Evans v. State

571 N.E.2d 1231, 1991 Ind. LEXIS 85, 1991 WL 85896
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 21, 1991
Docket46S00-8806-CR-00535
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 571 N.E.2d 1231 (Evans 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
Evans v. State, 571 N.E.2d 1231, 1991 Ind. LEXIS 85, 1991 WL 85896 (Ind. 1991).

Opinions

DeBRULER, Justice.

Appellant was convicted by a jury of kidnapping, a Class A felony, 1.C. 85-42-8-2(a)(8), and escape, a Class C felony, I.C. 35-44-3-5. He was given the presumptive sentences of thirty years for the Class A felony and five years for the Class C felo: ny, and the trial court ordered that the sentences be served consecutively. In this direct appeal, appellant argues that the State failed to prove venue, that his kidnapping conviction must be reversed because two final instructions were given in error and because the evidence as to that count was insufficient, and that the trial court erred in ordering that he remain in leg irons during the course of his trial.

The facts adduced at trial which tended to support the determination of guilt show that on March 1, 1987, appellant was incarcerated on the fifth floor of the LaPorte County Jail awaiting sentencing on two counts of burglary to which he had previously entered guilty pleas. During official visiting hours that evening, James Log-mann, the officer on duty on the fifth floor, received notification that two visitors had arrived, one for appellant and his brother, Jimmy Evans, and one for another inmate. After summoning the three men, Logmann watched through a small window as they presented themselves at a remote-controlled, sliding security door which led to a holding area, which in turn opened onto the hallway to the visiting room. As Logmann opened the sliding door and Jimmy Evans and the other inmate entered the holding area, appellant put his face up to this window, thereby obscuring Logmann's view, and asked if Logmann was sure the visitor was for him. At that time, two other inmates, Charles Thomas and Rodney Cooper, crept into the holding area undetected by Logmann. After receiving an affirmative answer to his question, appellant entered the holding area and Logmann closed the security door.

Logmann then went to the hallway side of the holding area and opened that door, which must be manually opened with a key. The first inmate exited the holding area and apparently proceeded as anticipated to the visiting room. Then Jimmy Evans emerged and stood next to Logmann by the door. Logmann looked back toward the holding area and saw appellant standing in the doorway. Logmann then turned back around and was shoved by Jimmy Evans and pulled by appellant into the holding area. His feet were knocked out from under him and, when he hit the floor, he saw Cooper and realized what had happened. Logmann was gagged and his hands and feet were bound. After Log-mann freed himself and alerted other officers, he discovered that an interior window separating the secured and unsecured portions of the fifth floor had been broken out with a typewriter. A headcount confirmed that appellant, Jimmy Evans, Cooper and [1233]*1233Thomas had escaped. Cooper, Thomas, and Jimmy Evans were apprehended within an hour of the escape. Appellant remained at large for eight days, then turned himself in.

I. Venue

Appellant argues that his convictions cannot stand because the State failed to properly prove venue. Venue "relates to and defines the particular county or territorial area within the state or district in which the cause or prosecution must be brought or tried." Bledsoe v. State (1945), 223 Ind. 675, 678, 64 N.E.2d 160, 161 (quo tation and citation omitted). The State must prove proper venue by a preponderance of the evidence, and circumstantial evidence may be sufficient to establish proper venue. Gillie v. State (1987), Ind., 512 N.E.2d 145. Therefore, it was incumbent upon the State to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the crime charged was committed in LaPorte County, Indiana, where the trial was held.

Appellant maintains that there was no evidence in the record that the charged crimes took place in the State of Indiana. In pertinent fashion, there was testimony from police officers that they were employed by the LaPorte County Sheriff's Office and that the escape was made from the LaPorte County Jail, and one such officer testified that he received training for his jail service at the Indiana State Law Enforcement Academy located "[djown at Plainfield, Indiana." This testimony and reasonable inferences from it warranted a finding that the conduct constituting these alleged offenses occurred in the State of Indiana. The State sustained its burden of proof on this issue.

II. Validity of Kidnapping Conviction

A. Instructions

In its final charge to the jury, the trial court gave two instructions specific to the crime of kidnapping, quoted in pertinent part as follows:

Final Instruction 9
The Statute defining the offense of Kidnapping which was in force in Indiana at the time of the offense charged, reads as follows:
"A person who knowingly or intentionally confines another person with intent to obtain the release or with intent to aid in the escape, of any person from lawful detention; commits kidnapping, a Class A Felony."
Final Instruction 11
To sustain the charge of kidnapping, the State must prove the following propositions:
First: That the defendant knowingly or intentionally confined James Log-mann; and,
Second: That the defendant did so with the intent to obtain the release of any person from lawful detention; or with the intent to aid in the escape of any person from lawful detention.

These were the only final instructions given by the trial court which purported to define the burden which the State had to carry in order to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on the kidnapping charge. The information upon which appellant was charged with kidnapping had been read to the jury in the court's preliminary instructions. The trial court, however, did not repeat the preliminary instructions in its final instructions, nor did it give a final instruction which incorporated the preliminary instructions or which made reference to them in any way. Therefore, the jury did not receive the factual allegations which constituted the kidnapping charge as part of its final instructions.

The information charging appellant with kidnapping read, in pertinent part, as follows:

[O]n or about the 1st day of March, 1987, in the County of LaPorte and the State of Indiana, one Daniel E. Evans ... unlawfully[ ] and knowingly confine[d] Jail Officer James Logmann by tying his hands, his feet, and by placing a gag in his mouth and with intent to obtain the release or intent to aid in the escape of [1234]*1234Jimmy C. Evans, Charles J. Thomas, and Rodney D. Cooper from official custo, dy....

During the hearing at which final instructions were settled, held outside the presence of the jury, appellant lodged a timely objection and argued to the court that, based on the factual allegations in the charging instrument, the giving of Instruction 11 would not be appropriate:

[WJle've already through [Instruction 9] defined what the statute says on Kidnapping; and now we're talking, of course, in [Instruction 11] what the State has to prove, the following propositions.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Christopher Allen Peacock v. State of Indiana
126 N.E.3d 892 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2019)
Commonwealth, Aplt v. Gross, E.
101 A.3d 28 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2014)
Lakhvir Singh v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Kocielko v. State
938 N.E.2d 243 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2010)
Stephenson v. Wilson
619 F.3d 664 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)
Stephenson v. State
864 N.E.2d 1022 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2007)
Corbin v. State
840 N.E.2d 424 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2006)
French v. State
778 N.E.2d 816 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2002)
Lewis v. State
759 N.E.2d 1077 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2001)
Wurster v. State
715 N.E.2d 341 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1999)
Cuto v. State
709 N.E.2d 356 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1999)
Emerson v. State
695 N.E.2d 912 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1998)
Wright v. State
690 N.E.2d 1098 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1997)
Potter v. State
684 N.E.2d 1127 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1997)
Lueder v. Northern Indiana Public Service Co.
683 N.E.2d 1340 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1997)
Joyner v. State
678 N.E.2d 386 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1997)
Elwood v. State
673 N.E.2d 1 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1996)
Day v. State
669 N.E.2d 1072 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
571 N.E.2d 1231, 1991 Ind. LEXIS 85, 1991 WL 85896, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-state-ind-1991.