Antonio Smith v. State of Indiana

34 N.E.3d 1211, 2015 Ind. LEXIS 567, 2015 WL 3929923
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 26, 2015
Docket71S04-1506-CR-364
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 34 N.E.3d 1211 (Antonio Smith v. State of Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Antonio Smith v. State of Indiana, 34 N.E.3d 1211, 2015 Ind. LEXIS 567, 2015 WL 3929923 (Ind. 2015).

Opinion

DICKSON, Justice.

Following a jury trial, defendant Antonio Smith was convicted of Burglary, a Class C felony, committed at a Dollar General store in South Bend, Indiana. On appeal, the defendant seeks reversal of his conviction, asserting (1) the State knowingly used perjured testimony and (2) the testimony of the principal state witness was incredibly dubious, leaving insufficient evidence to sustain the conviction. The Court of Appeals reversed, finding the conviction was obtained through the State’s knowing use of perjured testimony. Smith v. State, 22 N.E.3d 620, 628 (Ind.Ct.App.2014). We grant transfer and affirm the conviction.

Because of the nature of the two issues raised on appeal, a detailed examination of the facts is warranted in this case. In December 2012, the defendant was living with his girlfriend Nicole Greenlee in Mishawaka, Indiana, when the defendant and Greenlee started arguing about money and the defendant “brought up the idea of breaking into [Greenlee’s] job and taking the daily deposit.” Tr. at 32. Greenlee was a manager of a Dollar General store and “had keys to almost every door in the building ... [her] own alarm code and ... safe codes.” - Id. At approximately 1:00 a.m. on December 19, three different Dollar General security cameras recorded images of an individual unlocking the front *1214 doors, turning off the store alarm, opening the store’s safes, and leaving the store with nearly $3,500 in cash. The individual inside the store can be seen talking on a cell phone, and cell phone records show that Greenlee and . the defendant exchanged three phone calls at times that match the time of the burglary as displayed on the security camera footage. While the person’s identity in the video was obscured by gloves and two hooded sweatshirts, the video contains several views of portions of the individual’s backside as the individual crouched on the floor during the burglary. In these recorded images, the perpetrator appears to be Caucasian.

Shortly after the burglary was reported to the police, the investigation focused on Greenlee. On December 28, 2012, Green-lee was interviewed by police, and she gave three conflicting stories about the night of the burglary. One of her stories implicated the defendant’s involvement, but the last story she gave implicated only herself. During Greenlee’s interview, South Bend Police Department Detective Kelly Waite walked outside the police station and saw the defendant sitting in the driver’s seat of a white car with temporary license plates. During her testimony, Greenlee stated that she and the defendant walked to the Dollar General on the night of the burglary because she and the defendant “didn’t have a car at the time.” Id. at 34. While Greenlee was in jail awaiting trial, she called the defendant, and the defendant was recorded asking Greenlee if he should turn himself in, telling her he would do whatever she wants. Eventually, Greenlee entered a guilty plea, and the colloquy to establish a factual basis included the following:

[Attorney]: [0]n- [the night of] December 18, 2012, did you knowingly break and enter into the building of Dollar General?
Ms. Greenlee: Yes.
[Attorney]: And that was on Hickory Road in South Bend; is that right?
Ms. Greenlee: Yes.
[Attorney]: You broke into the store with the intent to take some property out -of there, to .commit theft; is that right?
Ms. Greenlee: Yes.
[Attorney]: You were working there at the time; is that right?
Ms. Greenlee: Yes, I was.
[Attorney]: And you came back after it was closed. And what was it you were going to take out of the store?
Ms. Greenlee: Just money, just some money.
The Court: Now, how do you end up with $3,400 and some dollars? What’s that?
Ms. Greenlee: It was our deposit from our sales from the previous day. •
The Court: Did you get the money?
Ms. Greenlee: Yes.
[[Image here]]
The Court: ... How did you get in?
Ms. Greenlee: Through the codes. I was a manager at the time ...
The Court: But you opened the door to get in?
Ms. Greenlee: Right.
[[Image here]]
[Attorney]: You didn’t have permission to take it, did you? The money?
Ms. Greenlee:- No, I did not have permission.

Appellant’s App’x at 31-33. At no point during her plea hearing was Greenlee asked if anyone else was involved in the burglary.

In addition to charging Greenlee and securing her guilty plea, the police also *1215 arrested and charged the defendant with Class C felony Burglary for the same incident. In the probable cause affidavit, the State relied on statements made by Green-lee that the defendant “acted as a look-out during the burglary” and that “she gave the money taken from the Dollar General to [the defendant] after the burglary was completed.” Id. at 28. The State also relied on the cell phone records, which show the defendant’s phone conversations with Greenlee during the commission of the burglary, and the cell phone tower records, which the State claims “were picked up by cell phone towers much closer to Dollar General [than] [the defendant’s] residence, where he stated he had been during the commission of the burglary.” Id.

At trial, the State’s witnesses were Greenlee, then Detective Waite (testifying as to seeing the defendant in the car with temporary plates), and finally South Bend Police Officer Timothy Wiley (testifying as to the cell phone records). But Greenlee was the State’s primary witness, and her testimony is the center of this appeal. At trial, during opening argument, the prosecutor spoke of Greenlee, saying:

You’re also going to hear her give two different versions of what happened. When she first talked to police, you’re going to hear that she took the blame for being the one inside the store saying she was the one that went in, that’s her on the tape, that [the defendant] was outside in the bushes. You’re probably going to hear her sit right up here today and sit on the stand and tell you something different. What she’s probably going to tell you is that she was outside in the bushes and that [the defendant] was inside, and you’re going to hear about the factors that may contribute to that change in story and that’s something you’re going to have to deal with at the end of this process.

Tr. at 8-9.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 N.E.3d 1211, 2015 Ind. LEXIS 567, 2015 WL 3929923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/antonio-smith-v-state-of-indiana-ind-2015.