Bryan v. State

438 N.E.2d 709, 1982 Ind. LEXIS 918
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 11, 1982
Docket281S48
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 438 N.E.2d 709 (Bryan v. State) 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
Bryan v. State, 438 N.E.2d 709, 1982 Ind. LEXIS 918 (Ind. 1982).

Opinions

PIVARNIK, Justice.

Defendant-appellant, Martin Bryan, was convicted of Attempted Murder, Ind.Code § 35-41-5-1 (Burns Repl.1979) and Ind. Code § 35-42-1-1 (Burns Repl.1979), Rape, Ind.Code § 35-42-4-1 (Burns Repl.1979), and Confinement, Ind.Code § 35-42-3-3 (Burns Supp.1982), by a jury in Porter Superior Court on October 2, 1980. He was sentenced on October 10, 1980, to forty-five (45) years for attempted murder, twenty (20) years for rape, and four (4) years for confinement. All sentences are to run concurrently. Bryan now appeals.

Defendant raises five errors on appeal, concerning: (1) whether the trial court followed the proper procedure in determining the defendant’s competency to stand trial; (2) whether the trial court abused its discretion in overruling defendant’s pre-trial motions for continuances; (3) whether defendant’s Miranda rights were violated by the taking of both a tape recorded and video recorded statement from defendant; (4) whether the selection of the jury was proper and in compliance with the statute; and (5) whether defendant’s sentence was manifestly unreasonable. Defendant raised an additional issue concerning an instruction defining attempted involuntary manslaughter, but in his reply brief defendant concedes, in light of Smith v. State, (1981) Ind., 422 N.E.2d 1179, where we held that there can be no crime of “attempted involuntary manslaughter,” that he was not entitled to the requested jury instruction.

M.B., the victim, was working as a clerk in a 7-11 Store in Porter County, Indiana. On May 6, 1980, she went to her job. About 2:00 a. m., on May 7, 1980, a man grabbed her by the neck. She had seen him earlier, around midnight, when there were other people in the store. M.B. described the man and said the lighting was very good. She identified defendant, Martin Bryan, as this man.

M.B. tried to get free. Defendant said he had a gun and would kill her, asked if she had a car and said they would go for a ride. She got her keys while he still held her by the neck. He told her he was going to get a “quick piece of ass.” Defendant forced her into the car and drove off. She tried to escape and fought with him. He put her in the driver’s seat, placed something against her body and said it was a knife. He forced her to turn off and stop on a gravel road and to remove her lower garments and get into the back seat by threatening to kill her. M.B. testified that due to his threats she submitted to sexual intercourse. He performed cunnilingus and forced her to perform fellatio twice. He again forced her to submit to sexual intercourse. After she dressed, he choked her, rendering her unconscious for a brief time. He then drove around with her and while driving forced her to masturbate him and made her undress again. He stopped at a rest park and again forced her to submit to oral sex and intercourse.

Bryan expressed some worry about what she would say to the police. At a rest park he opened the trunk of her car, threw out various items that were in it, made M.B. get into the trunk and closed it. He then returned to the trunk, opened it, asked if she could breathe and when she said yes, he asked her to tell him where he could cut her throat to kill her. He took a knife which was on her key chain and cut her neck and wrist, causing bleeding and leaving scars. She went limp in order to make him think she had passed out. He cut her some more then locked her in the trunk again. Later he looked in the trunk, poked her and said, “Oh God, she’s dead.”

Defendant then drove the car around. The victim could tell from the sound that he pulled off on a gravel road and then onto a rough surface. She heard branches hitting the car. Bryan opened the trunk, poked M.B., tried to take her pulse and lifted her eyelid, then locked her in the trunk again. M.B. heard no sounds around the car. After it was silent for a while, M.B. tried to escape. She finally succeeded by kicking out the back seat of the car. She emerged

[712]*712to find her car in a ditch in a field near a trailer park and a farm house. A woman in the farm house helped her to wash off some of the blood and called the police, who took her to a hospital in Valparaiso. M. B. suffered several long cuts on her neck, bruises all over her left side, a welt on her arm, scratches on her back, bruises on her chest and a swollen throat. By the time of trial she still had numbness in the inside of some fingers and in her thumb.

Detective Sergeant Wayne A. Kempher, LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department, tracked moccasin footprints in soft dirt from the car to a trailer park. Along the way he found a 7-11 Store smock. After obtaining a warrant for a trailer where the footprints stopped he found inside it clothes being washed, matching the description given by M. B. of the clothes her assailant was wearing. Bryan was arrested by Sheriff Jan Rose, who found him in bed. Rose read Bryan his rights and saw him execute a written notice of rights.

I

Defendant Bryan claims the trial court erred in failing to follow the provisions of Ind.Code § 35-5-3.1-1 (Burns Repl.1979) which prescribe the procedure to be followed to determine a criminal defendant’s competency to stand trial. Defendant specifically alleges that the court failed to appoint two disinterested psychiatrists to examine him, and also that the trial court should have determined defendant’s competency prior to trial.

Ind.Code § 35-5-3.1-l(a) reads as follows:

“If at any time before the final submission of any criminal case to the court or jury trying the same, the court, either from its own knowledge or upon the suggestion of any person, has reasonable grounds for believing that the defendant lacks the ability to understand the proceedings and assist in the preparation of his defense, the court shall immediately fix a time for a hearing to determine whether the defendant has that ability. The court shall appoint two [2] competent disinterested psychiatrists, who shall examine the defendant for the purpose of forming an opinion as to whether the defendant has that ability and shall testify concerning the same at the hearing.”

[Repealed by Acts 1981, P.L. 298, § 9, effective September 1, 1982]

Defense counsel filed a Motion to Determine Competency on September 11, 1980, two weeks before the proposed start of defendant’s trial. The following day, September 12, the trial court appointed Drs. Hansen, Hogle, and Berkson to examine defendant Bryan and also set a hearing date to determine competency on September 18. Upon learning that Dr. Hogle was on vacation, the trial court stated that he would not have to examine the defendant.

At the hearing on September 18, Dr. Nicolas Hansen was sworn and examined. Dr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wells v. State
555 N.E.2d 1366 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1990)
Chambers v. State
551 N.E.2d 1154 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1990)
Sylvester v. State
549 N.E.2d 37 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1990)
N. Ind. Pub. Serv. Co. v. CITIZENS ACT. COAL. OF IND.
548 N.E.2d 153 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1989)
Perry v. State
541 N.E.2d 913 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1989)
Kindred v. State
540 N.E.2d 1161 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1989)
Stout v. State
528 N.E.2d 476 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1988)
Pasha v. State
524 N.E.2d 310 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1988)
Baxter v. State
522 N.E.2d 362 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1988)
Thomas v. State
519 N.E.2d 143 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1988)
Daugherty v. Indiana
511 N.E.2d 1070 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1987)
Menifee v. State
512 N.E.2d 142 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1987)
Martin R. Bryan v. Warden, Indiana State Reformatory
820 F.2d 217 (Seventh Circuit, 1987)
Burns v. State
500 N.E.2d 1243 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1986)
Spangler v. State
498 N.E.2d 1206 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1986)
Weekly v. State
496 N.E.2d 29 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1986)
Lamotte v. State
495 N.E.2d 729 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1986)
Kahn v. State
493 N.E.2d 790 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1986)
Newman v. State
485 N.E.2d 58 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
438 N.E.2d 709, 1982 Ind. LEXIS 918, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryan-v-state-ind-1982.