Brandon Mockbee v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided March 16, 2018·No. 15A01-1703-CR-483·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED regarded as precedent or cited before any Mar 16 2018, 10:43 am

court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK the defense of res judicata, collateral Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals

and Tax Court

estoppel, or the law of the case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Leanna Weissmann Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Lawrenceburg, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana

Chandra K. Hein

Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Brandon Mockbee, March 16, 2018 Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.

15A01-1703-CR-483

v. Appeal from the Dearborn Circuit Court

State of Indiana, The Honorable James D. Appellee-Plaintiff Humphrey, Judge Trial Court Cause No.

15C01-1607-F5-49

Crone, Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 15A01-1703-CR-483 | March 16, 2018 Page 1 of 18

Case Summary

[1] Brandon Mockbee was convicted, following a jury trial, for two counts of level

5 felony burglary and one count of level 6 obstruction of justice. The jury also found that he was a habitual offender. The trial court sentenced him to consecutive terms of six years for each burglary, two and one-half years for obstruction of justice, and six years for the habitual offender enhancement, for an aggregate sentence of twenty and one-half years. Mockbee appealed, asserting that the State presented insufficient evidence to support the habitual offender enhancement and his obstruction of justice conviction. He also claimed that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting certain evidence, in denying his motion for severance, and in revoking his right to represent himself at trial.

[2] In November 2017, after finding the evidence sufficient to support the habitual offender enhancement and obstruction of justice conviction, and concluding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion, we issued a memorandum decision affirming Mockbee’s convictions and sentences in Mockbee v. State, No. 15A01-1703-CR-483, 2017 WL 5352718 (Nov. 14, 2017), trans. granted. After we issued our decision, Mockbee petitioned for transfer. Ten days later, our supreme court handed down Johnson v. State, 87 N.E.3d 471 (Ind. 2017), and Calvin v. State, 87 N.E.3d 474 (Ind. 2017). Mockbee filed a reply brief in support of transfer citing Johnson and Calvin, and our supreme court subsequently issued an order granting transfer, vacating our decision, and remanding the appeal for us to reconsider in light of Johnson and Calvin. See Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 15A01-1703-CR-483 | March 16, 2018 Page 2 of 18

Mockbee v. State, No. 18S-CR-111, 2018 WL 1007816 (Feb. 22, 2018). Upon such reconsideration, we affirm Mockbee’s convictions and sentences, but we reverse the habitual offender enhancement and remand to the trial court for further proceedings.

Facts and Procedural History [3] On June 16, 2016, at 11:45 p.m., officers responded to a report from an alarm

company that “there was glass breakage” at Hibbett Sports in Aurora. Tr. Vol. 6 at 34. When they arrived, they observed that the front door was shattered and a large rock was about ten feet inside the store. After investigating, officers discovered that “a large quantity of the Air Jordan merchandise and Cincinnati Reds merchandise was missing.” Id. at 33. Surveillance video obtained from a nearby business revealed that a white vehicle was seen leaving Hibbett Sports at the time of the burglary.

[4] Then, on June 27, 2016, at 11:02 p.m., officers responded to a similar report from Tri-State Battery in nearby Lawrenceburg. Upon arrival, officers observed that the front glass door had been smashed with “what appeared to be a red paver, or a red round stone.” Id. at 213-14. Items such as a generator, some water pumps, and a weed trimmer were missing. Also, two cash drawers were gone. Lawrenceburg Police Department Detective Nicholas Beetz was summoned to the scene. Detective Beetz recalled seeing a media release regarding the Hibbett Sports burglary a few days earlier. When Detective Beetz and the owner of Tri-State Battery, Terry Miller, arrived and walked around the

property, they noticed that there was an “electronic transformer box behind the Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 15A01-1703-CR-483 | March 16, 2018 Page 3 of 18 building had been knocked off its base several inches.” Id. at 214. Surveillance video showed a 2010 to 2012 Nissan Versa back into the transformer box causing damage to the vehicle. The driver then drove to the front of the building, opened the hatch of the vehicle, appeared to grab something, and then proceeded “to throw the object inside and through the window of the business.” Id. at 220. The suspect was “obviously wearing a light colored shirt, light colored gloves, some sort of concealment around the face, a Cincinnati Reds hat, dark pants and white shoes.” Id. The video showed the person going into the store and carrying items out.

[5] Detective Beetz sent a text message to Aurora Police Department Detective Vern McBride, the officer investigating the Hibbett Sports burglary, to let him know about the similarities between the two crimes. Detective Beetz also asked Miller to review Tri-State Battery’s surveillance video to see if the suspect had been scoping out the business in the days leading up to the burglary. Miller identified a person, and a vehicle, matching the suspect on video from June 23, 2016. The person had on white shoes, black socks, red basketball shorts, and a white Air Jordan shirt. The person peered inside the front door and the side window of the business for several seconds.

[6] In addition to having Miller review the surveillance video, Detective Beetz gathered more information regarding the Nissan Versa vehicle seen in the video. The vehicle in the video had a front vanity license plate as well as a rear license plate. The vehicle also had a decal on the rear hatch and damage to the right rear bumper where it struck the electrical box. Detective Beetz eventually Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 15A01-1703-CR-483 | March 16, 2018 Page 4 of 18 discovered a vehicle matching the one in the surveillance video registered to Rosalie Rahn in Mount Healthy, Ohio. Detective Beetz traveled to Ohio to speak with Rahn about her vehicle. When the detective arrived, Rahn immediately asked him if he was there about her grandson, Mockbee. Rahn informed Detective Beetz that she had loaned her vehicle to Mockbee during the relevant time frame. Rahn also told authorities that Mockbee was in a relationship with a woman named Melissa Holley who drove a white vehicle. Upon hearing this information, Detective Beetz recalled that a white vehicle had been involved in the burglary at Hibbett Sports. Detective Beetz showed Rahn some still photographs taken from the Tri-State Battery video surveillance on June 23, and Rahn identified the suspect as Mockbee.

[7] Detectives Beetz and McBride gathered information regarding both Mockbee and Holley. They determined that there was an open Department of Child Services (“DCS”) investigation involving Holley’s children and that Holley was living at a North Vernon residence owned by Donna Lacey. The detectives spoke with Holley’s DCS caseworker, Elizabeth Beesley. Beesley informed the detectives that in June 2016, Mockbee and Holley had a physical altercation at Lacey’s house during which the children were present. Mockbee was banned from Lacey’s residence, and DCS planned to check on the children thirty days following the incident. Beesley told the detectives that she planned to go to Lacey’s residence that day and asked the detectives if they would like to accompany her. The detectives accompanied Beesley to Lacey’s residence so that they could speak with Holley and/or Mockbee.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 15A01-1703-CR-483 | March 16, 2018 Page 5 of 18

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