David Williams v. State of Indiana

997 N.E.2d 1154, 2013 WL 6001892
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 13, 2013
Docket67A01-1302-CR-87
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 997 N.E.2d 1154 (David Williams v. State of Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
David Williams v. State of Indiana, 997 N.E.2d 1154, 2013 WL 6001892 (Ind. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

MATHIAS, Judge.

David Williams (“Williams”) was convicted in Putnam Circuit court of eight counts of Class A felony child molesting and one count of Class B felony incest and was sentenced to an aggregate term of ninety-nine years. Williams appeals and presents four issues, which we restate as:

I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting into evidence Williams’s statement to the police;
II. Whether Williams’s convictions for child molesting and incest constitute double jeopardy;
III. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing Williams; and
IV. Whether Williams’s sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender.

We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

Williams and his ex-girlfriend, A.B., had an eight-year relationship which ended in 2008. The two had a daughter, K.W., who was born in 2003. After Williams’s and A.B.’s relationship ended, K.W. would spend one week at her mother’s house and the next week at her father’s house. This arrangement lasted from 2009 until January 2012. During.the time K.W. was at Williams’s house, he repeatedly molested her. Williams would wait until everyone else in the house was asleep, then have K.W. sneak out of her room so that he could fondle her, perform oral sex on her, and have sexual intercourse with her. Williams told K.W. not to tell anyone what he was doing or else she would not be able to see him again.

Eventually, in January 2012, K.W. told her mother that she had a secret. When asked what this secret was, K.W. stated that Williams had put his “thingy” inside her. A.B. contacted the authorities, and K.W. was interviewed at a child advocacy center. During the interview, K.W. stated, “we’ve got to stop it before [Williams] does it to [E.B.],” who was Williams’s younger daughter with his current wife. Tr. p. 414. K.W. stated in more detail how Williams would molest her: Williams told her to wait until everyone was asleep and then sneak downstairs; then Williams would rub her genitalia, and force his penis into her vagina and have intercourse with K.W., often until ejaculation. If K.W. tried to resist, Williams would “jerk [K.W.] back.” Tr. p. 407. Afterward, Williams would give K.W. an ice cream treat. K.W. also explained that this occurred as many as five nights a week every time she was at her father’s house. Although there were brief periods where Williams would *1158 stop his molestations, K.W. explained, “then he would do it again. And again and again. He hasn’t stopped.” Tr. p. 393.

On January 25, 2012, the Indiana State Police (“ISP”) executed a search warrant at Williams’s home. They also asked Williams to go the police station for an interview. Williams agreed. On the way to the station, Williams sat in the front passenger seat of the police car and was not handcuffed. Still, the officer escorting Williams advised him of his Miranda rights. At the station, ISP Detective Jim Dungan (“Detective Dungan”) and another officer interviewed Williams. Detective Dungan too advised Williams of his rights by reading from an advisement-of-rights form. Williams indicated that he understood the standard Miranda rights, i.e., that he had the right to remain silent, that anything he said could be used against him, that he had a right to have an attorney present during questioning, that an attorney would be appointed for him if he could not afford one, and that he had the right to stop the questioning at any time. Tr. pp. 525-27. As Detective Dungan read these rights to Williams, he placed a check mark next to each right as Williams indicated that he understood that right.

Detective Dungan then asked Williams to read the waiver portion of the advisement form, which resulted in the following exchange:

Williams: I have read this statement of my rights and I understand what my rights are. I am willing to make a statement and answer questions. I do not want a lawyer at this time. I understand and know what I am doing. No promises or threats have been made to me and no pressure,
Dungan: Coercion.
Williams: Coercion?
Dungan: Do you know what that means?
Williams: No I don’t.
Dungan: Kind of coercion, you are being coerced into saying something. We are promising you things or pressuring you into saying things[.][A]nd you are talking on your own free will basically. Okay?
Williams: All right.

Tr. p. 527.

Williams stated, “I don’t know like what or who is accusing me of stuff or anything,” and further stated, “I don’t know anything about lawyers. I’ve never had on[e] in my life. So I don’t know about [what] I should do to be safe for myself.” Id. at 528. The exchange then continued:

Dungan: Well I understand.
Williams: I mean I haven’t even talked to my wife.
Dungan: The way we operate is, the way we kind of operate is there are two sides to every story. Okay, there’s one side that somebody tells me and there is another side. We have heard, we got one side,
Williams: Right.
Dungan: of the story.
Williams: And I don’t even know what that story is.
Dungan: And that’s ... what we want to hear from you.
Williams: Okay.
Dungan: That’s the reason we are talking to you. We want to hear [y]our side of what’s going on.
Williams: Okay.
Dungan: And that’s basically it.
Williams: All right. Okay. Um, well if you’re just wanting to hear my side then I guess I don’t need a lawyer or anything I mean.
Dungan: Okay but we, this form here is just a standard form that everybody, [sic] I’m sure you’ve seen on CSI and on TV and everything.
*1159 Williams: Yeah.
Dungan: It’s just your rights. We have to read your rights to you.
Williams: Right.
Dungan: And so we just need you to sign right there basically saying that you are willing to ... sit there and' talk to us.
Williams: Yeah. Yeah. I’ll say that. Dungan: Yeah.
Williams: Yeah, you guys are not forcing me. You’ve, you’ve got to bear with me. I just,
Dungan: Oh yeah. I completely understand. If anytime during this you have a question for either one of us, feel free to ask.
Williams: Al[l] right.

Tr. pp.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
997 N.E.2d 1154, 2013 WL 6001892, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-williams-v-state-of-indiana-indctapp-2013.