Angle v. State

698 N.E.2d 356, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 1316, 1998 WL 463162
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 11, 1998
Docket12A04-9711-CR-495
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 698 N.E.2d 356 (Angle v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Angle v. State, 698 N.E.2d 356, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 1316, 1998 WL 463162 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinions

OPINION

RATLIFF, Senior Judge.

Case Summary

Trent Angle was convicted by a jury of rape, a Class B felony, criminal confinement, a Class D felony, residential entry, a Class D felony, and battery, a Class A misdemeanor. Angle was sentenced to a total of twenty-seven years imprisonment. Angle now appeals his convictions and sentence.

Issues

Angle presents three issues for our review, which we restate as:

1. Whether the trial court erred in refusing Angle’s tendered instruction on battery, a Class B misdemeanor, as a lesser included offense of rape;
2. Whether Angle’s separate convictions and sentences for both rape and criminal confinement constituted double jeopardy; and
3. Whether the trial court erred in enhancing Angle’s sentences and ordering that they be served consecutively because the trial court relied on improper aggravating circumstances.

Facts and Procedural History

The night of May 24, 1997, Denise Angle, Angle’s estranged wife, returned home from work and put her two children to bed. As Denise entered her bedroom, she heard a noise, and discovered Angle on the floor between her bed and the wall. He had entered the house through a window. Angle lunged at Denise and knocked her to the floor, kicked her, and ordered her to go into the kitchen to prepare a bottle for their infant son. Angle then insisted that she go into the baby’s room. He followed her and ordered her to remove her clothing. Angle threatened to kill her and the children and repeatedly hit her in the face. Denise was able to convince Angle to leave the baby’s room, and he followed her downstairs to her bedroom, where he held her hands above her head and had sexual intercourse with her. Denise testified that she did not consent to this act, but she did not fight, either, fearing that Angle would harm her or the children. When Angle fell asleep, Denise took the children and left the house.

Angle was charged with four counts stemming from this incident, and was found guilty of all four by a jury. The trial court sentenced Angle to twenty years for the rape conviction,1 three years each for the criminal confinement and residential entry convic[359]*359tions,2 and one year for the battery conviction,3 all to be served consecutively.4

Discussion and Decision

I.

Angle first argues that the trial court erred in refusing to give his tendered instruction on battery as a lesser included offense of rape. Angle’s tendered instruction read as follows:

If you find that the State has failed to prove any one of the essential elements of the charge of Rape, you should find the defendant not guilty of that crime. You should then decide whether the State has proved beyond a reasonable doubt all the elements of the included crime of battery.

The included crime of battery is defined by statute as follows:

A person who knowingly or intentionally touches another person in a rude or insolent manner, commits battery a Class B misdemeanor.

To convict the defendant the State must have proved each of the following elements:

The defendant
1. knowingly or intentionally
2. touched another person, Denise Angle
3. in a rude or insolent manner.
If the State failed to prove each of the essential elements of the crime of battery beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant should be found not guilty.
If the State proved each of the elements of the crime of battery beyond a reasonable doubt, you should find the defendant guilty of battery.

R. 31.

To determine whether an instruction on a lesser included offense should be given, the court must first ask whether the alleged lesser included offense is either inherently or factually included in the crime which is charged. Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563, 566-67 (Ind.1995). If the court decides that the alleged lesser included offense is either inherently or factually included in the crime which is charged, then

it must look at the evidence presented in the case by both parties. If there is a serious evidentiary dispute about the element or elements distinguishing the greater from the lesser offense and if, in view of this dispute, a jury could conclude that the lesser offense was committed but not the greater, then it is reversible error for a trial court not to give an instruction, when requested, on the inherently or factually included lesser offense. If the evidence does not so support the giving of a requested instruction on an inherently or factually included offense, then a trial court should not give the requested instruction.

Id. at 567 (citations omitted).

Battery is an inherently included lesser offense of rape, and the element distinguishing the two offenses is sexual intercourse. See Roland v. State, 501 N.E.2d 1034, 1039 (Ind.1986). However, there is no serious evidentiary dispute in this case about the element which distinguishes the two offenses. Angle admitted that sexual intercourse occurred, but testified that it was consensual. R. 208-10. Denise testified that although she did not try to fight Angle for fear that he would follow through on his threat to kill her and the children, she did not consent to the act. R. 128-29. Neither party’s account of the incident suggests that a battery without a rape occurred. The evidence in this case, therefore, did not support an instruction on battery as a lesser included offense of rape.

[360]*360II.

Angle next asserts that his separate convictions and sentences for rape and criminal confinement constitute double jeopardy. Angle concedes that under the federal double jeopardy clause there is no violation, because each offense requires proof of an element which the other does not. See United States v. Dixon, 509 U.S. 688, 704, 113 S.Ct. 2849, 125 L.Ed.2d 556 (1993); Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). However, he argues that the Indiana constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy should be analyzed independently of the federal clause, requiring not only an analysis of the elements of the offenses, but also an examination of the factual basis for each offense alleged in the charging information, citing several decisions which so hold. See Wright v. State, 665 N.E.2d 2, 4 (Ind.Ct.App.1996); Ott v. State, 648 N.E.2d 671, 673 (Ind.Ct.App.1995); and Jackson v. State, 643 N.E.2d 905, 908 (Ind.Ct.App.1994), trans. denied. Angle contends that, if the factual basis is examined, there was no confinement beyond that necessary to effect the rape.

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Related

Loyd v. State
787 N.E.2d 953 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2003)
Carlson v. State
716 N.E.2d 469 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1999)
Angle v. State
698 N.E.2d 356 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
698 N.E.2d 356, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 1316, 1998 WL 463162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/angle-v-state-indctapp-1998.