Elwood v. State

673 N.E.2d 1, 1996 Ind. App. LEXIS 1477, 1996 WL 625934
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 30, 1996
Docket02A05-9511-CR-450
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 673 N.E.2d 1 (Elwood v. State) 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
Elwood v. State, 673 N.E.2d 1, 1996 Ind. App. LEXIS 1477, 1996 WL 625934 (Ind. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

RUCKER, Judge.

After trial by jury defendant/appellant Timothy Elwood was convicted of voluntary manslaughter as a class A felony 1 and robbery as a class A felony. 2 The trial court entered judgment on the voluntary manslaughter conviction as a class A felony but entered judgment for robbery as a class B felony. Elwood now appeals raising four issues for our review which we consolidate and rephrase as follows: 1) Was the evidence sufficient to support the convictions? 2) Did Elwood’s conviction and sentence violate the prohibition against double jeopardy? 3) Was Elwood entitled to discharge under Ind.Crim. Rule 4?

We affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand for re-sentencing.

The facts show that Elwood is a drug user who was supplied by drug dealer Jer-von Turner. In the evening hours of November 15, 1993, Elwood and his roommate Anthony Benton lured Turner to their residence for the purpose of obtaining drugs from him on credit. When Turner entered the house Benton stabbed him repeatedly with a knife. Elwood entered the fray and struck Turner several times on the head with a tire iron rendering Turner unconscious. Benton then took Turner’s money and cocaine which the roommates divided between them. Turner ultimately died from the stab wounds. On November 29, 1993, Elwood was arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter and robbery, both as class A felonies. After several delays trial began on June 27, 1995. Elwood was found guilty of both charges. However the trial court entered judgment for robbery as a Class B felony stating that Turner’s death could not be used to fulfill both the serious bodily injury requirement for robbery and the killing element for voluntary manslaughter. This appeal ensued in due course.

I.

Elwood first challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. Suggesting that his only offense was participating in a scheme enticing Turner to his house for the purpose of obtaining drugs on credit, Elwood implies that he did not know that his roommate planned to attack Turner and take drugs from him by force.

When reviewing a claim challenging the sufficiency of the evidence we neither reweigh evidence nor judge witness credibility. Hopkins v. State, 579 N.E.2d 1297, 1305 (Ind. 1991). We will affirm the conviction if the evidence most favorable to the verdict.provides probative evidence from which a reasonable trier of fact could infer guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Evans v. State, 571 N.E.2d 1231, 1237 (Ind.1991).

The law is well settled that an accomplice is equally as guilty as a principal. Joseph v. State, 659 N.E.2d 676 (Ind.Ct.App.1996), trans. denied. When two or more confederates engage in the commission of an unlawful act, each is criminally liable for the acts of the other in furtherance of their common objective. Taylor v. State, 578 N.E.2d 664, 666 (Ind.1991). In this case Turner died from the stab wounds inflicted by Elwood’s roommate. However the record is clear that Elwood assisted in Turner’s death by striking Turner with a tire iron which fractured his skull and rendered him unconscious. In like fashion although Elwood’s roommate actually removed Turner’s *3 money and drugs, Elwood facilitated the conduct by assisting in immobilizing the victim. Also, both Elwood and his roommate split the proceeds of their ill-gotten gains. - The evidence is sufficient to sustain the convictions.

II.

Elwood next complains that he was twice punished for the same offense when the trial court entered judgments of conviction for both voluntary manslaughter as a class A felony and robbery as a class B felony. In essence Elwood infers that the injuries which elevated the robbery to a class B felony were the same injuries used to sustain the voluntary manslaughter conviction. This is an argument which rests on article 1, section 14 of the Indiana Constitution and the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. These provisions prohibit multiple punishment for the same offense. North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 28 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969); Thompson v. State, 259 Ind. 587, 290 N.E.2d 724 (Ind.1972), cert. denied (1973), 412 U.S. 943, 93 S.Ct. 2788, 37 L.Ed.2d 404.

In essence and in relevant part count II of the charging information alleged that Elwood and his confederate took property from Jer-von Turner, by using or threatening the use of force, while armed with a deadly weapon, and that they inflicted serious bodily injury on Turner, namely death. The robbery statute elevates the offense to a class A felony when the robbery “results in serious bodily injury to any person other than a defendant.” Ind.Code § 35-42-5-1. The voluntary manslaughter conviction already punishes Elwood for the serious bodily injury to Turner. To elevate the robbery to a class A felony for the same' bodily injury would punish Elwood twice for the same injuries. See King v. State, 517 N.E.2d 383 (Ind.1988) (prohibition against double jeopardy violated where defendant sentenced for murder and burglary as a class A felony based on same bodily injury). Here, acknowledging the foregoing point, the trial court correctly did not enter judgment for robbery as a class A felony. However, the trial court nonetheless erred by entering judgment for robbery as a class B felony.

Under provisions of the robbery statute a class B robbery requires proof of the use of a deadly weapon or the proof of bodily injury. As discussed above the prohibition against double jeopardy prevents Elwood from being sentenced for the single act of inflicting bodily injury. Accordingly he could only be sentenced on the use of a deadly weapon prong of class B felony robbery. However this would necessitate an instruction requiring the jury to find that Elwood took property from Turner while armed with a deadly weapon. The jury instruction concerning robbery provided in relevant part:

To convict the defendant the State must prove each of the following elements:

The defendant:

(1) knowingly or intentionally,
(2) took property from Jer-von Turner or from the presence of Jer-von Turner,
(3) by using or threatening the use of force upon Jer-von Turner, and
(4) the acts of the defendant resulted in serious bodily injury to Jer-von Turner. If the State fads to prove each of these elements beyond a reasonable doubt, you should find the defendant not guilty.

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Bluebook (online)
673 N.E.2d 1, 1996 Ind. App. LEXIS 1477, 1996 WL 625934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elwood-v-state-indctapp-1996.