Harold Warren v. State of Indiana

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided April 8, 2020·No. 19A-PC-1604·Published

Opinion

FILED

Apr 08 2020, 8:07 am

CLERK

Indiana Supreme Court

Court of Appeals

and Tax Court

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Cynthia M. Carter Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Law Office of Cynthia M. Carter, LLC Attorney General of Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana Jesse R. Drum

Caroline G. Templeton

Deputy Attorneys General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Harold Warren, April 8, 2020 Appellant-Petitioner, Court of Appeals Case No.

19A-PC-1604

v. Appeal from the Marion Superior Court

State of Indiana, The Honorable Barbara Crawford, Appellee-Respondent Judge The Honorable Steven Rubick, Magistrate

Trial Court Cause No.

46G01-1708-PC-28299

May, Judge.

[1] Harold Warren appeals the trial court’s order denying his petition for postconviction relief. He argues his Sixth Amendment right to effective

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 19A-PC-1604 | April 8, 2020 Page 1 of 18 assistance of counsel was infringed because his trial counsel failed to thoroughly investigate and present evidence implicating alternative suspects. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History 1

[2] Jack Dorfman operated a small business on Washington Street in Indianapolis, where he would purchase precious metals and cash checks. On January 7, 1999, a customer visited Dorfman’s shop and found Dorfman lying dead on the floor from a gunshot wound. Police investigated the murder and subsequently arrested Harold Warren. On January 14, 1999, the State charged Warren with murder, 2 felony murder, 3 and Class A felony robbery. 4

[3] Warren filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus and admission to bail. At the hearing on the petition, Steve Jordan, the owner of a printing store located near Dorfman’s shop, testified that on the morning of Dorfman’s murder, a black pickup truck parked in the parking lot of his printing store. The truck remained running and an individual got out of the pickup truck and walked in the direction of Dorfman’s shop. 5 The individual had medium-length hair, wore

1 We heard oral argument in this case on February 3, 2020, at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. We commend counsel for their advocacy and thank the University of Southern Indiana’s faculty, staff, and students for their attendance. 2 Ind. Code § 35-42-1-1 (1997).

3 Ind. Code § 35-42-1-1 (1997).

4 Ind. Code § 35-42-5-1 (1984).

5 Jordan did not testify regarding how many people were in the truck.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 19A-PC-1604 | April 8, 2020 Page 2 of 18 blue jeans with a leather jacket, and was “maybe five ten, somewhere in that neighborhood, dark hair, clean shaven, not very heavy, not real slender, just medium build.” (Ex. AAA at 16.) When asked if the individual Jordan described matched Warren’s appearance, Jordan answered, “Probably not.” (Id. at 17.) Dana Roberson also testified at the hearing. She gave an incomplete report of her criminal history and confirmed that she had dated Larry Warren (“Larry”), Harold Warren’s brother. She denied seeing Warren on the day of Dorfman’s murder. After Roberson’s brief background testimony, the court implored Warren’s counsel, Carl L. Epstein, to “get to the point” and Epstein ceased his examination. (Ex. BBB at 41.) The court denied Warren’s petition for bail.

[4] The court held a jury trial from February 7 through February 9, 2000. Epstein did not subpoena either Larry or Roberson to testify at the trial. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts, and the court entered judgments of conviction for murder and Class B felony robbery, 6 which is a lesser-included offense of the Class A felony robbery charged. The court sentenced Warren to consecutive terms of sixty-five years for murder and twenty years for robbery, for an aggregate executed term of eighty-five years in the Indiana Department of Correction.

6 Ind. Code § 35-42-5-1 (1984).

[5] On direct appeal, our Indiana Supreme Court 7 summarized the evidence presented to the jury during Warren’s trial:

[T]he victim, Jack Dorfman, the proprietor of a small Indianapolis store that purchased and sold jewelry and precious metals and cashed checks, was killed by a single .22 caliber gunshot wound to the head, probably fired from a revolver.

Three days after the murder, Paul Fancher had purchased a .22 caliber revolver from the defendant’s brother, Ron Warren, who had obtained it from one of his brothers. After learning that the defendant had been arrested for the murder, Fancher turned the gun over to police. On the day before the murder, the defendant had been in Dorfman’s store to sell some rings. After Dorfman declined and directed that the defendant be escorted out of the shop, the defendant told him: “I’ll be back.” The defendant admitted to police that he was in Dorfman’s store on the day of the murder. After the murder, the defendant’s fingerprints were discovered on a pawn ticket found on the counter of the shop, and yet the defendant told police that he never could have left his thumbprint on a pawn card because he had never pawned anything. On the day of the murder, the defendant used Dorfman’s credit cards at a liquor store, a Meijer store, a K-Mart store, and a Radio Shack store.

Warren v. State, 757 N.E.2d 995, 999 (Ind. 2001). The Supreme Court affirmed Warren’s convictions. Id. at 1001.

[6] Warren filed a petition for postconviction relief on July 13, 2017. The petition alleged Warren’s trial counsel, Epstein, provided constitutionally ineffective

7 At the time, the appellate rules allowed for a direct appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court because Warren was sentenced to a term of greater than fifty years for a single offense. See Ind. Appellate Rule 4(A)(7) (1999).

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 19A-PC-1604 | April 8, 2020 Page 4 of 18 assistance because he “failed to present crucial defense evidence, failed to hire or consult expert witnesses, and failed to interview and subpoena key defense witnesses.” (App. Vol. II at 9-10.) The postconviction court held an evidentiary hearing, conducted over four non-consecutive days, on Warren’s petition. Epstein testified at the postconviction hearing. 8 Epstein acknowledged he was not able to invest as much time into preparing Warren’s case as he would have liked because he expended a lot of time and resources preparing and trying a multi-week federal criminal trial, which concluded shortly before Warren’s trial, and because his medical problems, including Type 2 diabetes and a heart problem, limited the amount of time Epstein could devote to preparing for Warren’s trial. Epstein testified that if he had had more time, he would have taken Roberson’s deposition. Epstein did not talk with Roberson informally or take a taped statement from her before Warren’s trial. Epstein acknowledged receiving Indianapolis Police Department 9 inter- department communications about fingerprint evidence in the Dorfman murder, and he testified that he should have used the evidence in his arguments at Warren’s trial. 10

8 Epstein’s bar license is currently suspended without automatic reinstatement. (Tr. Vol. II at 15.)

9 Currently, the department is known as the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. However, at the time of the investigation into the Dorfman murder, the department was known as the Indianapolis Police Department. 10 During Warren’s examination of Epstein at the post-conviction hearing, Warren marked as an exhibit and questioned Epstein about Indianapolis Police Department inter-department communications regarding the fingerprint evidence in the Dorfman murder. These inter-department communications were offered but not admitted as evidence at the postconviction hearing.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 19A-PC-1604 | April 8, 2020 Page 5 of 18

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Harold Warren v. State of Indiana, (Ind. Ct. App. 2020).

Harold Warren v. State of Indiana (Harold Warren v. State of Indiana) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Holmes v. South Carolina
547 U.S. 319 (Supreme Court, 2006)
Pelley v. State
901 N.E.2d 494 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2009)
Ritchie v. State
875 N.E.2d 706 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2007)
Lashbrook v. State
762 N.E.2d 756 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2002)
Warren v. State
757 N.E.2d 995 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2001)
Timberlake v. State
753 N.E.2d 591 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2001)
Conner v. State
711 N.E.2d 1238 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1999)
Miller v. State
702 N.E.2d 1053 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1998)
Siglar v. State
541 N.E.2d 944 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1989)
Fisher v. State
878 N.E.2d 457 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2007)
Turner v. State
669 N.E.2d 1024 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1996)
Joyner v. State
678 N.E.2d 386 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1997)
Shuemak v. State
258 N.E.2d 158 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1970)
Williams v. State
706 N.E.2d 149 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1999)
Duane Turner v. State of Indiana
974 N.E.2d 575 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2012)
Ian McCullough v. State of Indiana
973 N.E.2d 62 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2012)
Angelo Bobadilla v. State of Indiana
117 N.E.3d 1272 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2019)