Howard v. State

433 N.E.2d 753, 1982 Ind. LEXIS 797
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 6, 1982
Docket1280S456
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 433 N.E.2d 753 (Howard 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
Howard v. State, 433 N.E.2d 753, 1982 Ind. LEXIS 797 (Ind. 1982).

Opinion

DeBRULER, Justice.

Herbert Brooks Howard, III, defendant-appellant, was charged with and convicted of burglary, Ind.Code § 35-43-2-1 (Burns 1979 Repl.), and theft, Ind.Code § 35-43-4-2 (Burns 1979 Repl.). The trial court sentenced Howard to twenty years’ imprisonment on the burglary charge and two years’ imprisonment on the theft charge, the sentences to be served concurrently with each other and with a sentence he was already serving in Kentucky.

This appeal follows denial of a motion to correct errors and raises three issues:

(1) Whether the defendant was denied his right to a speedy trial under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, or under the Indiana and United States Constitutions.

(2) Whether the evidence was insufficient to prove burglary.

(3) Whether the evidence was insufficient to prove theft.

I.

On January 25, 1978, several items were stolen from the apartment of Leatrice Shepard. The defendant was arrested for the crime that day and was originally charged in Marion Municipal Court. In May, 1978, that court dismissed the charges and directed the prosecutor to refile them in Marion Criminal Court. The charges were then filed in Marion Criminal Court on June 7, 1979. In the meantime the defendant had begun serving a prison sentence in Kentucky.

The defendant claims that he was denied his right to a speedy trial as it is provided for in the Interstate Agreement on Detain-ers, Ind.Code § 35-2.1-2-4 (Burns 1979 *755 Repl., repealed effective September 1, 1982) and as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and by Art. 1, § 12 of the Constitution of Indiana.

Concerning the claim under the Interstate Agreement, the defendant in his brief asserts that he initiated a request for disposition of the Indiana charge on August 7, 1979, triggering the running of a one hundred-eighty-day time period within which the State was required to bring the defendant back to Indiana for trial. The record, however, does not support this allegation, or an alternate allegation that the triggering date was August 30, 1979. On appeal the burden is on the appellant to establish his claims. In this case the defendant has failed to meet this burden. The claim under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers is therefore foreclosed because the defendant cannot identify the dates crucial to a determination of the issue.

Turning to the constitutional claims, we are similarly unable to review them because the defendant has not met his burden of establishing his claims. In Barker v. Wingo, (1972) 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101, the United States Supreme Court enunciated four factors to be considered in determining whether the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial had been violated: (1) the length of the delay; (2) the reason for the delay; (3) the defendant’s assertion of the right; and (4) prejudice to the defendant. A five-year delay in that case was not a violation of the speedy trial right in light of defendant Barker’s failure to assert his rights and his inability to demonstrate prejudice as the result of the delay. The Supreme Court had earlier considered the case of the defendant imprisoned in one state who seeks disposition of a criminal charge pending in another state, Smith v. Hooey, (1969) 393 U.S. 374, 89 S.Ct. 575, 21 L.Ed.2d 607. “Upon the petitioner’s demand, [the state has] a constitutional duty to make a diligent, good faith effort to bring him before the . . . court for trial.” Id, 393 U.S. at 383, 89 S.Ct. at 579. In Smeltzer v. State, (1970) 254 Ind. 165, 258 N.E.2d 647, following the guidelines of Smith v. Hooey, supra, this Court announced that, in the case of accused persons incarcerated outside Indiana, the following factors were to be considered: (1) the length of time that transpires between the demand by the accused for a speedy trial and the initiation of action by the proper Indiana authorities for the accused’s return; (2) the procedures followed by the state in seeking release from the jurisdiction in which the accused is incarcerated; and (3) compliance by state officials with pertinent statutes of Indiana and the other jurisdiction. The defendant has not presented a reviewable claim because in connection with the first factor there is an insufficient record as to when, if ever, he made a demand for a speedy trial.

II.

The next claim is that the evidence on the burglary charge was insufficient to support the defendant’s conviction. The burglary statute provides:

“A person who breaks and enters the building or structure of another person, with intent to commit a felony in it, commits burglary, a class C felony. However, the offense is a class B felony if it is committed while armed with a deadly weapon or if the building or structure is a dwelling, and a class A felony if it results in either bodily injury or serious bodily injury to any other person.” Ind. Code § 35-43-2-1 (Burns 1979 Repl.)

Two points are advanced in support of this claim. First, the defendant claims that the State failed to present any evidence showing that defendant broke into the apartment. Second, he claims that there was no evidence of an intent to commit a felony.

As to the first point, the defendant argues that the record reveals no direct or circumstantial evidence that the door to the apartment was closed before he entered it. A witness testified that the door was open when he pursued the defendant, and that he saw pry marks on the door, although the witness could not tell whether they were *756 fresh marks, and he stated that most of the doors in the apartment complex had pry marks on them.

The State claims that circumstantial evidence and inferences from the testimony proved the element of breaking.

In reviewing claims of insufficiency, this Court neither weighs the evidence nor resolves questions of credibility, but only looks to the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom that support the verdict. Smith v. State, (1970) 254 Ind. 401, 260 N.E.2d 558. The conviction will be affirmed if from that viewpoint there is evidence of probative value from which a reasonable trier of fact could infer that appellant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Glover v. State, (1970) 253 Ind. 536, 255 N.E.2d 657; Taylor v. State, (1973) 260 Ind. 64, 291 N.E.2d 890

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

Related

Griesinger v. State
699 N.E.2d 279 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1998)
Bellmore v. State
602 N.E.2d 111 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1992)
Canaan v. State
541 N.E.2d 894 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1989)
England v. State
530 N.E.2d 100 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1988)
Henley v. State
519 N.E.2d 525 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1988)
Trice v. State
490 N.E.2d 757 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1986)
Abercrombie v. State
478 N.E.2d 1236 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1985)
Smith v. State
477 N.E.2d 857 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1985)
Yeagley v. State
467 N.E.2d 730 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1984)
Lamb v. State
462 N.E.2d 1025 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1984)
Joy v. State
460 N.E.2d 551 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
433 N.E.2d 753, 1982 Ind. LEXIS 797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howard-v-state-ind-1982.