Klagiss v. State

585 N.E.2d 674, 1992 Ind. App. LEXIS 77, 1992 WL 12672
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 30, 1992
Docket49A02-9008-CR-00478
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 585 N.E.2d 674 (Klagiss v. State) 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.

Bluebook
Klagiss v. State, 585 N.E.2d 674, 1992 Ind. App. LEXIS 77, 1992 WL 12672 (Ind. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

SHARPNACK, Judge.

Raymond Klagiss appeals his conviction of neglect of a dependent, a class B felony pursuant to Ind.Code § 35-46-1-4. We affirm.

Klagiss lists five issues for review, which we restate as follows:

1. Did the trial court abuse its discretion in refusing to permit the defendant’s *677 expert witnesses to answer hypothetical questions concerning the cause of the decedent’s fatal injury?
2. Did the court err in placing a video monitor in a manner that prevented Klagiss and his attorney from viewing videotaped testimony?
3. Did the court err in quashing a subpoena requesting a videotape prepared by a news organization which was not a party to this case?
4. Did inconsistencies in the testimony of one of the state’s witnesses render the testimony inadmissible?
5. Is I.C. § 35-46-1-4 unconstitutionally vague?

Jadviga Klagiss and her son Raymond came to the United States in the 1950s in order to escape the rise of Communism in their native Latvia following the second world war. They eventually settled in Indianapolis, where Jadviga continued to live until her death. The defendant attended college and law school and eventually went into private legal practice in Indianapolis.

In the last years before her death, Jadvi-ga suffered from a variety of physical problems, including osteoporosis, which were related to her advanced age. She occasionally was disoriented. In many ways, however, she was in good health and was very active for a person of her age in the last year before her death.

Klagiss moved into Jadviga’s home some time before her death. Several weeks before Jadviga’s death, Wayne Bruness, a former law associate of Klagiss, prepared documents deeding Jadviga’s house to Klagiss and granting to him Jadviga’s power of attorney.

At 3:30 a.m. on March 9, 1988, Kay Ni-mocks, a triage nurse at MetroHealth received a phone call from Susan Stewart (now Klagiss), a nurse with whom Klagiss was living in Jadviga’s house. 1 Susan Klagiss asked Nimocks what to do with a patient who had no pulse, was not breathing, and whose fingers had turned blue. Nimocks told Susan to call the Marion County Sheriff’s Department which would notify the coroner. Susan called the sheriff’s department at 4:11 a.m., some forty-one minutes after she first called Metro-Health.

A deputy coroner was summoned to the scene to investigate Jadviga’s death. The coroner noticed that Jadviga’s body appeared to have been posed on the bed. Klagiss, Susan, and Bruness all protested that no one had disturbed the body after Jadviga’s death. The coroner also observed that the bed was soaked with urine while Jadviga’s bedclothing and the bedsheets were not, that Jadviga’s room was quite dirty while the rest of the house was clean, and that there were numerous cuts and bruises on Jadviga’s body. One of the cuts appeared to be new but was not bleeding. In addition, a bed sore was covered with a bandage which appeared to have been applied after death. When questioned about the condition of Jadviga’s body and the condition of the room, Klagiss, Susan, and Bruness were unable to give any satisfactory explanation.

The coroner’s office ordered that an autopsy be performed on Jadviga’s body. On external examination, the body showed twenty-one separate injuries including the laceration of the eyelid and a variety of new and old bruises. The internal examination revealed that the sixth cervical vertebra was severed and completely displaced. As a result of this displacement, the larynx was crushed, the tissues surrounding the vertebra suffered severe hemorrhaging, and the spinal cord was effectively severed.

Klagiss argues that the trial court erred when it sustained the state’s objections to hypothetical questions which he posed to two of his expert witnesses. As part of his defense, Klagiss advanced the theory that Jadviga, who suffered from osteoporosis, had fractured her neck when she fell and hit her head some ten to twelve days before she died. Klagiss theorized that the *678 fracture of the vertebra was exacerbated when Jadviga moved in her sleep on the night of her death causing the severance and displacement of the vertebra.

In support of this theory, Klagiss offered the testimony of Drs. Kahairi and Pontius. After being qualified as an expert, Dr. Kahairi testified that osteoporosis renders bones susceptible to fracture with little trauma. Counsel for Klagiss then asked him this hypothetical question:

All right, Doctor assuming that we have an eighty year old lady. Assume this lady has osteoporosis. Assume that a few days before her death she fell backwards from the kitchen table, on a chair, and hit her head. Assume that she seemed okay after that, was still able to move around, but for the next few days spent most of her time in bed. Assume then that a few days later this lady dies, in bed, of a broken neck. And, that the .. between C-6 and C-7, the spine is completely separated. Do you have any opinion, sir, as to how that broken neck was caused? Also assume sir, that there was no additional trauma to the lady.

(Record, pp. 864-865) (emphasis added). The state objected to this question alleging that it omitted relevant facts. The court sustained the objection, and defense counsel made an offer to prove in which he asserted that the doctor would testify that the neck was fractured in the fall and exacerbated by any later movement of the head. Following this offer to prove, the court stood on its earlier ruling with the following explanation:

I think you’ve assumed certain things that have not been shown. Eighty year old lady with osteoporosis. Broken neck between .. or at least around the C-6. This court has not heard that there was no additional trauma. This court has not heard about the pushing away from the table, and the falling back, and fracturing the neck. We heard that the deceased, at some point in time pushed back. This Court has not heard that after whatever time she did that; and we don’t know when it is, that she seemed okay, and could move around, though spent most of the time in bed. Those things are not in fact, in evidence.

(Record, pp. 868-869) (emphasis added).

The defense then attempted to rephrase the question:

Doctor, I want to assume that we have an 80 year old lady. I want you to assume that this lady had a habit of falling. And I want you to assume that this lady had osteoporosis. I want you to assume that prior to her death, she had not only fallen from a table in the ... while eating; but also that she had been caught under a bed, crawled under a bed, and been caught, and had to be helped from under the bed. Specifically want you to assume that when she fell from the table while eating, that she hit her head. I want you to assume that she was still able to ambulate, and get around after that; but that she did spend a good deal of time in bed the last couple of days of her life. And, I want to ask you that....

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Bluebook (online)
585 N.E.2d 674, 1992 Ind. App. LEXIS 77, 1992 WL 12672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/klagiss-v-state-indctapp-1992.