Coleman v. State

946 N.E.2d 1160, 2011 WL 1885250
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 18, 2011
Docket20S03-1008-CR-458
StatusPublished
Cited by72 cases

This text of 946 N.E.2d 1160 (Coleman 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
Coleman v. State, 946 N.E.2d 1160, 2011 WL 1885250 (Ind. 2011).

Opinion

946 N.E.2d 1160 (2011)

Tyrus D. COLEMAN, Appellant (Defendant below),
v.
STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below).

No. 20S03-1008-CR-458.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

May 18, 2011.

*1163 Cara Schaefer Wieneke, Wieneke Law Office, LLC, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Ian McLean, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 20A03-0904-CR-185

RUCKER, Justice.

In this opinion we discuss among other things whether the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution precludes the State from retrying a defendant where in the first trial the jury acquitted the defendant of murder with respect to one victim but failed to return a verdict on a charge of attempted murder with respect to another victim. We conclude it does not.

Facts and Procedural History

In a tragic incident occurring March 18, 2007, Tyrus Coleman shot his friends Anthony Dye and Dye's son Jermaine Jackson during a confrontation on Coleman's property, where Coleman operated a music recording studio. The confrontation stemmed from an event occurring approximately four months earlier in which Omar Sharpe, one of Coleman's musician clients, robbed Dye at gunpoint. Coleman retrieved part of the stolen property from Sharpe and returned it to Dye. Jermaine[1] was irritated when he later learned that Sharpe had robbed his father, but Dye asked him not to get involved. On the afternoon of the shootings, Jermaine discovered that Sharpe was present at Coleman's studio and frantically phoned Dye to "[c]ome over here right now." Tr. 1 at 131.[2] Armed with a handgun Dye headed to Coleman's studio. In the meantime an armed and agitated Jermaine pushed open the door to the studio and attempted to enter. Sharpe, who was present inside, prevented Jermaine's entry and closed the door. Exiting the studio Coleman attempted to calm Jermaine and to dissuade him from trying to enter. Coleman called a neighbor to come over to help calm Jermaine; he also called his business partner to inform him of the situation. The neighbor testified that he tried to talk with Jermaine by telling him what he [Jermaine] was doing "wasn't worth it. Just go ahead and leave. There was kids around and people around that didn't have nothing to do with what they was angry about." Tr. 1 at 220-21. According to the witness Jermaine responded by saying, "F* *k that. He didn't think about that s* *t when he did the s* *t to my Daddy." Tr. 1 at 221. Coleman armed himself, Tr. 1 at 286, and walked back and forth in front of the studio door holding his handgun at his side. State's Ex. 25 at 03:32:20.[3] As Coleman was making a *1164 phone call, Dye came into the yard through a front gate carrying a handgun which was pointed toward the ground. Dye strode toward his son Jermaine, who was standing next to Coleman on the patio in front of the studio. Within three seconds, the following occurred: Dye stepped onto the patio where Jermaine and Coleman were standing. As Dye stepped in front of Coleman, Coleman raised his gun and fired at Dye, who immediately fell to the ground. Coleman then shot Dye a second time. At that point Coleman "turned to Jermaine." Tr. 1 at 330. Coleman saw that Jermaine's handgun, which before that time had been concealed under his shirt and in a holster, was "pointed at [Coleman]," Tr. 1 at 330; and Coleman shot Jermaine. Jermaine fell to the ground, State's Ex. 25 at 03:35:33-03:35:36, and died at the scene as a result of his injuries. After the shooting, Coleman drove to Milwaukee disposing of his weapon along the way. Several days later he returned to Elkhart and surrendered to the police.

The State charged Coleman with murder, a felony, for the death of Jermaine and attempted murder, a Class A felony, for shooting Dye. During a jury trial conducted in February 2008 Coleman testified and admitted the shootings, but contended that his actions against both Jermaine and Dye were justified on the basis of self-defense. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the murder charge, but was unable to reach a verdict on the attempted murder charge. The trial court thus declared a mistrial on that count and scheduled another trial. Prior to retrial Coleman filed a motion to dismiss contending a subsequent trial on attempted murder was barred by collateral estoppel and would therefore violate the Double Jeopardy Clauses of both the United States and Indiana Constitutions. See Appellant's App. at 147. After a hearing, the trial court denied the motion. A retrial ensued, at the conclusion of which the jury found Coleman guilty as charged. Thereafter the trial court sentenced him to a term of forty-five years. Coleman appealed raising several issues for review. In a divided opinion the Court of Appeals reversed Coleman's conviction on grounds of collateral estoppel. Coleman v. State, 924 N.E.2d 659 (Ind.Ct.App.2010). Having previously granted transfer thereby vacating the opinion of the Court of Appeals, see Ind. Appellate Rule 58(A), we now affirm Coleman's conviction. Additional facts are set forth below where necessary.

Discussion

I.

Collateral Estoppel

The Double Jeopardy Clause contained in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, "[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb."[4] Collateral estoppel (also referred to as issue preclusion) has been characterized as an "awkward phrase" however "it stands for an extremely important principle in our adversary system of justice. It means simply that when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit." Ashe *1165 v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 443, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970). Collateral estoppel is not the same as double jeopardy, but rather it is embodied within the protection against double jeopardy. "`[T]he traditional bar of jeopardy prohibits the prosecution of the crime itself, whereas collateral estoppel, in a more modest fashion, simply forbids the government from relitigating certain facts in order to establish the fact of the crime.'" Little v. State, 501 N.E.2d 412, 414 (Ind. 1986) (quoting United States v. Mock, 604 F.2d 341, 343-44 (5th Cir.1979)). In essence the doctrine of collateral estoppel "precludes the Government from relitigating any issue that was necessarily decided by a jury's acquittal in a prior trial." Yeager v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 129 S.Ct. 2360, 2366, 174 L.Ed.2d 78 (2009). To decipher what a jury necessarily decided in a prior trial, courts should "examine the record of a prior proceeding, taking into account the pleadings, evidence, charge, and other relevant matter, and conclude whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration." Id. at 2367 (quoting Ashe, 397 U.S. at 444, 90 S.Ct. 1189).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
946 N.E.2d 1160, 2011 WL 1885250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coleman-v-state-ind-2011.