James F. Griffith v. State of Indiana

59 N.E.3d 947, 2016 Ind. LEXIS 671, 2016 WL 5477617
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 29, 2016
Docket27S00-1503-LW-145
StatusPublished
Cited by74 cases

This text of 59 N.E.3d 947 (James F. Griffith v. State of Indiana) 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
James F. Griffith v. State of Indiana, 59 N.E.3d 947, 2016 Ind. LEXIS 671, 2016 WL 5477617 (Ind. 2016).

Opinion

On Direct Appeal

RUSH, Chief Justice.

James Griffith was convicted of murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery, and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole (“LWOP”). On direct appeal, he claims (1) he was denied due process in discovery; (2) he was denied his right to a speedy trial; (3) the trial court abused its discretion in denying his requests to hire at public expense expert witnesses in DNA and blood spatter; (4) the trial court committed fundamental error by allowing witnesses to remain in the courtroom during opening statements; (5) the trial court abused its discretion by allowing the State’s entomologist to testify; (6) the trial court admitted evidence in violation of the Federal and Indiana Constitutions; and- (7) insufficient evidence supported-his convictions. Finding that Griffith’s claims lack merit, we affirm the trial court in all respects. ' •

Facts and Procedural History

In his retirement, eighty-one-year-old veteran Duwayne Lindsey enjoyed collecting guns and coins and making daily trips to AMVETS, a local veteran’s service organization. He lived alone, but was known to welcome others into his home to share his hobbies. At one point, Lindsey invited his friend’s step-son Chris Hisey to come over and help him remodel a closet to fit his gun safe. Hisey obliged and allowed an acquaintance, Griffith, to tag along. Afterwards, Griffith told his girlfriend, Lacy Bradley, about Lindsey’s valuable collections. The couple, who had just spent a month in Ohio living off bad checks, decided it was time for a robbery.

■ One morning, Griffith and Bradley pulled up to Lindsey’s house in an Oldsmobile. Griffith asked Lindsey if he could spare a moment to inspect some coins. Lindsey welcomed them inside to a card *951 table, where he had a coin magnifying glass set up. But shortly after he sat down, Griffith nodded to Bradley, who bashed Lindsey’s head with a hammer, fracturing his skull. Griffith then pulled out his knife, stabbed Lindsey in the chest, and demanded the combination to Lindsey’s safe. Each time Lindsey answered incorrectly, Griffith cut his throat. Eventually,- Griffith broke the dial off the safe and pried it open. Over the next hour and a half, Griffith and Bradley stuffed Lindsey’s guns, coins, and cash into the Oldsmobile until the trunk “sat down a bit.”

The couple then set out on an extended road trip, spending Lindsey’s money and calling themselves the, modern-day “Bonnie and Clyde.” They picked up a friend in Fort Wayne and headed to Batesville to spend the night with Bradley’s father, Brian. As Brian helped them unload numerous guns and heavy bags of coins, he thought the couple’s behavior was strange. Although Griffith insisted the property was his, he struggled to load a western-style revolver and plucked coins from their proof sets, decreasing their value.

The next day Griffith bought a van with Lindsey’s money, moved the Oldsmobile’s license plate onto the van, and ditched the Oldsmobile. They continued south to Kentucky and bought a motorcycle, again with Lindsey’s cash.

The group eventually pulled into a gas station, near where a pair of Kentucky State troopers were parked. Just as one of the troopers noticed the motorcycle’s license plate was expired, Griffith walked up, map in hand, and asked for directions. The trooper asked for identification, and Griffith said he was “John Scott Griffith.” When the trooper saw that name matched an Ohio felony arrest warrant for two counts of forgery, he placed Griffith under arrest.

Realizing her boyfriend was in trouble, Bradley stepped out of the vari and claimed the motorcycle was hers. Suspicious, the troopers ran the van’s license plate and saw it actually .belonged to an Oldsmobile. At that point, Bradley asked if the troopers would leave if she just gave them “the drugs,” and she handed over two pill bottles. Then, ignoring orders to stop, she started walking back towards the van to grab her-purse—which contained a gun. As she reached for the purse, the troopers pulled her back and placed her under arrest. Soon after, the troopers looked through the van’s back window and saw a bloody rifle. They searched the van and found at least fourteen guns and over $25,000 in cash.

Meanwhile, Lindsey’s friends were becoming worried as he 'had not been to AMVETS for almost a week. A fellow veteran went to check on him and found newspapers piling up, the door ajar, and a “horrific” odor coming from within. He called 911, and police found Lindsey’s body decaying on the dining room floor. Police also found the house ransacked, the safe empty, and handgun boxes strewn throughout. They entered the serial numbers from the gun boxes into a database and received a hit in Kentucky, which led them to Griffith. Indiana officers then traveled to Kentucky and interviewed Griffith, who still claimed to be “John Scott Griffith.” When they told him they were seeking a warrant for his fingerprints, he grabbed a paper clip and started scraping at his fingers.

"While Griffith was still jailed in Kentucky for conduct unrelated to the crimes against Lindsey, the State charged him with six counts: murder, felony murder, A-felony robbery, A-felony conspiracy to commit robbery, B-felony aggravated battery, and C-felony receiving stolen proper *952 ty. 1 - The State also sought LWOP. On March 11, 2013, Griffith was extradited back to Indiana to face the charges.

■ Although Griffith was initially appointed two attorneys, he chose to represent himself, retaining one attorney as stand-by counsel. After a two-week trial, the jury found Griffith guilty as charged. To avoid double jeopardy problems, the trial court vacated the felony murder and aggravated battery convictions and reduced the robbery and conspiracy convictions to Class C felonies. The trial court imposed LWOP based on the jury’s recommendation, and imposed concurrent eight-year sentences for the robbery and conspiracy convictions, to run consecutively with LWOP.

Griffith now directly appeals his convictions to this Court under Indiana Appellate Rule 4(A)(1)(a), presenting seven issues that we address in turn. Additional facts will be supplied where appropriate.

Discussion and Decision

I. Griffith Was Not Denied Due Process in Discovery.

Griffith claims that after he chose to represent himself, the State violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights by providing certain pictures in discovery solely by a disc he could not access in jail. He acknowledges that the State accommodated him by printing off the disc’s contents and delivering them in a box, but he insists—without citing any support in the record—that pictures of the van and Lindsey’s autopsy were missing. The State responds that the box included everything on the disc—roughly 6,000 pages—and even if it lacked several pictures, Griffith could have asked his stand-by counsel to check for and fix such discrepancies. We agree with the State and find Griffith’s constitutional claim meritless.

Although the Fourteenth Amendment does not guarantee criminal defendants a general right to discovery, Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 559, 97 S.Ct.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
59 N.E.3d 947, 2016 Ind. LEXIS 671, 2016 WL 5477617, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-f-griffith-v-state-of-indiana-ind-2016.