Boyd v. State

766 N.E.2d 396, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 333, 2002 WL 358645
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 7, 2002
Docket49A04-0106-CR-269
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 766 N.E.2d 396 (Boyd 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
Boyd v. State, 766 N.E.2d 396, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 333, 2002 WL 358645 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

NAJAM, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Mozell Boyd was convicted of Criminal Confinement and Attempted Criminal Confinement, both as Class B felonies, following a jury trial. Boyd now challenges his convictions, raising the following two issues for our review:

1. Whether the State presented sufficient evidence to support his convie-tions.
Whether his convictions for confinement and attempted confinement violate the Indiana constitutional prohibition against double Jeopardy.

We affirm in part, and reverse in part.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In August 2000, Audie Wilson unlocked and entered his car, which was parked behind an Indianapolis apartment building. As Wilson put his key into the ignition, Dewayne Perry, armed with a handgun, approached and ordered Wilson to exit the vehicle. Holding a gun to his back, Perry foreed Wilson to walk toward the door of the apartment building. When they reached the building, Perry knocked twice on a nearby door, and from inside the stairwell Boyd emerged, along with his nephew, Ovanda Boyd. Perry gave the gun to Boyd and went to retrieve Wilson's car. Boyd held the gun on Wilson as they waited for Perry, who returned with the car in a few minutes. Boyd, along with Ovanda, intended to stuff Wilson into the car's trunk. But when they were unable to open it, they decided to throw Wilson in the back seat. Wilson resisted, and a seuf-fle ensued. After a three or four minute skirmish, Wilson was able to fend off Boyd and Ovanda. The pair left Wilson lying on the ground and crawled into the car as Perry, who was driving, sped away from the scene.

The State charged Boyd with Carjacking, Robbery, Criminal Confinement, Attempted Criminal Confinement, and Carrying a Handgun Without a License, although the State dismissed the robbery count prior to trial The jury failed to reach a verdict on the carjacking count and acquitted Boyd of carrying a handgun without a license, but they found him guilty of both criminal confinement and attempted criminal confinement. The trial court entered judgment of conviction and sentenced Boyd to two concurrent ten-year terms. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

Sufficiency of the Evidence

Boyd initially argues that the State presented insufficient evidence to support his conviction for criminal confinement. We do not agree.

The proper standard of review on a claim of sufficiency of the evidence is well settled. Wheeler v. State, 749 N.E.2d 1111, 1115 (Ind.2001). The court does not reweigh the evidence or judge the credibility of the witnesses. Wallace v. State, 722 N.E.2d 910, 912 (Ind.Ct.App.2000). Instead, we consider only that evidence most favorable to the verdict along with all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom. We will affirm the conviction if sufficient probative value exists such that a trier of fact could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Wheeler, 749 N.E.2d at 1115.

*399 To conviet Boyd of eriminal confinement, the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly or intentionally: (1) confined another person without the other person's consent; or (2) removed another person, by fraud, enticement, force, or threat of foree from one place to another. See Ind.Code § 35-42-3-8.

The state sought to convict Boyd as an accomplice. To do so, the State needed to prove that Boyd knowingly or intentionally aided, induced, or caused another person to commit criminal confinement, regardless of whether the other person had been prosecuted, convicted, or acquitted of that offense. See Sanquenetti v. State, 727 N.E.2d 437, 441 (Ind.2000) (citing to Indiana Code Section 35-41-2-4). There is no separate crime of being an accessory or aiding and abetting the perpetrator of a crime; rather a defendant may be convicted as a principal upon evidence that he aided or abetted in the perpetration of the charged crime. Id. The individual who aids another person in committing a crime is as guilty as the actual perpetrator. Id.

The following factors are considered in determining if a defendant aided another in the commission of a crime: "(1) presence at the scene of the crime; (2) companionship with another at scene of the crime; (8) failure to oppose commission of crime; and (4) course of conduct before, during and after occurrence of crime." Vitek v. State, 750 N.E.2d 346, 352 (Ind.2001). While the defendant's presence during the commission of the crime or his failure to oppose the crime are, by themselves, insufficient to establish accomplice liability, the jury may consider them along with other facts and cireum-stances tending to show participation. Garland v. State, 719 N.E.2d 1236, 1237 (Ind.1999). In order to sustain a convietion as an accomplice, there must be evidence of the defendant's affirmative conduct, either in the form of acts or words, from which an inference of common design or purpose to effect the commission of a crime may be reasonably drawn. Peterson v. State, 699 N.E.2d 701, 706 (Ind.Ct.App.1998).

Here, Wilson testified that Perry escorted him at gunpoint from his vehicle to the door of the apartment building. After Perry knocked on the door, Boyd and Ovanda emerged from the stairwell. Boyd held the gun on Wilson while Perry went to retrieve Wilson's vehicle. Wilson testified that Boyd and Ovanda attempted to shove him first into the trunk and then into the back seat of his vehicle. After a struggle ensued, Boyd, Ovanda, and Perry fled together in Wilson's vehicle.

In addition, Boyd admitted to Indianapolis Police Detective, Delbert Shelton, during an interview that he and Ovanda had gone to the apartment complex to "encounter" Wilson and had run into Perry. Boyd asked Perry if he "wanted to join along," and Perry agreed. Based on this evidence, we hold that a jury could have reasonably found that Perry confined Wilson without his consent and that Boyd knowingly or intentionally aided Perry in that pursuit.

Double Jeopardy

Boyd next contends that his dual convie-tions of eriminal confinement and attempted criminal confinement violate the Indiana Constitution's prohibition against double jeopardy. Specifically, Boyd argues that since the confinement incident in this case was continuous, he could have been properly convicted of only one confinement offense. We agree.

Article 1, Section 14 of the Indiana Constitution states, in relevant part, that "Inlo person shall be put in jeopardy twice for the same offense." The *400 right to not be twice put in jeopardy stems from the underlying premise that a defendant should not be twice tried or punished for the same offense. Davis v. State, 691 N.E.2d 1285

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Bluebook (online)
766 N.E.2d 396, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 333, 2002 WL 358645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boyd-v-state-indctapp-2002.