Horan v. State

682 N.E.2d 502, 1997 Ind. LEXIS 89, 1997 WL 353610
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1997
Docket69S00-9510-CR-1118
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 682 N.E.2d 502 (Horan 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
Horan v. State, 682 N.E.2d 502, 1997 Ind. LEXIS 89, 1997 WL 353610 (Ind. 1997).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, Justice.

A jury convicted Defendant Brian Horan of Murder 1 and Battery, 2 on June 14, 1992. On July 28, 1992, Horan was sentenced to eight years on the battery count and sixty years on the murder count. Horan appealed the conviction because his tendered instruction requesting the jury to draw no inference from his refusal to testify was denied. We vacated this conviction and remanded the case to the trial court for a new trial. Horan v. State, 642 N.E.2d 1374 (Ind.1994). 3

On April 7, 1995, a second jury convicted Horan of Murder and Battery. The trial court sentenced Horan to fifty-five years on the murder count and eight years on the battery count. The sentences were to be served consecutively.

We have jurisdiction over this direct appeal because the longest single sentence exceeds fifty years. Ind. Const. art. 7, § 4; Ind.Appellate Rule 4(A)(7); Wiseman v. State, 521 N.E.2d 942, 943 (Ind.1988).

Background

A summary of the facts most favorable to the verdicts follows. For a more complete discussion, see our opinion in Owens v. State, 659 N.E.2d 466, 469 (Ind.1995). On the evening of June 21, 1991, Brian Horan and brothers Michael and Rodney Owens had been drinking and riding around in Rodney’s Thunderbird when they encountered Gary Bennett and Robert Hendricks. Horan and Michael Owens briefly argued with Bennett about Bennett’s having had an affair with both Horan’s and Rodney’s wives. After the argument subsided, Bennett and Hendricks, who had also been drinking, got into the car to drive around and drink with the other three men. Horan, as he would the rest of the evening, did the driving.

This driving and drinking expedition continued until reaching a secluded country area known as Devil’s Elbow. At some point, the subject of Bennett’s affair with Horan’s wife was revisited. Horan then began hitting Bennett and the violence escalated. Michael Owens joined Horan in repeatedly punching and kicking Bennett in the head, chest, groin and stomach and then slamming Bennett’s head against the trunk of the car four to five times.

Eventually, the group left Bennett at Devil’s Elbow and drove to Rodney Owens’s house. Covered in blood, Horan showered *506 and changed clothes. Horan, Michael Owens and Hendricks then returned to Devil’s Elbow in the Thunderbird. Upon returning to Devil’s Elbow, the men found Bennett slumped over a fence. Horan said that he could not “believe the son-of-a bitch was still up,” and along with Owens resumed the beating. After this second beating episode, all three men again left Bennett and drove back to town.

After taking Hendricks home, Horan and Michael Owens drove around town but eventually returned to ■ Devil’s Elbow. Bennett was dead. Horan and Michael Owens put Bennett’s body in the trunk of the Thunderbird. Later the next morning, the police found Bennett’s charred body in the trunk of the Thunderbird. Through dental records, police were able to identify Bennett’s body. The autopsy revealed that the cause of death was severe trauma to the head before the body was burned.

We will provide additional facts as necessary.

The issues on appeal are as follows:

1. Whether Horan was entitled to instructions on Voluntary Manslaughter and Reckless Homicide.
2. Whether the trial court improperly instructed the jury that voluntary intoxication is a defense only to crimes that require an intentional act.
3. Whether the trial court erred by admitting Horan’s statement to the police.
4. Whether the trial court improperly permitted the State to read witness Hendricks’s prior consistent statement into evidence.
5. Whether there was sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Horan committed Murder.
6. Whether Horan’s convictions for Murder and Battery subjected him to double jeopardy.

Discussion

I

Horan contends that the trial court committed reversible error by denying his proposed jury instructions on Voluntary Manslaughter and Reckless Homicide as lesser included offenses of Murder. In Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563 (Ind.1995), we set forth the proper analysis to determine when a trial court should, upon request, instruct the jury on a lesser included offense of the crime charged. This analysis contains three steps: (1) a determination of whether the lesser included offense is inherently included in the crime charged; if not,(2) a determination of whether the lesser included offense is factually included in the crime charged; and, if either, (3) a determination of whether a serious evidentiary dispute existed whereby the jury could conclude the lesser offense was committed but not the greater. Id. at 566-67. If the third step is reached and answered in the affirmative, the requested instruction should be given.

A

Horan first argues that the trial court erred in refusing his instruction on Voluntary Manslaughter, an inherently lesser included offense of Murder. To determine if the lesser offense is inherently included in the crime charged, the court must compare the statute defining the crime charged with the statute defining the alleged lesser included offense. “If (a) the alleged lesser included offense may be established ‘by proof of the same material elements or less than all the material elements’ defining the crime charged, or (b) the only feature distinguishing the alleged lesser included offense from the crime charged is that a lesser culpability is required to establish the commission of the lesser offense, then the alleged lesser included offense is inherently included in the crime charged.” Id. (citations and footnotes omitted).

Indiana’s Murder statute provides in relevant part that “[a] person who ... knowingly or intentionally kills another human being ... commits Murder, a felony.” Ind. Code § 35-42-1-1 (1993). By comparison, Indiana’s Voluntary Manslaughter statute provides in relevant part: “A person who knowingly or intentionally kills another human being while acting under sudden heat commits Voluntary Manslaughter, a Class B *507 felony.” Ind.Code § 35-42-l-3(a) (1993). Sudden heat is a mitigating factor which reduces murderous activity from Murder to Voluntary Manslaughter.

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Bluebook (online)
682 N.E.2d 502, 1997 Ind. LEXIS 89, 1997 WL 353610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/horan-v-state-ind-1997.