Fointno v. State

487 N.E.2d 140, 1986 Ind. LEXIS 991
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 6, 1986
Docket1283S460
StatusPublished
Cited by98 cases

This text of 487 N.E.2d 140 (Fointno 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
Fointno v. State, 487 N.E.2d 140, 1986 Ind. LEXIS 991 (Ind. 1986).

Opinions

PRENTICE, Justice.

Following a jury trial, Defendant (Appellant) was convicted of one (1) count of class A felony rape, Ind.Code § 35-42-4-1 (Burns 1979 Repl.), three (3) counts of class A felony criminal deviate conduct, Ind.Code § 35-42-4-2 (Burns 1979 Repl.), two (2) counts of confinement, a class B felony, Ind.Code § 35-42-3-3 (Burns 1982 Cum. Supp.), one (1) count of robbery, a class B felony, Ind.Code § 35-42-5-1 (Burns 1979 Repl.), and one (1) count of intimidation, a class D felony, Ind.Code § 35-45-2-1 (Burns 1982 Cum.Supp.). He was sentenced to various consecutive terms of imprisonment totalling 104 years.

This direct appeal raises several issues, which we have restated as follows:

1. Whether the trial court erred in admitting expert testimony derived from analysis of a “rape kit” when the “rape kit” had been negligently destroyed by police and was not available when requested by a discovery motion.

2. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions.

3. Whether the 104-year sentence is manifestly unreasonable, in light of Defendant’s background and the facts and circumstances of this case.

We affirm the convictions but remand this cause with instructions to modify the sentence. The facts are set out, as needed, in our discussion below.

ISSUE I

Defendant contends that he was der prived of due process of law by the trial court’s permitting a State’s expert witness to testify concerning results of his tests upon specimens in the “rape kit” assembled when the victim went to a hospital shortly after the assault. The parties basically agree that two discovery orders obtained by Defendant encompassed the “rape kit,” and that Anderson police negligently destroyed it after the samples had been tested by the expert witness but before Defendant had had an opportunity to have them tested by his own experts. The “rape kit” also included hairs which had never been compared with specimens from Defendant and could not be so compared, because of the destruction.

The “rape kit” included materials and containers for collecting specimens for use in determining whether there had been a sexual assault and in identifying the assail[142]*142ant. The specimens in this case included blood and seminal residue.

The victim acknowledged that she had had sexual intercourse with her husband about eight (8) hours before the assault occurred. However, the State’s expert testified that, based on his analysis of the specimens from the “rape kit,” Defendant and the victim’s husband, the seminal residue collected in the “rape kit” had not been secreted by her husband, and that Defendant was in that segment of 88% of the male population, any member of which could have secreted it. The expert could not, based on his analysis of the specimens, directly implicate Defendant.

On appeal, Defendant claims that he was not provided with discovery and that admission of the expert’s testimony, above related, in view of the destruction of the kit and its unavailability to him, violated due process requirements. See generally, United States v. Bagley (1985), — U.S. —, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481; Brady v. Maryland (1963), 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215. We find no reversible error because the record does not demonstrate that Defendant presented these arguments before the trial judge, who, accordingly, was not given the opportunity to ameliorate against the harm, if any, caused by admission of the evidence and the State’s failure to respond to discovery.

The only record we have of the matter being raised prior to the filing of the motion to correct errors is an entry by the trial judge, read in open court out of the presence of the jury, stating that the fact the “rape kit” had been negligently destroyed, standing alone, did not require that evidence derived from the specimens be excluded. From the court’s ruling we cannot discern the specific grounds for objection, or the time or manner in which it was made.

If the Defendant made a timely request for access to the materials subsequently lost, with a view toward analysis that might either exonerate him or discredit the State’s expert witness he may very well have been entitled to exclude the testimony. However, there is nothing in the record concerning the procedure employed to exclude the testimony, the time of protestation or the grounds therefor.

Thus, from what is presented to us on this appeal we can only speculate that the testimony of the State’s expert witness may have, under the circumstances, presented the potential for substantial error. Although we certainly do not condone the negligent loss of the “rape kit,” it is well established that a party objecting to the admission of evidence must make a timely objection demonstrating the basis for excluding it, and on appeal must provide the reviewing court with a record demonstrating the error and the harm resulting. See, Watkins v. State (1984), Ind., 460 N.E.2d 514, 515; cf. Wright v. State (1984), Ind., 467 N.E.2d 22, 24 (where State’s withholding of evidence was not deliberate, and defendant otherwise did not show prejudice stemming from failure to provide discovery, no reversible error occurred). Defendant has failed to establish reversible error in this case.

ISSUE II

Defendant contends that the evidence presented by the State was not sufficient to sustain the convictions. The record, however, includes substantial evidence supporting the jury’s conclusions that Defendant committed these crimes.

“Upon a review for sufficient evidence, this Court will look only to the evidence most favorable to the State and all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom. If the existence of each element of the crime charged may be found therefrom, beyond a reasonable doubt, the verdict will not be disturbed. In such a review, we will not weigh conflicting evidence nor will we judge the credibility of the witnesses.”

Loyd v. State (1980), 272 Ind. 404, 407, 398 N.E.2d 1260, 1264 cert. denied 449 U.S. 881, 101 S.Ct. 231, 66 L.Ed.2d 105. Moreover, this Court has repeatedly held that convictions for rape or criminal deviate conduct may rest upon the uncorroborated testimony of the victim. See, e.g. Bowen v. [143]*143State (1985), Ind., 478 N.E.2d 44, 46-47; Shippen v. State (1985), Ind., 477 N.E.2d 903, 904 and authorities cited.

The victim testified that she had taken her seven-year-old daughter to a hospital emergency room for treatment of an earache.

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Bluebook (online)
487 N.E.2d 140, 1986 Ind. LEXIS 991, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fointno-v-state-ind-1986.