French v. State

516 N.E.2d 40, 1987 Ind. LEXIS 1182, 1987 WL 23804
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 16, 1987
Docket82S00-8610-CR-939
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 516 N.E.2d 40 (French 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
French v. State, 516 N.E.2d 40, 1987 Ind. LEXIS 1182, 1987 WL 23804 (Ind. 1987).

Opinion

GIVAN, Justice.

A jury trial resulted in a conviction of appellant for Attempted Rape, a Class A felony, for which he received a sentence of thirty (80) years and Confinement, a Class D felony, for which he received a sentence of two (2) years, the sentences to run concurrently.

The facts are: At approximately 10:80 p.m., on January 23, 1985, the victim arrived at the Dress Regional Airport in Evansville, Indiana, where she met her parents, nephew and sister. After the usual greetings, she left the terminal building and went to the rental car agency where she had a car reserved. Her nephew and sister, ages 8 and 6 respectively, accompanied her. Her parents remained in the terminal.

When the victim entered the rental car area, she first entered the wrong automobile. When she realized her error, she exited that automobile and proceeded to the correct one. On her way, she passed within five feet of appellant. The area was dimly lighted but the victim testified the light was sufficient for her to be able to observe the appearance of appellant. She stated as she passed their eyes met but she was not at all fearful of appellant at that moment as she felt she was in a safe area and presumed appellant had legitimate business there. As she entered the automobile, she placed her sister on the seat beside the driver and her nephew went around the car to enter from the other side.

Before the victim was completely in the automobile, she felt a hand over her mouth and on her throat. She turned to see the person and realized it was the man she had just seen on her way to the automobile. Because the door was open, the interior light from the automobile enabled the victim to have a good view of appellant. At this point, the victim screamed and appellant told her to be quiet because he had a knife and he would kill her children. When the victim continued to struggle, the appellant repeated his warning. The victim testified she never did see a knife.

As the victim continued to struggle with appellant, her nephew opened the door on the other side of the car and removed her sister. Both children fled toward the terminal to obtain aid. As the victim and appellant struggled, she told him she had a large sum of money in her purse and had some jewelry which he could have. However, he replied that he did not want her money or her jewelry; he wanted her. He then ran one hand under her skirt and placed it high on her thigh. During the struggle, the vietim was able to kick appellant in the groin thus enabling her to exit the automobile. However, it was necessary for her to continue struggling briefly with appellant in order to escape.

As she fled toward the terminal, she saw her father running toward them. Appellant turned and fled the scene. Her father pursued appellant for a short distance but then returned to the terminal. Police were called and the victim gave them a detailed description of her assailant including the type of clothing he wore.

Approximately an hour and a half after the attack, Officer Jeff Johnson saw appellant inside a convenience store and thought that he matched the description of the attacker at the airport. Johnson approached appellant and questioned him but did not arrest him at that time. However, as appellant left the convenience store he ran a traffic sign and the officer stopped him for the violation. He then learned that appellant was driving while his license was suspended. The officer therefore took appellant into custody.

*42 He then decided because of a similarity of appellant to the description given of the attacker he would take him to the airport for possible identification by Albert Warren, a security officer on duty at the time, who had viewed the attacker as he fled the scene. Warren stated he could not make a positive identification of appellant, but he was the same size and build as the assailant and his clothing appeared to be the same.

Appellant was then taken to the police station where he was photographed and six photographs of him were taken by the police to the victim and her father for identification.

Appellant claims his out-of-court identification by Warren was unduly suggestive, prejudicial and in violation of his constitutional rights. Appellant claims the one-on-one confrontation with the security officer was in violation of the admonition of this Court to law enforcement agencies to "attempt to minimize the suggestive inferene-es" which arise from such confrontations, citing Wright v. State (1972), 259 Ind. 197, 285 N.E.2d 650. However, in the case at bar as in the Wright case, we do not perceive the on-site viewing by the witness to be unduly suggestive.

Appellant had been arrested within an hour and a half of the occurrence. At the time, Warren frankly stated that he could not identify appellant by his face but he did state the opinion that appellant was the attacker based upon his profile, his general build and the clothing he was wearing. All of this was a matter which was submitted to the jury for their evaluation. When we look at the frank manner in which Warren testified and the manner in which the confrontation was accomplished, we do not perceive that it created a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidenti-fication. Gillie v. State (1984), Ind., 465 N.E.2d 1380.

Appellant makes a point that Warren had stated that he was wearing a brown jacket when in fact his jacket was maroon. However, this was thoroughly explained by Warren in that the airport parking lot lights are amber colored and have a tendency to change the appearance of various colors. He readily admitted that appellant's jacket was actually maroon but pointed out that under the amber lights it appeared brown. This was an explanation which the jury could accept as reasonable.

Appellant claims the in-court identification of him by Warren was improperly influenced by the one-on-one on-site confrontation and was not supported by an independent basis. Under the circumstances above set out, we see no error in allowing the in-court identification of appellant. Wilson v. State (1981), 275 Ind. 586, 418 N.E.2d 1150.

When we view the direct examination and cross-examination of Warren, it becomes apparent the jury was fully apprised of Warren's limited view of appellant at the scene and the facts upon which he based his identification. We must presume the jury took these matters into consideration in evaluating the in-court identification of appellant.

Appellant claims the identification made by the father of the victim was the product of a tainted, unduly suggestive out-of-court identification. He bases his allegation upon the fact that police officers, with the consent of the prosecuting attorney, took six photographs, all of appellant, to the victim and her father for identification. Appellant cites Houn v. State (1983), Ind., 451 N.E.2d 1072 for the proposition that a single photograph should not be shown to a witness for identification purposes. He argues that six photographs of the same person are no better than one photograph, and we agree with that observation.

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Bluebook (online)
516 N.E.2d 40, 1987 Ind. LEXIS 1182, 1987 WL 23804, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/french-v-state-ind-1987.