Barton v. State

936 N.E.2d 842, 2010 Ind. App. LEXIS 2064, 2010 WL 4492842
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 10, 2010
Docket18A04-0910-CR-609
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 936 N.E.2d 842 (Barton 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
Barton v. State, 936 N.E.2d 842, 2010 Ind. App. LEXIS 2064, 2010 WL 4492842 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

KIRSCH, Judge.

Kevin Barton appeals his conviction for failure to return to the scene of an accident resulting in death 1 as a Class C felony. Barton raises the following three restated issues:

I. Whether the trial court erred when it denied Barton's motion to dismiss, which asserted that the State was barred under collateral estoppel principles from prosecuting him for failure to return to the seene of an accident resulting in death;
II. Whether certain statements made by the State during rebuttal closing argument constituted Doyle 2 violations; and
III. Whether the trial court erred when it refused Barton's mistake-of-fact instruction.

We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Around 1:80 am. on October 8, 2006, Jamie Beaty ("Beaty"), a twenty-three-year-old female, and her boyfriend, David Pyles ("Pyles"), were at a party near Yorktown, Indiana, which is located between Anderson and Muncie. Pyles got mad at Beaty and left the party on foot, to walk back to Muncie to retrieve his car. Beaty followed him as he walked along State Road 32. Pyles was walking ahead of Beaty and told her to quit following him; the two continued to argue as they walked. At some point, Pyles looked back and saw Beaty in the road, with headlights fast approaching, and he attempted to reach her to get her out of the way. Pyles explained that the next thing he knew, he was knocked down and a car had hit Beaty. That car, later determined to be a Nissan driven by Steven Brinkley, did not stop. Moments later, Beaty's body was run over and dragged by another vehicle, later determined to be Barton's black F-150 pick-up truck. Beaty died at the *846 scene. -In July 2007, Brinkley was convicted of, among other things, Class C felony failure to return to the scene of an accident resulting in death, and we affirmed his conviction by unpublished decision. Brinkley v. State, No. 18A02-0709-CR-826, 2008 WL 2580764 (Ind.Ct.App. June 30, 2008), trans. denied.

The State also charged Barton with Class C felony failure to return to the scene of an accident resulting in death. In addition, the State charged Barton with Class A misdemeanor operating while intoxicated endangering a person and Class D felony resisting law enforcement, but later dismissed the resisting law enforcement charge. In May 2009, prior to his jury trial, Barton filed a motion to dismiss the charge of failure to return to the scene of an accident resulting in death, arguing that collateral estoppel barred the State from pursuing the charge because Brink ley had already been convicted of the same offense. After a hearing, the trial court denied his motion.

At Barton's trial, Brinkley's passenger, Benjamin Gibson testified that he and Brinkley had been drinking throughout the night at various parties and establishments. As they were heading home to Anderson, Brinkley was driving down the road, when suddenly they saw what appeared to be a person, later determined to be Beaty, lying in the road. Before Brink ley had time to react, the Nissan he was driving hit her. Gibsor felt two quick thumps and said, "I think you hit someone." Tr. at 242. Brinkley kept driving until Gibson persuaded him to return to the scene, where they stayed briefly but did not report their involvement to authorities at the scene before leaving.

Barton, who was then, and had been for fifteen years, the Director of Transportation for Muncie Indiana Transit System ("MITS"), also testified. He stated that he had met his friend Julie Johnson that night in Yorktown for "a couple drinks," and as he was driving back toward Muncie from Yorktown, he was on the phone with a former girlfriend, Janice Litz, when he suddenly saw a person lying on the ground and another person next to him or her, and although he initially drove past them, he then turned around and went back to assist. Id. at 820. He stated that he pulled to the side of the road, exited his vehicle, and ran back to find Beaty in the road, not moving, and Pyles over her. Barton testified that he then saw an oncoming car, which he tried to flag down and stop, but which instead accelerated and ran over Beaty and did not stop. Barton testified that it was a white, older vehicle with shiny wheels and a "bad muffler job." Id. at 851. Barton explained that then another vehicle, a Green Ford Explorer, stopped to assist, and he ran back to his truck and, using his MITS cell phone, called 911. Barton stated that when he tried to call 911, he somehow reached Johnson, so he hung up and redialed 911, telling the operator that "A guy just hit a girl." Id. at 836.

Barton did not provide the 911 operator with his name, address, or registration number. He did not mention the description of the car that he saw run over Beaty. According to 911 records, the call was somehow disconnected, but not by the 911 center. Barton's cell phone records indicated that, during the relevant time frame, Barton dialed Litz at 1:18 a.m., Johnson at 1:24 am., and 911 at 1:27 am. After the 911 call, Barton said he went back to the scene, but another man, later identified as John Farris, was at that point rendering assistance to Beaty. Barton testified that he left the seene because he thought Far-ris was an emergency medical technician ("EMT") and that Farris told him to "get back and get out of here." Id. at 851. *847 Barton's truck was stopped by police not far from the accident location.

Farris, a former United States Marine, testified that, as he was traveling from Yorktown to Muncie that night, he came upon the scene, where he saw a person lying in the road (later identified as Beaty) and someone (later determined to be Pyles) leaning over her. Farris further testified that, as he slowed and stopped to assist, he saw an F-150 truck parked on the side of the road. Farris exited his vehicle and began to directly assess Beaty's condition and control the scene. He spoke to the 911 operator, and per her instructions, he told all bystanders that had assembled at the seene to remain. However, he noted that a man, later determined to be Barton, "started booking it" to his truck. Id. at 274. Farris said that Barton did a u-turn in his truck, and drove away toward Muncie. A woman who had stopped at the seene got in her own car and followed Barton's truck, and she recorded its license plate number, which was reported to authorities. Muncie police officers encountered Barton a short distance from the seene of the accident and stopped him. Officer Richard Howell, one of the Muncie officers who stopped Barton, testified that he observed "fluid and flesh matter" under the front bumper, in the passenger wheel well, and on the front tow hook. Id. at 446-47. Larry Harless of the Yorktown Police Department, who also responded and was involved in locating Barton's truck, similarly observed that the F-150 had a "flesh-type substance" on it. Id. at 407. Evidence technician Bruce Qualls examined the truck at about 2:30 a.m. and saw small bits of moist tissue from front to back along and under the passenger side of Barton's truck. Barton's truck did not exhibit damage consistent with striking an upright pedestrian. Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
936 N.E.2d 842, 2010 Ind. App. LEXIS 2064, 2010 WL 4492842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barton-v-state-indctapp-2010.