Anthony Xavier Carr v. State of Indiana

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 17, 2025
Docket24A-CR-01599
StatusPublished

This text of Anthony Xavier Carr v. State of Indiana (Anthony Xavier Carr v. State of Indiana) 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
Anthony Xavier Carr v. State of Indiana, (Ind. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

FILED Mar 17 2025, 9:22 am

CLERK Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals and Tax Court

IN THE

Court of Appeals of Indiana Anthony Xavier Carr, Appellant-Defendant

v.

State of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff

March 17, 2025 Court of Appeals Case No. 24A-CR-1599 Appeal from the Lake County Superior Court The Honorable Salvador Vasquez, Judge Trial Court Cause No. 45G01-2212-MR-61

Opinion by Judge DeBoer Judges May and Tavitas concur.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-1599 | March 17, 2025 Page 1 of 18 DeBoer, Judge.

Case Summary [1] After Brittany Smith (Smith) was found fatally shot in her bedroom, detectives

began searching for her killer. Although Smith’s boyfriend, Anthony Xavier

Carr (Carr), initially denied being at Smith’s house the day she was found

murdered, cell phone records revealed he had been at Smith’s house for several

hours the morning of her death. A jury found Carr guilty of Smith’s murder.

For Smith’s convictions for murder and the habitual offender enhancement to

which he admitted, the trial court imposed an aggregate sentence of sixty-eight

years in the Department of Correction (DOC).

[2] Carr appeals, raising three issues:

(1) Whether the trial court abused its discretion by allowing a detective to

testify that the evidence in the case did not point to suspects other than

Carr;

(2) Whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting Carr and

Smith’s text messages from two months before her murder to

demonstrate the hostility between them; and

(3) Whether the evidence was sufficient to convict Carr of Smith’s murder.

[3] Finding no error, we affirm.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-1599 | March 17, 2025 Page 2 of 18 Facts and Procedural History [4] In April 2022, Smith and Carr began a dating relationship that was marred with

frequent conflict. According to Carr, the couple lived together but went

through cycles of breaking up and reconciling. On the afternoon of December

2, 2022, Smith’s mother, Frances Morton-Howard (Frances) drove to Smith’s

house to pick up Smith’s children because Carr and Smith were going on a date.

That evening, an “upset” Smith called her mother. Transcript Vol. 4 at 22.

Frances heard the couple arguing and Carr “using profanity[,]” including

calling Smith profane names. Id. at 24. To Frances, Carr sounded upset that

Smith refused to take him to his mother’s house and he told Smith that he

“[had] a gun and drugs on [him].” Id. at 25. Smith eventually hung up. Later,

Smith called her mother on FaceTime. Then around “11:00 something” that

evening, Frances texted Smith but received no response. Id. at 28.

[5] Sometime around 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. on December 2, 2022, Carr went to the

Home Plate Pub with a handgun. The bartender recognized Carr, whom he

knew as Ace, as a frequent customer. Because the bar did not allow patrons to

possess firearms, Carr gave his handgun to the bartender for safekeeping. The

bartender could not recall anything specific about the handgun other than it had

a thin barrel and “it was not a revolver.” Id. at 114. He returned Carr’s

handgun to him when he left.

[6] Between approximately 1:00 and 3:00 a.m. on December 3, 2022, Carr left the

Home Plate Pub with his handgun, and went to another local bar, Porter’s Tap. Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-1599 | March 17, 2025 Page 3 of 18 Carr’s cell phone records indicate that after leaving Porter’s Tap, Carr called

Smith four times between 3:06 and 3:20 a.m. Between 3:47 and 4:29 a.m.,

Carr’s cell phone records placed his phone at the home of his friend, Jacquelyn

Keaton (Keaton). At trial, Keaton testified she drove Carr to Smith’s house but

did not stay to watch him enter the house. Phone records placed Carr’s phone

at Smith’s house from approximately 4:46 until 7:19 a.m.

[7] At 7:07 a.m., a friend of Smith’s placed a video call to Smith. Carr answered

the call on Smith’s phone but refused to put Smith on the phone when asked.

After arguing with Smith’s friend, Carr hung up. The friend tried to call several

more times over the next thirty minutes, but no one answered.

[8] Around this time, Smith’s neighbor across the street was awakened by a loud

noise, followed by “two more noises that sounded like gunshots.” Tr. Vol. 4 at

125. 1 Other neighbors frequently shot guns so he believed the noise was from

them and he went back to sleep without calling 911.

[9] After leaving Smith’s house around 7:19 a.m., Carr’s phone was signaled

traveling east until 7:32 a.m. then was picked up again at his mother’s house at

approximately 8:42 a.m. 2 Around 10:30 a.m., Carr returned to the Home Plate

1 The neighbor estimated that this occurred sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. 2 Carr’s phone stopped transmitting location data between 7:32 and 8:42 a.m. A special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified that a phone could stop transmitting location data for several reasons, including the phone being turned off or being in airplane mode, or simply, that “there just wasn’t

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-1599 | March 17, 2025 Page 4 of 18 Pub and talked to another customer, Joseph Anderson (Anderson), who noticed

that Carr “seemed upset.” Id. at 181. Carr told Anderson he “did something

bad and he might be going to jail for a while.” Id. When asked why, Carr

responded that Anderson “didn’t want to be involved.” Id.

[10] After hearing nothing from her daughter on the night of December 2nd,

Frances fell asleep for the night. In the morning, she called Smith repeatedly,

but Smith did not answer. Concerned, Frances drove to Smith’s house and

knocked on the front door around 1:00 that afternoon. When no one answered,

Frances went to the back door, discovered it unlocked, and went inside. She

found Smith in her bedroom, “sitting up – leaning on the wall . . . with blood

splatter on the wall . . . already stiff.” Id. at 32-33. She called 911. Frances told

the police that she had overheard Smith’s recent argument with Carr on the

phone and that she believed Carr, whom she knew as Ace, was the perpetrator.

Id. at 47. Despite Smith being shot three times, detectives who searched the

scene only found two shell casings—both fired from the same gun. The murder

weapon was never recovered.

[11] On December 4, 2022, Carr went to the Hammond Police Department to speak

with detectives. 3 Carr told detectives that he and Smith had plans to go out on

data collected during that timeframe.” Tr. Vol. 5 at 249. The agent indicated that “generally” she cannot conclude why a cell phone stopped transmitting signals solely from reviewing the phone records. Id. 3 Although the record indicates that Carr spoke with detectives, the record is unclear as to whether the police requested Carr sit for an interview or whether he went on his own volition.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-1599 | March 17, 2025 Page 5 of 18 the night of December 2nd but he noticed his key to Smith’s house was missing

and he blamed Smith for its disappearance. Carr claimed he asked Smith to

take him to his mother’s house, but she refused, so his friend gave him a ride.

Carr told detectives he did not return to Smith’s house that night.

[12] After Carr was arrested on December 15, 2022, he sat for another interview

with the detectives. He reiterated that he had been arguing with Smith on

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