Jamie L. Hancock v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided September 13, 2018·No. 18A-CR-180·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited before FILED any court except for the purpose of Sep 13 2018, 10:37 am establishing the defense of res judicata, CLERK collateral estoppel, or the law of the Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals

and Tax Court

case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Marielena Duerring Curtis T. Hill, Jr. South Bend, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana Caroline G. Templeton

Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Jamie L. Hancock, September 13, 2018 Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.

18A-CR-180

v. Appeal from the Elkhart Superior Court

State of Indiana, The Honorable Teresa L. Cataldo, Appellee-Plaintiff. Judge Trial Court Cause No.

20D03-1605-F2-10

Brown, Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-180 | September 13, 2018 Page 1 of 18

[1] Jamie L. Hancock appeals his convictions for robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, two counts of robbery resulting in bodily injury, criminal confinement resulting in serious bodily injury, and two counts of criminal confinement with bodily injury. Hancock raises two issues which we revise and restate as:

I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it denied his request for a continuance; and

II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted certain evidence.

We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History [2] In the early morning hours of May 2, 2016, James Lee Johnson, Jr., left his electric wheelchair to answer a knock on the door to his home in Elkhart, Indiana. After Johnson opened the door, Amanda Wrye, the woman who knocked and whom Johnson recognized, told him that her car was malfunctioning down the street and that she needed help. Johnson permitted Wrye to enter his home and closed and locked the door behind her. As he returned to sit down in the wheelchair, she turned around and unlocked the door. After a very short period of time, a man and woman burst in the door. The man stated, “your money or your life,” and when Johnson, who thought it was joke, started laughing, the man hit him across the face three to five times with an iron pipe which was “about 18, 20 inches long.” Transcript Volume 3 at 12, 14. As the man struck Johnson, the two women watched and stood back. The man began “pullin’ . . . and dumping drawers” and, ultimately, the man and two women took a skill saw, a jar of pennies from the dresser in Johnson’s Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-180 | September 13, 2018 Page 2 of 18 bedroom containing “seventy-some dollars,” and Johnson’s wallet containing various credit and debit cards, including one from PNC Bank.1 Id. at 18-19. At some point, the assailants ripped wires from Johnson’s wheelchair and used them to tie him to it. As a result of the attack, Johnson’s dentures and nose were broken and his forehead was gashed.

[3] At about 4:00 a.m. that same morning, Juanita Tripp received a knock on the sliding door in the back of her Elkhart home from two females standing on the porch who she did not recognize. At the time, Juanita’s husband, William Tripp, was asleep in the bedroom in the rear part of the house. Juanita asked the two females what they wanted, they responded that they needed to use the phone because they had “just got [back] from the hospital and . . . need[ed] to get a way home,” and she let them into the house, thinking “nothin’ about it.” Transcript Volume 2 at 177. As the two of them went to use the bathroom, Hancock walked into the house “[a]ll of a sudden” and, when the pair returned, asked to use the restroom. William identified one of the females as Jonie McMahan and testified that she pushed Juanita against the refrigerator and tased her about “three different times.” Id. at 178.

1 At trial, State’s Exhibit No. 25, a picture of a PNC Bank Visa card with the name “James L Johnson Jr” printed on it was admitted and Detective Michael Carich testified that, during a May 5, 2016 interview, Hancock had stated he rented a room at the Garden Inn, that he had gained access to the room, and that he had discovered a small trash can between the beds which contained a “PNC Visa bank card with the name of James L. Johnson, Jr.” Transcript Volume 3 at 81.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-180 | September 13, 2018 Page 3 of 18

[4] Hearing Juanita from the bedroom, William began to investigate and started down the hall when he heard her scream. Id. at 108. Hancock, who “had . . . like a big huntin’ knife,” intercepted him and threatened to kill him if he said anything. Id. Hancock tackled William, hit him on the face, and asked William for money and if he had a gun. During this time, one of the females began removing jewelry from Juanita. At some point, Hancock accompanied William to the back bedroom, and William gave him “about eleven hundred dollars.” Id. at 117. When they returned, Hancock “said somethin’ about ‘put ‘em in the closet,’” asked William for a rope, and Hancock and the two females told William and Juanita to “get in the closet” of the bedroom. Id. at 118, 120. Hancock tied their hands with a rope he had found in the closet and tied the closet door to the hallway door. The Tripps were confined in the closet for approximately thirty minutes before they exited and, when they did, Hancock and the two females had left the residence and the cords to the telephones had been cut. As a result of the attack, William was admitted to the emergency room with a collapsed lung and stayed at the hospital for four and one-half days.

[5] On May 5, 2016, Hancock was interviewed by the police, during which he stated:

I parked down the road . . . the blonde went up to the door, she goes inside, me and the other girl walk up to the porch, the other girl pushes the door open and goes in, I stand in the doorway.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-180 | September 13, 2018 Page 4 of 18

State’s Exhibit No. 32 at 2:57:55-2:58:10. Hancock maintained that one of the females “hit the guy” on the head with a pipe more than once. Id. at 2:58:18- 2:58:20. He stated that he stood in the doorway “to make sure no one else interfered” and answered affirmatively when subsequently asked if he meant “like coming in from the outside, like a lookout?” Id. at 3:02:07-3:02:15. He maintained that they were at Johnson’s house for “maybe three minutes,” returned to the truck and one of the females “carried out” the skill saw, and drove first to a gas station where the female threw the pipe away and then to a church parking lot. Id. at 3:02:20-3:02:30. He stated that he watched the girls cross the street and enter a house, that he did not “go into that house,” but instead “went to the back door and then . . . left” because one of the females had a taser, and that he was at the sliding glass door on the porch looking inside the house when he saw the female with the taser “hitting someone in the neck.” Id. at 3:03:57-3:04:03, 3:06:30-3:06:36. He correctly identified by picture Wrye or McMahan as one of the females he was with.

[6] On May 10, 2016, the State charged Hancock with robbery resulting in serious bodily injury as a level 2 felony, robbery resulting in bodily injury as a level 3 felony, criminal confinement resulting in serious bodily injury as a level 3 felony, and criminal confinement resulting in bodily injury as a level 5 felony. Later, the State added charges for robbery resulting in bodily injury as a level 3 felony and for criminal confinement resulting in bodily injury as a level 5 felony.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-180 | September 13, 2018 Page 5 of 18

[7] On May 12, 2016, the public defender’s office was appointed to represent Hancock. A chronological case summary (“CCS”) entry, which indicates that a hearing was held on July 7, 2016, states:

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