Gentry v. State

471 N.E.2d 263, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 1038
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 29, 1984
Docket283S68
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 471 N.E.2d 263 (Gentry 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
Gentry v. State, 471 N.E.2d 263, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 1038 (Ind. 1984).

Opinion

DeBRULER, Justice.

This is a direct appeal from convictions of rape, a class A felony, Ind.Code § 85-42-4-1, and burglary, a class B felony, Ind.Code § 85-48-2-1. Appellant filed a notice of defense of insanity. The case *265 was tried by the court. The finding was guilty but mentally ill. Appellant was sentenced to a term of thirty years for rape and ten years, to run concurrently, for burglary.

Appellant raises seven issues on appeal: (1) whether it was error to allow the victim's in court identification of appellant; (2) whether appellant's first statement to the police was the result of an illegal detention; (8) whether he made a voluntary and intelligent waiver of his rights prior to making his first statement to the police; (4) whether the police interrogation should have ceased after he requested an attorney; (5) whether it was error to permit the trial prosecutor to ask a leading question concerning the location of the crime; (6) whether it was error to allow into evidence State's exhibits Q, R and S; (7) whether the trial court's finding of guilty but mentally ill was contrary to law.

Facts tending to support the determination of guilty and material to some suppression issues include the following.

On July 1, 1981, J.S., the alleged victim, was in the process of moving into an apartment in Muncie, Indiana. About 10:00 p.m. that evening she heard the doorbell and went to the door. A man at the door asked if Bobby Wallen lived in the apartment. She answered no and the man left. She then finished unpacking and closed all the windows in the apartment. Afterwards, she took a bath and left the bathroom window open a few inches. She then laid on the couch to read but fell asleep.

Meanwhile, a man climbed up a tree and entered. the apartment through the bathroom window. The man awakened the vie-tim by placing a pillow over her face and a knife at her throat, and forced her to engage in sexual intercourse in the living room and then forced her to engage in sexual intercourse in the bedroom. He then tied her to the bed using her own belt and gagged her. Then, he went through her purse and drawers, threatened to kill her if she told anyone, and then left.

During the incident, he wore one of the victim's stockings on one hand and a pair of the victim's panty hose on the other hand. He also wore a bandanna to cover his face, but he took it off half way through the incident, and the victim saw his face.

The victim eventually freed herself and subsequently called the police and went to the hospital for tests.

On July 7, 1981, the victim" was interviewed by detectives, and she selected appellant's photograph from a photographic array as the one most closely resembling her assailant. Later the same day, she was hypnotized by the police and provided a composite sketch of her assailant. On July 9, 1981, appellant was advised of his rights, and he signed a rights waiver form. In the first statement, appellant confessed to the crime in the presence of Detectives Anthony Mench and Mike Kelso. Then, appellant requested an attorney. After realizing that the tape recorder was not working properly during the first statement, the Detectives took a second statement from the appellant in which he told them that he 'was in the apartment; however, he denied raping her. On July 13, 1981, the victim picked the appellant out of a physical lineup at the Delaware County Jail. The vie tim also identified the appellant at trial.

I

Appellant contends that the admission, over his objection, of the victim's in-court identification testimony was error because it was allegedly the result of a hypnotic session the victim had with the police on July 8, 1981.

Appellant moved to suppress any identification of him to the police by the victim. A hearing was held on the matter, and the trial court ruled that the evidence of identification gained as a result of the hypnotic session was inadmissible; however, the trial court ruled that there was a sufficient independent basis for the in-court identification testimony of the victim.

In Love v. State, (1977) 266 Ind. 577, 580, 581, 365 N.E.2d 771, 773, this Court noted *266 the appropriate method of analysis in this type of case:

"A witness who has been subjected to an unnecessarily suggestive confrontation with the accused may nonetheless identify the accused at trial as the perpetrator of the offense if the pre-trial confrontation has not created a 'very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification, Norris v. State, (1976) 265 Ind. 508, 356 N.E.2d 204, or in other words, if the witness has a basis for his in-court identification independent of the suggestive procedure. Johnson v. State, (1977) 265 Ind. 689, 359 N.E.2d 525. The factors considered in determining the existence of an independent basis have been set out in several cases, and may be divided into two sets: those dealing with the witness' opportunity to observe the offender, and those relating to the reliability of his recollection of his original observation of the offender. Specific factors in the first group; were enumerated in Parker v. State, (1976) 265 Ind. 595, 599, 358 N.E.2d 110, 112;
The facts of paramount importance to this question relate to the opportunity of the witness to view the offender at the time of the offense; the duration for which the witness can observe the perpetrator; the distance between them; the lighting conditions; and circumstances affecting the amount of attention the witness can devote to observing the guilty party.
See also Dillard v. State, (1971) 257 Ind. 282, 298, 274 N.E.2d 387, 389.
Factors in the second group were described in Swope v. State, (1975) 263 Ind. 148, 157, 325 N.E.2d 193, 197, quoting United States v. Wade, (1967) 388 U.S. 218, 214, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 1940, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149, 1165;
The prior opportunity to observe the alleged criminal act, the existence of any discrepancy between any pre-line-up description and the defendant's actual description, any identification prior to the lineup, failure to identify the defendant on a prior occasion, and the lapse of time between the alleged act and the lineup identification. It is also relevant to consider those facts which despite the absence of counsel, are disclosed concerning the conduct of the lineup.
The State bears the burden in the trial court of producing 'clear and convincing evidence' of an independent basis, Swope v.

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Bluebook (online)
471 N.E.2d 263, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 1038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gentry-v-state-ind-1984.