been no problems between Raylon and those who were in the front yard that night, some even stated that Raylon was a friend. (R. at 214-15, 230-31, 250, 269, 288, 242.) Willie Pargo and Glen Underwood testified that Raylon had no reason to be upset with Korey, and that Raylon and Korey had engaged in friendly conversation just a month and a half before the shooting. (R. at 214, 243-44.) Raylon's harsh words, "what's up now, punk m_____ f______?", however, could indicate to a jury that Raylon desired to do more than simply scare those on the front lawn. Eyewitness testimony, indeed the testimony of those who were in the line of fire, disputes this inference however. No witness stated that he thought Raylon was actually aiming his gun at any specific person. Danille Hampton, only seven feet away from Raylon at the time of the first shots, could not determine whether Young was shooting at anyone in particular or just engaged in wild shooting. Damon Brookins testified; "he was just shootin' ... dude was pullin' off, you know." (R. at 269.) Though shooting in the direction of numerous people only twenty feet away is obviously "reckless" behavior no...