Jermarcus L. Grandberry v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 29, 2016
Docket02A03-1511-PC-1874
StatusPublished

This text of Jermarcus L. Grandberry v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.) (Jermarcus L. Grandberry v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Jermarcus L. Grandberry v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.), (Ind. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION FILED Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), Mar 29 2016, 7:23 am this Memorandum Decision shall not be CLERK regarded as precedent or cited before any Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals court except for the purpose of establishing and Tax Court

the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Stephen T. Owens Gregory F. Zoeller Public Defender of Indiana Attorney General of Indiana Anne Murray Burgess Justin F. Roebel Deputy Public Defender Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Jermarcus L. Grandberry, March 29, 2016 Appellant-Petitioner, Court of Appeals Case No. 02A03-1511-PC-1874 v. Appeal from the Allen Superior Court State of Indiana, The Honorable John F. Surbeck, Appellee-Respondent. Jr., Judge Trial Court Cause No. 02D06-1204-PC-53

Mathias, Judge.

[1] Jermarcus L. Grandberry (“Grandberry”) appeals the order of the Allen

Superior Court denying his petition for post-conviction relief. On appeal,

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision No. 02A03-1511-PC-1874 | March 29, 2016 Page 1 of 17 Grandberry claims that the post-conviction court erred by: (1) determining that

he was not denied the effective assistance of trial counsel; and (2) rejecting his

claim that the prosecutor committed misconduct.

[2] We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[3] The facts underlying Grandberry’s conviction were set forth in our

memorandum decision on direct appeal as follows:

On May 9, 2010, Grandberry lived with his then girlfriend, Takelia Stewart, at an apartment at 1910 Hobson Road in Allen County. Grandberry occasionally borrowed Stewart’s green Ford Escort hatchback. On May 9, Grandberry borrowed Stewart’s car and, at noon, he picked up his brother, Sedrick Grandberry.

At approximately two o’clock, a green Ford Escort pulled into the driveway of 3711 [Glencairn] Drive in Fort Wayne. Brett Coates, who lived nearby at 3204 [Glencairn] Drive in Fort Wayne observed from his living room the green Ford Escort pull into his neighbor’s driveway. The neighbor was not home. Coates observed an African-American male exit the car and knock on the door at 3711 Glencairn. When there was no answer, the man returned to the car and left. Fifteen minutes later, Coates saw the car return to the neighbor’s home, this time backing up the driveway and through the yard. Coates found that activity to be suspicious and telephoned the police.

On the same afternoon, Harold Friedrich was walking his dog along Victoria Drive in Fort Wayne. When he was near the home at 4612 Victoria Drive, he observed a station wagon back out of the driveway very fast. About twenty-five minutes later, he was walking his dog again in the same area and saw between Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision No. 02A03-1511-PC-1874 | March 29, 2016 Page 2 of 17 houses two African-American men carrying a television, but he did not see any cars. Friedrich assumed there had been a robbery, was able to note a partial license place number from the car that had sped past him, and telephoned the police.

Edwina Snyder was living in Fort Wayne at 4612 Victoria Drive, which lies diagonally from Coates’ home and is “directly behind” 3117 Glencairn Drive. Transcript at 160. On May 9, she returned home from a trip to find that her back door was “wide open.” Id. at 113. She also found that the lock had been damaged and that the casement window in her kitchen had also been “jimmied open.” Id. Snyder then noticed that her television and DVD player were missing. Further inspection revealed that her laptop computer, other computer equipment, CDs, and jewelry were also missing. And she found on the floor a nonoperational rifle that had been hanging over the fireplace. Snyder telephoned the Fort Wayne Police Department.

Grandberry and his brother returned in the car to Stewart’s apartment at two-thirty in the afternoon. When they arrived at her apartment, they brought in electronics, a laptop computer, some jewelry, and a DVD player that they had not previously possessed. And they left a television in the car. The men later disposed of the television in a dumpster. That afternoon, Stewart also found CDs in her car that had not been there before Grandberry had used the car.

Officer Matthew Cline of the Fort Wayne Police Department (“FWPD”) was dispatched to the area of Snyder’s home twice on May 9. On the first occasion, he went to 3117 Glencairn and spoke with Coates. The officer found CDs scattered in the yard and collected them for evidence. On Officer Cline’s second dispatch he went to Snyder’s home. There he assisted the primary officer on the scene and observed the damage to Snyder’s door and window.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision No. 02A03-1511-PC-1874 | March 29, 2016 Page 3 of 17 Using the partial license plate number provided by Friedrich, police officers identified Stewart’s Escort as the car that had been in the area of Snyder’s home. On May 11, FWPD Detective Joseph Lyon interviewed Stewart at the police department. Stewart gave consent for police to search the vehicle, and officers found some of Snyder’s CDs inside. Stewart told officers that on May 9 she had loaned her vehicle to Grandberry, that Grandberry had returned with his brother in her vehicle at two- thirty on that day, and that Grandberry had in his possession at that time a television, CDs, a laptop computer, and jewelry that he had not had when he had originally borrowed the car.

Subsequently on May 11, Detective Lyon interviewed Grandberry. After being advised of and waiving his Miranda rights, Grandberry admitted that he had borrowed Stewart’s car on the afternoon of May 9, that he had been the only one in control of the car that afternoon, and that he had been with his brother. But he denied having committed the robbery. The detective advised Grandberry that property from 4612 Victoria Drive had been found in a search of Stewart’s car and reminded him that he had already admitted that only he had had control of the car on the afternoon of May 9. Grandberry replied, “If I had known you were talking about a burglary I never would have admitted to being in that car.” Appellant’s App. at 8.

Grandberry v. State, No. 02A05-1010-CR-643, 2011 WL 1733543 at *1-2 (Ind.

Ct. App. May 6, 2011), trans. denied.

[4] The State charged Grandberry with one count of Class B felony burglary.

Following a jury trial, Grandberry was found guilty as charged, and the trial

court sentenced Grandberry to fifteen years executed. On direct appeal,

Grandberry presented four issues: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to

support his conviction; (2) whether the trial court erred in excluding evidence of

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision No. 02A03-1511-PC-1874 | March 29, 2016 Page 4 of 17 bias, prejudice, or interest concerning Stewart; (3) whether the trial court

abused its discretion in failing to identify certain mitigating factors; and (4)

whether Grandberry’s fifteen-year sentence was inappropriate. We rejected all

of Grandberry’s claims and affirmed his conviction and sentence. See id at 8.

[5] On April 11, 2012, Grandberry filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief.

On October 10, 2014, Grandberry, now represented by the State Public

Defender, filed an amended petition. The post-conviction court held a hearing

on the matter on March 6, 2015. On October 14, 2015, the post-conviction

court entered specific findings and conclusions denying Grandberry’s petition.

Grandberry now appeals.

Post-Conviction Standard of Review

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