Bustamante v. State

557 N.E.2d 1313, 1990 Ind. LEXIS 151, 1990 WL 115170
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 7, 1990
Docket50S00-8712-CR-1167
StatusPublished
Cited by109 cases

This text of 557 N.E.2d 1313 (Bustamante 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
Bustamante v. State, 557 N.E.2d 1313, 1990 Ind. LEXIS 151, 1990 WL 115170 (Ind. 1990).

Opinion

DeBRULER, Justice.

Appellant was indicted by a Marshall County grand jury for murder, I.C. 35-42-1-1(1); felony murder, I.C. 35-42-1-1(2); and arson, a Class A felony, I.C. 35—43—1— 1(a), in connection with the death of his wife, Gloria Bustamante, which resulted from a fire at their home. He was then tried to a jury, which returned guilty verdicts on all three counts. The trial court merged the felony murder conviction into the murder conviction and sentenced appellant to sixty years on that count and to thirty years on the arson count. The court ordered that the two sentences be served concurrently, resulting in a sixty-year executed sentence. Appellant now brings this direct appeal, challenging the court’s rulings on hearsay issues, the sufficiency of the evidence, and the sentencing procedure. Appellant also alleges that the trial court erred by not providing him with a complete transcript of the grand jury proceedings and by denying his motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence.

I. Hearsay

A. Letter

Appellant asserts that the trial court committed reversible error by admitting, over his objection, a letter dated October 21, 1986, approximately a week before the fire. The letter was written by Gloria Bus-tamante to her mother, Frances Dahl. In the letter, Gloria described the Busta-mantes’ efforts to make money through the sale of some personal items and an unsuccessful application for a bank loan and told her mother that she and appellant had recently acquired jobs. She also asked Dahl for a loan of $1,000:

Mama, I hate to ask but I was wondering if we could borrow $1000.00 for now. Maybe by the end of the year we can pay you back $100.00 a month_ If you can’t—don’t worry—I will understand. Here is a list of why we need it.
$ 411.01 (Oct) House
150.00 Tires
50.00 Battery
125.00 My Eye Glasses
150.00 part of Sept & Oct Utilities
86.01
411.01 (Nov)
TOTAL $1297.02

Appellant argues that the letter was improperly offered to establish the fact of appellant’s financial need and the existence of a motive for him to set the fire.

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the facts asserted therein and rests on the credibility of a declarant who is not in court and is unavailable for cross-examination. Hughes v. State (1989), Ind., 546 N.E.2d 1203. If challenged evidence is hearsay and does not fall within one of the exceptions to the rule, then it is inadmissible. Indianapolis Newspapers, Inc. v. Fields (1970), 254 Ind. 219, 259 N.E.2d 651 (2-2 decision; DeBruler, J.). That part of Gloria’s letter which requested a loan from her mother is not hearsay at all because it asserted no fact as true which was susceptible to being true or false. True requests, commands, and questions are not assertions, and evidence regarding such utterances may come in because they are not offered for the truth of the facts asserted. Mayhew v. State (1989), Ind., 537 N.E.2d 1188 (per curiam); Indianapolis Newspapers, 254 Ind. 219, 259 N.E.2d 651.

In Hughes v. State, 546 N.E.2d 1203, a married couple was murdered by their daughter’s boyfriend, and a friend of the murdered woman testified that she believed the victims wished to limit the amount of time their daughter spent with the defendant and, over defense objection, that the woman had told her that they had imposed a curfew on their daughter. This Court held that this testimony was not hearsay and therefore admissible because the witness’s “testimony was offered not to prove the truth of the matter asserted by [the victim], but was introduced to establish her state of mind concerning her relationship with [her daughter] and the circumstances which led to the victims’ deaths.” Id. at 1208.

*1317 Here, by contrast, those parts of Gloria’s letter which described the Busta-mantes’ efforts to make and earn money and which listed the debts to be paid with the loan requested from Dahl were introduced to establish as true her negative assessment of the family’s financial situation and carried the plain inference that appellant had made the same assessment and therefore had the state of mind and a reason to set fire to the house. As such, it was hearsay, and because it did- not fall within one of the exceptions to the hearsay rule, its admission by the trial court was error. This was an error of state law. As such, it is subject to state harmless error analysis. An error of this type will result in reversal only if it appears that there was prejudice to appellant’s substantial legal rights. Harvey v. State (1971), 256 Ind. 473, 269 N.E.2d 759. Other evidence, namely, a handwritten promissory note signed by both appellant and Gloria and testimony regarding the circumstances surrounding that note, provided proof independent of Gloria’s letter supporting the inference that appellant felt financial pressure. Therefore, the error in the admission of the letter by the trial court was harmless.

B. Out-of-Court Statement

Appellant called Bill Billings to question him regarding a conversation he had with one Christopher Cotton, and the State objected on hearsay grounds. In an offer to prove outside the presence of the jury, Billings testified that during a conversation he had with Cotton and two other witnesses, Cotton suggested that he knew something more about the fire at the Bus-tamante residence than was known generally. 1 At the time of trial, Cotton was incarcerated in the Marshall County Jail and was under subpoena by appellant, and during the offer to prove, Billings stated to the court that Cotton was being held under an arson charge. Following Billings’s testimony, the State renewed its objection, which the trial court sustained. Appellant asserts that this ruling was erroneous under Patterson v. State (1975), 263 Ind. 55, 324 N.E.2d 482, and its progeny, arguing that no hearsay problem existed here since Cotton was under subpoena and incarcerated and therefore was available for cross-examination by the State. Appellant’s argument fails, however, because the foundational requirements for admission of evidence under the Patterson rule are not met under this scenario. In order to admit what would otherwise be inadmissible hearsay under the Patterson

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
557 N.E.2d 1313, 1990 Ind. LEXIS 151, 1990 WL 115170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bustamante-v-state-ind-1990.