Hall v. State

566 N.E.2d 1072, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 224, 1991 WL 22395
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 20, 1991
DocketNo. 35A02-8912-CR-653
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 566 N.E.2d 1072 (Hall 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
Hall v. State, 566 N.E.2d 1072, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 224, 1991 WL 22395 (Ind. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

BUCHANAN, Judge.

CASE SUMMARY

Appellant-defendant Lonnie Ray Hall (Hall) appeals his convictions for attempted murder1 and robbery,2 claiming that the trial court erred in instructing the jury, and that the court improperly sentenced him [1073]*1073for class A robbery based on the same set of facts which supported his attempted murder conviction.

We reverse in part and affirm in part.

FACTS

On July 21, 1988, Hall and Danny Hogle (Danny) hitchhiked from Danny’s house in Marion to Jonesboro. They visited a number of places there before finally going to the home of Hall’s grandmother, Crystal Baker (Baker), ostensibly to have Baker drive them back to Marion, which Baker reluctantly agreed to do.

During the trip, Hall and his grandmother argued over papers for a chain saw she had purchased for him. Upon arrival at Hall’s home, Hall and Danny entered the house to look for the papers. The two had repeatedly urged Baker to go with them into the house, but she refused electing to stay in the car. However, when they did not return, Baker decided to see what was taking so long.

When she entered the house, Hall knocked her down and Danny struck her with a galvanized pipe. Danny then tied Baker’s hands and feet with an extension cord. Hall and Danny placed Baker in the car, covered her with a blanket, and drove to Salamonie Reservoir. There they placed her in the water where Hall shot her twice with a shotgun while she crawled up the bank pleading for mercy. The contents of her purse were taken and the purse thrown into the Reservoir. Hall and Danny then drove back to Marion in Baker’s car where Danny was dropped off near his house after refusing to go to Kentucky. Before Danny departed, Hall threatened to kill him if he told anyone what happened.

When discovered at the water’s edge the next morning, Baker’s upper-right arm had been nearly severed by the shotgun blast. She also had shotgun pellets imbedded in her right side and two wounds to her head. After extensive emergency medical treatment, Baker’s life was saved; her right arm had to be amputated.

Later, Hall and Danny’s brother, Herbert Hogle (Herbert) (whom Hall had previously asked to help him kill his grandmother) drove to a bank in Marion where Hall cashed Baker’s social security check which had been in her purse. Hall and Herbert then picked up Danny and the three divided the money and went to a mall. Their shopping completed, Hall dropped off the Hogle brothers and drove Baker’s car to Kentucky where he was later arrested.

On July 28, 1988, Hall was charged with attempted murder, robbery and confinement. Following a jury trial, which began on July 5, 1989, Hall was found guilty on all counts. A sentencing hearing was held on August 28, 1989, at which Hall was sentenced to fifty years for attempted murder, fifty years for robbery, as a class A felony, and twenty years for criminal confinement. The court then determined that the attempted murder and robbery sentences were to be served concurrently, while the confinement sentence was to be served consecutively to those sentences. Hall now appeals his attempted murder and robbery convictions.

ISSUES

Hall raises several issues for our consideration which we restate as follows:

1. Whether the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that Hall had the burden of proving the defense of intoxication?
2. Whether the trial court committed error by failing to instruct the jury that a specific intent to kill the victim is a necessary element of attempted murder?
3. Whether the trial court erred by instructing the jury that prior inconsistent statements of witnesses may be considered as substantial evidence of Hall’s guilt?
4. Whether the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that flight is evidence of consciousness of guilt?
5. Whether the trial court erred in sentencing Hall for attempted murder when the injuries which are the basis for the attempted murder conviction are also the basis of the elevation of robbery to a class A felony?

[1074]*1074ISSUE ONE — Whether the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that Hall had the burden of proving the defense of intoxication?

PARTIES’ CONTENTIONS — Hall claims that the court’s instruction that he had the burden of proof for the defense of intoxication impermissibly shifted to him the burden of showing that he had the requisite intent to commit the offenses. The State says that any error as to the instruction is waived, or in the alternative, harmless.

CONCLUSION — The trial court did not err in instructing the jury on the defense of intoxication.

Hall testified that the evening on which these events took place, he consumed six beers, smoked marijuana, and taken three Trilafan pills, a tranquilizer which had been prescribed for his stepfather. None of Hall’s accomplices, however, confirmed Hall’s use of alcohol or drugs on that evening.

At the conclusion of trial, the court issued the following instruction on intoxication:

“The defense of intoxication may afford a complete defense which excuses the criminality of the act. To operate as a complete defense, however, the intoxication must be shown to have been of such a degree as to have deprived the defendant of the power to deliberate or form the necessary intent. In other words, intoxication is a defense to a crime if the intoxication rises to the level that the defendant lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law. Whether or not a defendant’s intoxication prevented him from forming the requisite intent is a question of fact for the jury. The defendant has the burden of proof for the defense of intoxication.”

Supplemental Record at 23, 180.

Hall claims that this instruction misinstructs the jury by placing on him the burden of showing that he did not have the requisite intent to commit the offenses. We observe, however, that the language employed by the court in instructing the jury constitutes an almost verbatim rendition of the proper standard enunciated by our Supreme Court in Melendez v. State (1987), Ind., 511 N.E.2d 454:

“To negate intent, intoxication must be of such a degree as to deprive the defendant of the power to deliberate or to form the necessary design or guilty intent. Whether a defendant’s intoxication prevented him from forming the requisite intent is a question of fact for the jury and one upon which the defendant bears the burden.”

(Emphasis supplied.) Id. at 457-58; see also Coble v. State (1985), Ind., 476 N.E.2d 102; Wagner v. State (1985), Ind., 474 N.E.2d 476.

Therefore, we conclude the court did not err in instructing the jury on the defense of intoxication.

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Related

Hall v. State
574 N.E.2d 287 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1991)
Stewart v. State
567 N.E.2d 171 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
566 N.E.2d 1072, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 224, 1991 WL 22395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-state-indctapp-1991.