Gregory-Bey v. State

669 N.E.2d 154, 1996 Ind. LEXIS 84, 1996 WL 403550
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 19, 1996
Docket49S00-9501-CR-37
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 669 N.E.2d 154 (Gregory-Bey 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
Gregory-Bey v. State, 669 N.E.2d 154, 1996 Ind. LEXIS 84, 1996 WL 403550 (Ind. 1996).

Opinion

SHEPARD, Chief Justice.

Appellant Lawrence Gregory-Bey was tried before a jury on charges arising out of the robbery of an Indianapolis McDonald's restaurant and the murder of its assistant store manager. The jury found him guilty of murder, 1 felony murder, 2 conspiracy to commit robbery, 3 and robbery, 4 all class A felonies; six counts of criminal confinement, each a class B felony; 5 and carrying a handgun without a license, a class A misdemeanor. 6

On December 17, 1986, Judge Roy F. Jones entered judgment on all counts. He enhanced each sentence to its maximum and ordered all sentences served consecutively, except for the murder and felony murder counts, which were made concurrent. As a result, Gregory-Bey received sixty years for both felony murder and murder, fifty years for conspiracy to commit robbery, fifty years for robbery, one hundred twenty years for criminal confinement, and one year for carrying an unlicensed handgun, for a total of 281 years.

Having received permission for a belated direct appeal, Gregory-Bey raises two issues: whether certain combinations of the convie-tions and sentences violate the principles of double jeopardy, and whether the judge's decision to maximize each conviction and order all but one served consecutively, amounting to an executed sentence of 281 years, was manifestly unreasonable.

I. The Event Itself

On November 17, 1985, two men entered an Indianapolis McDonald's shortly after 7 am. One of the men was later identified as Lawrence Gregory-Bey." 7 After drinking several cups of coffee and waiting until two other customers left the building, the two men brandished handguns, ordered the five McDonald's crew members to the back of the store, and forced them to their knees. One of the robbers cleaned out the cash registers, and the other shoved the assistant store manager, Dewayne Bible, to the store's safe and forced him at gunpoint to open it. Between the money in the cash registers and the previous night's receipts in the safe, the robbers took a total of $1,069.95. Over Bible's objection, the robbers forced the six employees into the freezer, even denying Bible's request to turn the freezer off. The robbers then took the store keys from Bible and ordered one of the crew employees out of the freezer. Heroically, Bible asked the robbers to take him instead, so they substi *157 tuted Bible for the employee and locked the five crew members inside the freezer.

Approximately five minutes later the crew heard two or three gunshots. After the employees no longer could hear the robbers, they began to kick at the freezer door, and eventually freed themselves. Upon exiting they found the body of Dewayne Bible lying in a pool of blood on the stockroom floor with two closely spaced gunshot wounds to the rear base of his head.

II. Double Jeopardy Claims

Gregory-Bey argues that certain combinations of his convictions for murder, felony murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery violate the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Indiana Constitution 8 and United States Constitutions. 9 Each alleged violation will be examined individually. Double jeopardy analysis requires us to discern whether a petitioner has been convicted or punished more than onee for the "same offense." North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076-77, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), overruled on other grounds, Alabama v. Smith, 490 U.S. 794, 109 S.Ct. 2201, 104 L.Ed.2d 865 (1989). In analyzing whether two offenses are the same, we employ the test announced in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 804, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1982): "[Where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not."

A. Murder and Felony Murder. Gregory-Bey first asserts, and the State concedes, that he cannot be convicted of both murder and felony murder when both arise from a single homicide. The parties are correct. See, eg., Hicks v. State, 544 N.E.2d 500 (Ind.1989); Bean v. State, 267 Ind. 528, 371 N.E.2d 718 (1978). Since Gregory-Bey's convictions for felony murder and knowing or intentional murder were both based on the killing of Dewayne Bible, we vacate his conviction for felony murder, and leave stand his conviction for knowing or intentional murder.

B. Robbery and Felony Murder. Gregory-Bey next asserts that his convictions for robbery and felony murder violate double jeopardy because his robbery and felony murder charges merged when both were predicated on the same robbery. Skipper v. State, 525 N.E.2d 334 (Ind.1988). Because we have already vacated Gregory-Bey's felony murder conviction on other double jeopardy grounds, this claim is mooted.

C. Robbery and Conspiracy. Finally, Gregory-Bey asserts, and the State concedes, that he cannot be convicted of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery when the overt act upon which the conspiracy charge rests is the robbery itself.

Conviction of both a substantive offense and conspiracy to commit that offense is not, per se, a double jeopardy violation, as this Court has repeatedly stated. See, eg., Buie v. State, 633 N.E.2d 250 (Ind.1994); Witte v. State, 550 N.E.2d 68 (Ind.1990); Taylor v. State, 235 Ind. 126, 131 N.E.2d 297 (1956). Indiana's robbery statute requires the knowing or intentional taking of property from another person or from his presence. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-4-6 (West 1986). The offense of conspiracy, on the other hand, requires agreement with another person to commit the underlying felony, as well as an overt act in furtherance of that felony. Ind. Code Ann. § 35-41-5-2. Each crime requires proof of an element the other does not; these crimes are thus not the "same offense" under Blockburger analysis. However, we have previously held that this is not the end of our double jeopardy analysis-we must also "look to the manner in which the offenses were charged." Derado v. State,

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669 N.E.2d 154, 1996 Ind. LEXIS 84, 1996 WL 403550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gregory-bey-v-state-ind-1996.