Bei Bei Shuai v. State

966 N.E.2d 619, 2012 WL 394030
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 8, 2012
Docket49A02-1106-CR-486
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 966 N.E.2d 619 (Bei Bei Shuai 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
Bei Bei Shuai v. State, 966 N.E.2d 619, 2012 WL 394030 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION

MAY, Judge.

Bei Bei Shuai appeals the denial of her motion for bail and writ of habeas corpus (“the Bail Appeal”) and the denial of her motion to dismiss the charges against her (“the Dismissal Appeal”). She raises numerous issues,1 two of which we find dis-positive:

[622]*6221. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it denied Shuai bail because the proof was evident and presumption was strong that she committed murder; and
2. Whether the trial court erred when it denied Shuai’s motion to dismiss.

We reverse in part, affirm in part, and remand.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In December of 2010, Shuai was in the third trimester of a pregnancy that allegedly was the product of an affair with a married man, Zhiliang Guan. Guan broke off his relationship with Shuai that month, and she became distraught. Around the middle of the month, Shuai researched ways to commit suicide and decided she would ingest rat poison.

On December 21, Shuai bought rat poison. On December 23, when Shuai was thirty-three weeks pregnant, she wrote Guan, saying she felt she and the fetus were a burden on Guan, she had resolved to kill herself, and she was “taking this baby, the one you named Crystal, with [her].” (State’s Ex. 25 & 26.) Shuai then ingested rat poison. Shuai called Guan and told him she had ingested rat poison and was going to die.

Later that day, an anonymous caller asked police to conduct a welfare check on Shuai. When the officer arrived, Shuai insisted she was fíne and asked the officer to leave. She then went to the nearby home of her friend, Bing Mak. Mak noticed Shuai was acting strangely, but Shuai insisted nothing was wrong. Finally, Shuai admitted she had taken rat poison, and Mak took Shuai to the hospital for treatment.

On December 24, Shuai was transferred to Methodist Hospital. After she and the fetus were stabilized at Methodist, the doctors gave Shuai a steroid used to improve post-birth lung functioning of children who are born prematurely. Shuai immediately began having mild contractions, and doctors gave her indomethacin to stop the contractions.

On December 31, Dr. Claire Bernardin, an obstetrician, observed an unusual fetal heart rate and advised Shuai the fetus needed to be delivered immediately via caesarean section. Shuai consented, and the doctor delivered via caesarean section an infant Shuai named A.S. Hospital staff immediately transferred A.S. to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

While in the NICU, doctors found A.S. had a high International Normalized Ratio (INR), which indicated her blood could not clot. An ultrasound revealed A.S. had a bilateral Grade III intraventricular hemorrhage.2 A.S.’s condition steadily wors[623]*623ened. On January 3, 2011, Shuai consented to removing A.S. from life support, and A.S. died. Dr. Jolene Clouse, the forensic pathologist who performed A.S.’s autopsy, indicated on the coroner’s verdict report that A.S. died of “intracerebral hemorrhage due to maternal Coumadin3 ingestion[.]” (Defendant’s Ex. B.)

Shuai was released from the Methodist Psychiatric Unit on February 4, 2011, and returned to live with Mrs. Mak. On March 14, the State charged Shuai with murder, a felony,4 and Class B felony attempted feti-cide,5 and Shuai turned herself in on the same day. On March 22, Shuai filed a petition for reasonable bail and writ of habeas corpus, and on March 30, Shuai filed a motion to dismiss the charges against her.

The trial court held a hearing on her bail petition and denied it on June 6. It denied the motion to dismiss on June 20. On June 27, the trial court certified both orders for interlocutory appeal. We accepted jurisdiction on August 15. On Shuai’s motion, we ordered the Bail Appeal expedited. After examination of the Bail Appeal briefs, it became apparent the issues likely to be presented in the Dismissal Appeal would overlap significantly with those in the Bail Appeal. We accordingly reconsolidated the two appeals sua sponte and granted Shuai’s request for oral argument.6

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

1. Denial of Bail

Article 1, Section 17 of the Indiana Constitution recognizes the right to bail: “Offenses, other than murder and treason, shall be bailable by sufficient sureties. Murder or treason shall not be bailable, when the proof is evident, or the presumption is strong.” Indiana Code § 35-33-8-2(a) echoes that constitutional provision: “Murder is not bailable when the proof is evident or the presumption strong. In all other cases, offenses are bailable.” That language has been interpreted to imply a presumption that bail should not be granted in a murder case. Bozovichar v. State, 230 Ind. 358, 366, 103 N.E.2d 680, 683 (1952). “The burden is on the applicant to show that the proof is not evident or the presumption of guilt [not] strong.” Id. Thus, Shuai was required to demonstrate the State’s proof that she “did knowingly kill a fetus that had attained viability, namely: voluntarily ingested rat poison when approximately thirty-three (33) weeks pregnant causing [A.S.] to be born in distress and subsequently die[,]” (App. B7 at 330), was not evident and the pre[624]*624sumption of her guilt thereof was not strong.

The trial court denied Shuai’s request for bail. When reviewing a trial court’s denial of bail in a murder case, we reverse only for an abuse of discretion. Rohr v. State, 917 N.E.2d 1277, 1280 (Ind. Ct.App.2009). A decision is an abuse of discretion when it “is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances.” Prewitt v. State, 878 N.E.2d 184, 188 (Ind.2007).

At the bail hearing, the State presented evidence Shuai ingested rat poison when she was thirty-three weeks pregnant. The Court admitted Shuai’s suicide note in which she documented her intention to kill herself and her fetus. The doctors who treated Shuai and A.S. both testified Shuai was admitted to the hospital after ingesting rat poison while thirty-three weeks pregnant; she responded well to treatment for the poisoning; A.S. was delivered via caesarean section with Shuai’s consent on December 31, 2010; A.S. suffered a bilateral Grade III intraventricular hemorrhage; and A.S. was removed from life support and subsequently died on January 3, 2011. The coroner indicated A.S.’s death was caused by an intraventricular hemorrhage due to Shuai’s ingestion of rat poison.

Shuai attempted to rebut the presumption she should not receive bail by offering evidence to support alternate explanations for the intraventricular hemorrhage that led to A.S.’s death. For example, Shuai presented evidence that indomethacin, one of the drugs given to Shuai to stop her contractions, can cause infants to have “in-traventricular hemorrhage.” (Tr. at 96.) Dr. Lorant, the neonatologist who treated A.S., also testified that a number of other conditions could have caused A.S.’s blood to not clot:

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Bei Bei Shuai v. State
966 N.E.2d 619 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
966 N.E.2d 619, 2012 WL 394030, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bei-bei-shuai-v-state-indctapp-2012.