Creager v. State

737 N.E.2d 771, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 1649, 2000 WL 1529227
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided October 17, 2000·No. 49A02-0001-CR-42·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ROBB, Judge

Following a jury trial, Jeremy Creager was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a Class C felony, criminal confinement, a Class B felony, and residential entry, a Class D felony. The trial court later sentenced Jeremy to thirty-one years at the Indiana Department of Correction and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $100,000.00. Jeremy now appeals his convictions and the restitution order. We affirm in part and reverse and remand with instructions in part.

Issues

Jeremy raises the following consolidated and restated issues for our review:

1.Whether the trial court properly refused to tender a self-defense instruction to the jury;
2. Whether there was sufficient evidence to support Jeremy’s conviction of criminal confinement conviction as a Class B felony;
3. Whether the trial court properly ordered Jeremy to pay restitution to the victim’s ex-wife for the loss of child support past the date of sentencing;
4. Whether the trial court properly sentenced Jeremy to thirty-three years at the Indiana Department of Correction; and
5. Whether Jeremy was denied his right to an impartial judge during sentencing.

Facts and Procedural History

The facts reveal that Jeremy and Mary Creager were married in 1996, and shortly thereafter their marriage produced a daughter. On November 24, 1998, the trial court issued a no contact order prohibiting Jeremy from having contact with Mary as a result of the State charging Jeremy with a crime of violence against Mary. 1 During the early part of December of 1998, Mary informed Jeremy she needed her space and thus, Jeremy began moving his personal items from the marital residence. On December 4, 1998, Jeremy entered the marital residential without Mary’s knowledge or consent and hid in an upstairs bedroom closet. Shortly thereafter, Mary, her daughter, and Patrick Johnson entered the marital residence. After putting her daughter to bed, Mary and Patrick proceeded to the master bedroom where they watched a video. At the conclusion of the video, Patrick began to give Mary a massage.

As Patrick was giving Mary a massage, Jeremy entered the bedroom and confronted Patrick and Mary while armed with a baseball bat and his combat knife. Subsequently, a struggle ensued between Pat *776 rick and Jeremy, with Jeremy striking Patrick several times with the baseball bat. As the two continued to struggle, Jeremy stabbed Patrick with the combat knife. Patrick than retreated to the bathroom and locked the door. Thereafter, Mary attempted to call 911 on her cell phone but Jeremy took the cell phone and threw it against the wall, breaking it. Subsequently, Jeremy bound Mary’s feet and hands with a torn pillowcase. Jeremy then proceeded to repeatedly strike the door of the bathroom with the baseball bat in order to gain admittance to where Patrick was hiding.

During the melee, Mary was able to free herself from her bounds and escape to a neighbor’s house. As Mary lay hidden in the neighbor’s residence, Jeremy forcefully entered the home in an attempt to overtake Mary. However, Jeremy was unsuccessful in his attempt to locate Mary at the neighbors’ residence. Thereafter, Jeremy proceeded back to the marital residence, retrieved his daughter, and fled to South Dakota where he was later apprehended. Patrick later died from his injuries.

Consequently, the State charged Jeremy with murder, robbery, and burglary, all Class A felonies, criminal confinement and invasion of privacy, both Class B felonies, and criminal confinement, a Class D felony. A jury later found Jeremy guilty of criminal confinement, a Class B felony, involuntary manslaughter, a Class C felony, and residential entry, a Class D felony. The trial court sentenced Jeremy to thirty-one years at the Indiana Department of Correction and ordered him to make restitution to Patrick’s ex-wife, Denise Johnson, for lost child support in the amount of $100,000.00. 2 This appeal ensued.

Discussion and Decision

I. Self-Defense Jury Instruction

Jeremy first contends that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on self-defense. We disagree.

A. Standard of Review

A defendant is entitled to have the jury instructed correctly on an essential rule of law. Hill v. State, 615 N.E.2d 97, 99 (Ind.1993). The giving of jury instructions is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court, and we review the court’s refusal to give a tendered instruction for an abuse of that discretion. CSX Transp., Inc. v. Kirby, 687 N.E.2d 611, 616 (Ind.Ct.App.1997), trans. denied. Generally, we will reverse a trial court for failure to give a tendered instruction if: 1) the instruction is a correct statement of the law; 2) it is supported by the evidence; 3) it does not repeat material adequately covered by other instructions; and 4) the substantial rights of the tendering party would be prejudiced by failure to give it. Id. at 616-17.

B. Self-Defense Instruction

Jeremy argues that the trial court’s refusal to give the jury his tendered instruction on self-defense denied him his right to present a defense and his right to have the jury determine the law and facts. The State argues that the trial court correctly refused to tender a self-defense instruction to the jury because the evidence did not support the giving of the instruction to the jury.

We note initially that a meritorious claim of self-defense eliminates the possibility that any crime has been committed. Gunn v. State, 174 Ind.App. 26, 365 N.E.2d 1234, 1239 (1977). The doctrine of self-defense is codified in Indiana Code section 35-41-3-2, which provides in pertinent part:

(a) A person is justified in using reasonable force against another person to protect himself or a third person from what *777 he reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person is justified in using deadly force only if he reasonably believes that the force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to himself or a third person or the commission of a forcible felony. No person in this state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting himself or his family by reasonable means necessary.
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(d) Notwithstanding subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section, a person is not justified in using force if:
(1) he is committing, or is escaping after the commission of, a crime;

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Creager v. State, 737 N.E.2d 771, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 1649, 2000 WL 1529227 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000).

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