Gee v. State

389 N.E.2d 303, 271 Ind. 28, 1979 Ind. LEXIS 624
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 22, 1979
Docket278S38
StatusPublished
Cited by68 cases

This text of 389 N.E.2d 303 (Gee 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
Gee v. State, 389 N.E.2d 303, 271 Ind. 28, 1979 Ind. LEXIS 624 (Ind. 1979).

Opinion

PIVARNIK, Justice.

The appellant, was tried before a jury in Delaware Circuit Court. On October 6, 1977, he was found guilty of inflicting physical injury in the commission of robbery and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The crime involved the robbery of a Hallmark Card Shop in which Joan Sipes, an employee of that store, was beaten. The robber entered the store and said he was looking for an anniversary gift. He picked up a glass enclosed flower and brought it to the counter. Mrs. Sipes rang up the sale and as she was reaching for wrapping paper, the man drew a mental bar about 14-18 inches long from his canvas back pack and hit her over the head. He took money from the cash drawer and put it in his pack and took money from Mrs. Sipes’ purse. He then beat her on her arms, hands and head. The robber left and she went next door for help. Muncie police officers arrived at the scene within minutes and took Mrs. Sipes to the hospital where she was admitted. After a call from an informant a search warrant was issued, police searched Gee’s apartment and arrested him on August 12.

*306 Appellant presents twenty errors in his statement of issues, which are specified in his Motion to Correct Errors as follows:

1. That the Court erred in denying the Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Evidence and Controvert Search Warrant.

2. That the Court erred in allowing Police Officers Stonebreaker and Cox to testify at the suppression hearing to prove probable cause for issuance of said Warrant.

3. That the Court erred in allowing one of the State’s main witnesses, Muncie Police Officer, Paul Cox to be in the Court Room throughout the trial after granting the defendant’s Motion for a Separation of Witnesses.

4. That the Court erred in allowing State’s Exhibit # FF into evidence without establishing a chain of custody.

5. That the Court erred in allowing State’s Exhibits # Y, Z, AA, BB, CC, and DD into evidence because they were not properly identified and no chain of custody was established.

6. That the Court erred in overruling Defendant’s Motion to Strike the testimony of Officer Scroggins when he referred to and read from his Reports to the jury instead of using them only to refresh his memory.

7. That the Court erred in overruling the defendant’s objection and allowing State’s Exhibits A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H, photographs of the victim, to be shown to the jury because the injuries had been previously described and the pictures would prejudice and inflame the jury.

8. That the Court erred in overruling the defendant’s Motion to Strike State’s Exhibits D, and F when Officer Stone-breaker later testified that he did not see the two photographs.

9. That the Court erred in allowing State’s Exhibit # X-a glass enclosed flower, into evidence over the objection of the defendant without establishing a chain of custody.

10. The Court erred in overruling the defendant’s objection to allowing the Prosecutor to read portions of a prior statement to witness Debra Swallow as it contained leading questions and the statement was not in evidence.

11. That the Court erred in overruling the defendant’s objection to Police Officer Paul Cox’s testimony as to admissions against interest allegedly made by the defendant after the Prosecutor failed to produce said statements pursuant to the Discovery Order.

12. That the Court erred in overruling the defendant’s objection to any statements made by the defendant to the Police after he had been held in jail for 5 days on this charge.

13. That the decision was contrary to law.

14. That the Court erred in overruling the Defendant’s Motion for Mistrial because of the misconduct of a juror.

15. That the Court erred when it failed to make sufficient inquiry to determine whether or not defendant was being unlawfully detained when photographs of Defendant were taken, to show to Joan Sipes, at her home, and to Bonnie Erby.

16. That the Court erred when it failed to rule that the in-court identification made of Defendant by Joan Sipes and Bonnie Erby was tainted by the out of court identification.

17. That the Court erred in not granting a mistrial, because the defendant was denied right of counsel at a critical stage of the pre-trial investigation.

18. That the Court erred by failure to instruct jury that the burden of proving an alibi does not rest on the defendant, but on the State and the State must prove it beyond a reasonable doubt and the elements of the offense charged including the defendant’s presence at the place of the crime, the time of its commission where that is essential as to defendant’s guilt.

19. That the Court erred in not determining why there was a long delay by the State before arraignment of defendant.

*307 20. That the Court erred when he stated, “I want the prosecutor and defense attorney to have completed their presentations by noon, because I want the ease over by the close of the Court day” (referring to 5:00 p. m.) because the jury is prone to consider the challenged statement as a mandatory and unequivocal directive to reach a verdict.

This motion to correct errors was overruled on December 19, 1977.

Alleged errors are grouped in the argument section of appellant’s brief. They will be treated as argued when possible. Alleged errors numbered 11, 12, 15, 17 and 19, are combined as they all relate to the detention of the defendant. All of these errors and the arguments thereon are intertwined. In an effort to unravel the specific allegations of error and the related arguments, these errors will be dealt with separately. We will use appellant’s numbers to identify these alleged errors. Appellant declines argument on errors numbered 8, 10, 18 and 20, therefore they are waived. Guardiola v. State, (1978) Ind., 375 N.E.2d 1105, Ind.R.A.P. 8.3(A)(7).

I.

Appellant’s alleged errors number 1 and 2 are argued together. Appellant argues that the court erred in denying his Motion to Suppress Evidence and Controvert Search Warrant and in allowing police officers Stonebreaker and Cox to testify.

On September 30,1977, there was a hearing on defendant’s Motion to Suppress. After the defense had made its argument on this motion the State presented evidence with their argument against the motion. This testimony at the suppression hearing is the basis of appellant’s allegation of error. The court denied defendant’s Motion to Suppress. However, the items specified in the search warrant and seized from the defendant’s apartment were never introduced into evidence. In order to raise error in the denial of a motion to suppress, it must be shown that the defendant was prejudiced by the trial court’s action and that illegally-seized evidence was admitted against him. Appellant admits that the boxes containing the items seized from his apartment were never introduced into evidence. Appellant’s remedy if items were illegally seized would be to have had his motion to suppress granted to prevent the items from being introduced into evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
389 N.E.2d 303, 271 Ind. 28, 1979 Ind. LEXIS 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gee-v-state-ind-1979.