Glenn v. State

884 N.E.2d 347, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 726, 2008 WL 1723497
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 15, 2008
Docket55A04-0707-CR-388
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 884 N.E.2d 347 (Glenn 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
Glenn v. State, 884 N.E.2d 347, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 726, 2008 WL 1723497 (Ind. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

RILEY, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Appellant-Defendant, Ronald Glenn (Glenn), appeals his convictions for felony murder, Ind.Code § 35-42-1-1(2), and robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Class A felony, I.C. § 35-42-5-1.

We affirm in part and remand in part with instructions.

ISSUES

On appeal, Glenn raises three issues, which we restate as:

(1) Whether the trial court erred in refusing to dismiss the prosecution against Glenn because of the delay in bringing the charges;
(2) Whether the evidence is sufficient to support Glenn’s convictions; and
(3) Whether the trial court committed fundamental error in instructing the jury.

In addition, we raise a fourth issue sua sponte:

(4) Whether Glenn’s convictions and sentences for both felony murder *350 and robbery resulting in bodily injury violate the prohibition against double jeopardy.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On September 4, 1984, Freddy David (David) was found stabbed to death in his bedroom in the house that he shared with his parents in Martinsville, Morgan County, Indiana. That same day, police found David’s pickup within blocks of Glenn’s home in Indianapolis. After some investigation by Indianapolis police, Glenn became a “person of interest” in the case. (Transcript p. 521). Over the next several months, police questioned Glenn several times.

On January 16, 1985, Morgan County Sheriff Paul Mason (Sheriff Mason) and Morgan County Sheriffs Department Detective Sergeant Robert Craig (Detective Craig) questioned Glenn. Glenn said that on September 8,1984, he, Raymond Harris (Harris), and Rodney Jefferson (Jefferson) discussed committing a burglary. Jefferson indicated that he “knew somebody that we could try to get some money from[.]” (State’s Ex. 54A, p. 8). Jefferson then made arrangements for the three men to meet David. Glenn said that Jefferson called David at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. and that it was still “daytime” when David met them. (State’s Ex. 54A, p. 9). Jefferson rode with David to David’s house in Martins-ville, and Glenn and Harris followed in Jefferson’s car.

According to Glenn, once the men were inside David’s house, Jefferson and Harris went with David into his bedroom in order to “have a sexual relationship!!]” (State’s Ex. 54A, p. 14). Meanwhile, Glenn “started going through stuff looking for stuff to take.” (State’s Ex. 54A, p. 16). Glenn said that he took a watch, silverware, and a camera and went outside to put the items in David’s pickup. When he returned to the house, he heard David scream. Glenn went into the bedroom and saw Harris pulling up his pants and Jefferson standing over David, choking him and holding a knife. Jefferson told Glenn to start searching the drawers, and Glenn found a gun, which he said was a “twenty-five automatic”. (State’s Ex. 54A, p. 33). Jefferson stabbed David several times while Glenn and Harris gathered other items from the house, including a clock radio, necklaces, turquoise rings, and a stereo system. Glenn also stated that before he, Jefferson, and Harris left, Jefferson took an exercise bike from the house and put it in the back of David’s pickup. Glenn and Harris left in Jefferson’s car, and Jefferson followed them in David’s pickup.

Several of Glenn’s responses during his January 16 statement were inaccurate. The gun that was actually taken from the house was a small “.22 caliber blue revolver.” (Tr. p. 605). Furthermore, when asked during his January 16 statement what had happened to the gun they had taken, Glenn responded that police had stopped him, Jefferson, and Harris and confiscated it. In reality, the incident in which police stopped the three men and confiscated a gun occurred on August 25, 1984, before David’s death. Likewise, Glenn stated that the men took a clock radio, necklaces, and turquoise rings from the house, but those items were not included on the David family’s list of items allegedly taken. Glenn also stated that he took silverware from a drawer in the kitchen, but the silverware apparently came from a china cabinet in the dining room.

During another statement on January 18, 1985, Glenn told Sheriff Mason and Detective Craig that he had spoken with an Indianapolis detective, who had told him that “he would try to help [Glenn] out” with a separate burglary case in Marion *351 County if he would assist with the David case in Morgan County. (State’s Ex. 57A, p. 44). Sheriff Mason told Glenn, “[YJou’ll be charged along with the others but if ... your cooperation can go along [sic] ways and help you when they hand in the results down there concerning this murder.” (State’s Ex. 57A, p. 45). At that point, however, Glenn was not charged, arrested, or detained in connection with the David case.

At some point, authorities tested the blood of Glenn, Jefferson, and Harris to see if it matched blood found at the scene of the crime that did not belong to David. There were no matches. When confronted with this information, Glenn told police that if they would get him a new trial in the Marion County burglary case, he would tell them “who the fourth person was.” (Tr. p. 572). The Morgan County officers did not attempt to get Glenn a new trial. On March 26, 1985, Glenn, who was by that time incarcerated at the Westville Correctional Facility in LaPorte County, Indiana, for the Marion County burglary, told police that he would tell them who the fourth person was if they would get him transferred to the Indiana Youth Center in Plainfield, Indiana. The officers were able to get Glenn transferred.

Thereafter, on April 12, 1985, Sheriff Mason and Detective Craig, along with Morgan County Sheriffs Department Detective Sergeant Robert Betts (Detective Betts), questioned Glenn again. Glenn admitted that he had not been entirely honest in his earlier statements and said that he was ready to be truthful. He said that it was 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. when David picked them up. Also, Glenn reported that Jefferson, not he, took the silverware from the house, and he said (again incorrectly) that the gun they had taken from the house was a “[l]ong silver kind of pistol,” (State’s Ex. 61A, p. 28), rather than a twenty-five automatic, as he had stated on January 16. Glenn further stated that he could not remember Jefferson taking an exercise bike from the house or anything else about an exercise bike.

Most notably, Glenn claimed that a fourth person, “Michael Smith”, went with him, Jefferson, and Harris to David’s house. He said that it was “Michael Smith”, not Harris, who went into the bedroom with Jefferson and David, and that it was “Michael Smith”, not Jefferson, who stabbed David. When asked why he had changed his story, Glenn said, “Well for one, me and Michael, we are closer than [Harris] and them are. And they [Harris and Jefferson] came and got me in the position in a burglary that I didn’t really have nothing to do with. Got me twenty years, so I was kind of mad.” (State’s Ex. 61A, p. 25). However, police were never able to locate the “Michael Smith” identified by Glenn.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
884 N.E.2d 347, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 726, 2008 WL 1723497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glenn-v-state-indctapp-2008.