Christopher J. Hamman v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided September 4, 2019·No. 17A03-1708-CR-1870·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 Sep 04 2019, 6:21 am court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK the defense of res judicata, collateral Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals

estoppel, or the law of the case. and Tax Court

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Kimberly A. Jackson Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Indianapolis, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana

Caryn N. Szyper

Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Christopher J. Hamman, September 4, 2019 Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.

17A03-1708-CR-1870

v. Appeal from the DeKalb Superior Court

State of Indiana, The Honorable Monte L. Brown, Appellee-Plaintiff Judge Trial Court Cause No.

17D02-1610-FA-2

May, Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 17A03-1708-CR-1870 | Septmeber 4, 2019 Page 1 of 18

[1] Christopher J. Hamman appeals his convictions of Class A felony child molesting 1 and Class B felony incest. 2 Hamman raises several arguments on appeal, which we restate as:

1. Whether there was sufficient evidence to support Hamman’s convictions;

2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting some testimony of K.H. and Detective Rice;

3. Whether Hamman’s right to be free from double jeopardy was violated;

4. Whether Hamman’s sentence was appropriate in light of the nature of the offense and his character; and

5. Whether the trial court erred in imposing Probation Condition 26.

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

Facts and Procedural History [2] K.H. is the child of Hamman and his wife. In November 2007, when K.H. was

eleven, Hamman’s wife left the family. In December 2007, Hamman began molesting K.H. One night, Hamman laid down beside K.H. in her bed and

1 Ind. Code § 35-42-4-3(a)(1) (2007).

2 Ind. Code § 35-46-1-3(a) (1994).

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 17A03-1708-CR-1870 | Septmeber 4, 2019 Page 2 of 18 cuddled her as she tried to fall asleep. Hamman then moved his hand under K.H.’s pajamas and inserted his fingers into her vagina. K.H. felt Hamman get an erection as he touched her. The encounter lasted between ten and twenty minutes.

[3] This kind of encounter occurred two or three times a month for several years. Hamman would sometimes be naked. K.H. recalled waking up naked on multiple occasions but having no recollection of what had happened. Hamman often spoke with K.H. about keeping the molestations a secret. Hamman would manipulate K.H. to stay silent by buying her gifts, including a pony, and by giving her money. Once in middle school, K.H. told a counselor what was happening, but Hamman told K.H. to drop the report, and the next day K.H. told the counselor she had lied because she wanted attention.

[4] The molestations continued until 2010, when Hamman’s girlfriend moved in. In 2016, when K.H. was nineteen years old, she moved in with her boyfriend. K.H. returned to Hamman’s house to retrieve some of her belongings while Hamman was on vacation. Hamman believed K.H.’s boyfriend had broken into his home and damaged his truck, so Hamman reported the incident to the police. The police interviewed K.H., who showed Detective Rice text messages between herself and Hamman regarding what had happened at Hamman’s house. After seeing the messages, Detective Rice became concerned and questioned K.H. about her relationship with Hamman. K.H. became withdrawn, but eventually told Detective Rice about the molestations.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 17A03-1708-CR-1870 | Septmeber 4, 2019 Page 3 of 18

[5] In September 2017, Detective Rice interviewed Hamman. The interview began with discussion of Hamman’s truck, but shifted to Hamman’s relationship with K.H. Initially, Hamman admitted cuddling with K.H. in her bed but denied ever touching her inappropriately, and he also denied ever being naked while cuddling with K.H. Then, Hamman admitted to touching K.H.’s vagina once, but he claimed he did so to check if it was swollen after K.H. complained that it was. Hamman denied ever digitally penetrating K.H. Finally, Hamman confessed he rubbed K.H.’s vagina a few times because he was curious what it felt like. Hamman also admitted he became aroused and went to his bedroom to masturbate.

[6] The State charged Hamman with Class A felony child molesting and Class B felony incest. A jury found Hamman guilty of both counts. The trial court imposed a forty-year aggregate sentence with five years suspended to probation.

Discussion and Decision

1. Sufficiency of Evidence [7] Hamman argues there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions.

When considering the sufficiency of evidence, “a reviewing court does not reweigh the evidence or judge the credibility of the witnesses.” McHenry v. State, 820 N.E.2d 124, 126 (Ind. 2005). We must affirm “if the probative evidence and reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence could have allowed a reasonable trier of fact to find the defendant guilty beyond a

reasonable doubt.” Id. at 126 (internal citation omitted). Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 17A03-1708-CR-1870 | Septmeber 4, 2019 Page 4 of 18

[8] In particular, Hamman claims the evidence was insufficient because K.H. was the sole witness and K.H.’s testimony was incredibly dubious. “Under the incredible dubiosity rule, a court will impinge upon the jury’s responsibility to judge the credibility of witnesses only when confronted with inherently improbable testimony or coerced, equivocal, wholly uncorroborated testimony of incredible dubiosity.” Tillman v. State, 642 N.E.2d 221, 223 (Ind. 1994). “Application of this rule is limited to cases . . . where a sole witness presents inherently contradictory testimony [that] is equivocal or the result of coercion and there is a complete lack of circumstantial evidence of the appellant’s guilt.” Id.

[9] Hamman draws attention to a journal wherein K.H. wrote about the things that occurred in her childhood. In these entries, K.H. wrote about how she lied to get Hamman in trouble. (Ex. A.) Although K.H.’s trial testimony is inconsistent with the journal entries, she did not contradict herself on the stand. Trial testimony is not incredibly dubious simply because it contradicts pre-trial statements. See Davenport v. State, 689 N.E.2d 1226, 1230 (Ind. 1997) (although witness contradicted his pre-trial statements, his testimony was not incredibly dubious because he did not contradict himself while testifying), clarified on reh’g on other grounds 696 N.E.2d 870 (Ind. 1998).

[10] The jury was made aware of the inconsistencies between K.H.’s testimony and her journal entries. The jury is to weigh the evidence and assess the credibility of witnesses in light of such inconsistencies. See id at 1231 (jury allowed to evaluate testimony inconsistent with pretrial statements, and inconsistencies do Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 17A03-1708-CR-1870 | Septmeber 4, 2019 Page 5 of 18 not automatically render testimony incredibly dubious). K.H.’s testimony was sufficient to support Hamman’s convictions. 3 See, e.g., Wolf v. State, 76 N.E.3d 911, 916 (Ind. Ct. App. 2017) (holding testimony inconsistent with prior statements is sufficient to support conviction). See Morris v. State, 114 N.E.3d 531, 536 (Ind. Ct. App. 2018) (uncorroborated victim testimony sufficient to support conviction) trans. denied.

2. Admission of Evidence

[11] Hamman argues the trial court abused its discretion by admitting statements

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