Gleaves v. State

859 N.E.2d 766, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 15, 2007 WL 64122
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 11, 2007
Docket49A02-0604-CR-340
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 859 N.E.2d 766 (Gleaves v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gleaves v. State, 859 N.E.2d 766, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 15, 2007 WL 64122 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

FRIEDLANDER, Judge.

Robert Cleaves appeals his conviction of Voluntary Manslaughter, 1 a class A felony, Attempted Aggravated Battery, 2 a class B felony, and Carrying a Handgun Without a License, 3 a class A misdemeanor, as well as the sentence imposed by the trial court. Gleaves presents the following restated issues for review:

1. Was the evidence sufficient to support the convictions?
2. Did the trial court err in imposing consecutive sentences?
3. Was the sentence appropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender?

We affirm.

The facts favorable to the convictions are that on the evening of February 6, 2005, Laramie Dudley and her boyfriend, Kyle Harris, were spending the evening together in Harris's apartment in Indianapolis. Dudley had an eighteen-month-old son, whose father was her ex-boyfriend, Tony Clardy. Dudley received a telephone call from her sister in New Castle, Indiana. The sister, who was babysitting Dudley's son at the time, informed Dudley that Clardy was also on the telephone and wanted to participate with Dudley in a three-way telephone conversation. Dudley consented. Clardy told Dudley he wanted to come for his son. Dudley did not tell Clardy that his son was not there. After the phone call ended, Dudley and Harris resumed watching television and playing video games.

Sometime between 9:80 and 10 p.m., Dudley and Harris heard a knock on the door. Expecting the arrival of a friend, Harris called out "Colleen", but no one *769 answered. Transcript at 99. Harris walked to the door, peered through the peephole, and said, "What the fuck do these motherfuckers want?" Id. at 100. Harris picked up a baseball bat and opened the door. When the door opened, Dudley saw that Clardy was standing in the doorway, with a person she knew only as Robert standing behind Clardy. Clardy stepped aside, and Robert, who Dudley later identified as GHleaves, pulled a handgun from under his shirt and shot Harris once in the chest. Dudley arose from the couch and took a step toward the door as Harris retreated to the bathroom. She then looked back into the hallway and saw Gleaves standing near the top of the stairs just outside Harris's apartment. At that moment, leaves fired a shot at Dudley through the stair railing, but missed. Gleaves and Clardy ran downstairs, got into Clardy's car, and drove away.

Meanwhile, Dudley called 911 and reported that her ex-fiancée had just shot her boyfriend, and that her boyfriend was dying. When asked whether the shooter was still on the premises, Dudley reported that he had left in a white Caprice. By the time Indianapolis Police Department Detective Daniel Kistner arrived on the scene a few minutes later, Harris was dead. Dudley was very emotional, erying and screaming. She told Detective Kist-ner what had happened, explaining that she had seen a person she knew as Robert with Clardy, and Robert had the gun that killed Harris. Dudley also gave a photo of the shooter to Detective Kistner. That photo depicted Cleaves, who was later apprehended at his mother's house. He was charged with the murder of Harris, the attempted murder of Dudley, and carrying a handgun without a license.

Following a jury trial, Gleaves was found guilty as set out above. At the March 22, 2006 sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed the presumptive sentence for each of the offenses, i.e., thirty years for voluntary manslaughter, ten years for attempted aggravated battery, and one year for carrying a handgun without a license. The one-year and thirty-year sentences were imposed concurrent to each other, and consecutive to the ten-year sentence for attempted aggravated battery, for a total executed sentence of forty years.

1.

Gleaves contends the evidence was not sufficient to support his convictions. Specifically, he contends that Dudley's testimony identifying him as the shooter was incredibly dubious.

When considering a challenge to the sufficiency of evidence to support a conviction, we respect the fact-finder's exclusive province to weigh conflicting evidence and therefore neither reweigh the evidence nor judge witness credibility. McHenry v. State, 820 N.E.2d 124 (Ind.2005). We consider only the probative evidence and reasonable inferences supporting the verdict, and "must affirm "if the probative evidence and reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence could have allowed a reasonable trier of fact to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."" Id. at 126 (quoting Tobar v. State, 740 N.E.2d 109, 111-12 (Ind.2000)). The uncorroborated testimony of one witness may be sufficient by itself to sustain a conviction on appeal. Pinkston v. State, 821 N.E.2d 830 (Ind.Ct.App.2004), trans. denied. Dudley testified that Gleaves was the shooter. Gleaves, however, seeks a ruling that, by application of the principal of incredible dubiosity, Dudley's testimony is not worthy of belief. For testimony to be so inherently incredible that it is to be disregarded on this basis, "the witness must present testimony that is inherently contradictory, wholly equivocal or the re *770 sult of coercion, and there must also be a complete lack of cireumstantial evidence of the defendant's guilt." Clay v. State, 755 N.E.2d 187, 189 (Ind.2001).

The inconsistencies cited by leaves with respect to Dudley's testimony are: (1) in her 911 call, Dudley stated that her ex-fiancée had shot Harris; (2) Dudley testified at trial that when Harris opened the door, she saw Clardy and Cleaves standing there, yet, in the days following the incident, she told police she did not actually see Clardy's face; (8) she told police the shooter was wearing dark clothing, but testified in court that she recently recalled that the shooter might have been wearing a red shirt; (4) she told investigating detectives that she was not sure when Harris retrieved the bat, but at trial she testified unequivocally that he did so before he opened the door; (5) prior to trial, she stated that she merely stood when Harris opened the door, but at trial she claimed that immediately after she stood up, she walked forward which, according to Gleaves, "was critical to her having the perspective to see all that she claimed to see." Appellant's Appendix at 7.

We note first that inconsisten-cles in identification testimony impact only the weight of that testimony, because it is the jury's task to weigh the evidence and determine the credibility of the witnesses. Badelle v. State, 754 N.E.2d 510 (Ind.Ct.App.2001), trams. denied. As with other sufficiency matters, we will not weigh the evidence or resolve questions of credibility when determining whether the identification evidence is sufficient to sustain a conviction. Id. Rather, we examine the evidence and the reasonable inferences therefrom that support the verdict. Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
859 N.E.2d 766, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 15, 2007 WL 64122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gleaves-v-state-indctapp-2007.