Kristopher Kanable v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 9, 2018
Docket18A-CR-195
StatusPublished

This text of Kristopher Kanable v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.) (Kristopher Kanable 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.

Bluebook
Kristopher Kanable v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.), (Ind. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED this Memorandum Decision shall not be Aug 09 2018, 8:40 am regarded as precedent or cited before any court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK Indiana Supreme Court the defense of res judicata, collateral Court of Appeals and Tax Court estoppel, or the law of the case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Bruce W. Graham Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Graham Law Firm P.C. Attorney General of Indiana Lafayette, Indiana Michael Gene Worden Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Kristopher Kanable, August 9, 2018 Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No. 18A-CR-195 v. Appeal from the Tippecanoe Superior Court State of Indiana, The Honorable Randy J. Williams, Appellee-Plaintiff Judge Trial Court Cause No. 79D01-1606-F2-14

Vaidik, Chief Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-195 | August 9, 2018 Page 1 of 17 Case Summary [1] The State charged Kristopher Kanable with nine crimes for his role in an armed

home invasion and sought a sentencing enhancement based on Kanable’s use of

a firearm. A bench trial was held, and the trial court found Kanable guilty of all

nine counts as well as the firearm enhancement. The court merged two counts

into two other counts and then sentenced Kanable to an aggregate term of forty-

three years.

[2] Kanable now appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in admitting the

statements he made to detectives after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to

counsel and that there are a variety of problems with his multiple convictions

for the home invasion. Although we find that any error in admitting Kanable’s

statements was harmless, we find that there are issues with Kanable’s multiple

convictions. We therefore order the trial court to vacate five of the convictions

and reinstate one of the them. We therefore affirm in part and reverse and

remand in part.

Facts and Procedural History [3] On Friday, May 6, 2016, four men—Kanable, Xzavier Jordan, Brenton

Hoppes, and Jason White—spent the day together, first in Kokomo and then in

Lafayette. Jordan drove the men around in his white SUV. While together, the

men concocted a plan to take property from a house while armed with a gun.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-195 | August 9, 2018 Page 2 of 17 [4] Also on this same day, Joseph Ervin was house sitting at his in-laws’ rural

Tippecanoe County home while they were vacationing in Mexico. That

evening, Joseph was eating dinner at the dining-room table when there was a

knock at the front door. Joseph opened the door and asked the person if he

could help him. The person—who was later determined to be Jordan—asked

Joseph if he had any oil that he could use for his white SUV, which was pulled

up to the garage. Tr. Vol. II p. 118. Curious what was going on, Joseph

stepped out onto the porch. At this point, a second man—who was later

determined to be Kanable—appeared from the other side of the SUV, pulled

out a handgun, pointed it at Joseph, and ordered him back inside the house.

Kanable and his companions—Jordan, Hoppes, and White—followed Joseph

inside the house and directed him to the kitchen, where his hands were then

zip-tied behind his back. Notably, Joseph kept his eyes closed throughout the

entire ordeal (because he thought it would improve his chances of staying

alive), but he could hear at least three distinct voices (although he thought there

might have been more than three people involved).

[5] After securing his hands, the men ordered Joseph to lie face down on the

kitchen floor while they searched the house. They asked Joseph where the safe,

guns, and cash were; Joseph directed them to the guns but said he didn’t know

about a safe and cash because it wasn’t his house. After the men discovered

that there was a basement, they ordered Joseph down there. Soon thereafter,

one of the men saw that the zip ties around Joseph’s hands were starting to fail

and became agitated. Worried that he would be shot, Joseph quickly told the

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-195 | August 9, 2018 Page 3 of 17 men to use “better bindings” and suggested using cables from some nearby

microphones, which they did. Id. at 81. The men then became upset when they

“hadn’t found what they were looking for.” Id. at 82. When they again asked

Joseph about a safe, he responded, “[W]hy would I know where the safe [i]s,

I’m a cat sitter. Who tells the cat sitter, ‘here is where all my most valuable

things are?’” Id. During this time, a gun was placed to Joseph’s head.

[6] The men eventually believed Joseph’s claims that it wasn’t his house and that

he didn’t know where certain things were (the men compared Joseph’s driver’s

license to the mail in the house). When the men were about finished

ransacking the house, they threw a blanket over Joseph’s head and told him to

count to 10,000 before going upstairs or else he would be shot. Joseph stayed in

the basement with the blanket on him for approximately forty minutes, during

which time he heard “furniture crashing” upstairs. Id. at 84. Eventually,

Joseph heard the garage door go up and then his car starting and pulling out of

the garage. After waiting a little while longer, Joseph emerged from underneath

the blanket, untied his bindings, grabbed a pool cue, and headed upstairs.

When he tried to open the door to the main floor, it would not open because

the men had blocked it with a chair. Eventually, Joseph got the door opened, at

which point he saw that the house was “shambolic.” Id. at 86; see also Exs. 6-

14. He also noticed that his wallet, cell phone, keys, and prescription medicines

were missing. He went to the garage and confirmed that his car had been taken

by the men. After confirming that the men had left, Joseph went to the house

across the road and pounded on the door, but no one was home. The next

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-195 | August 9, 2018 Page 4 of 17 nearest neighbor was 1/4 mile down the road, so Joseph started walking in that

direction. When Joseph spotted a car that wasn’t the white SUV that the men

had arrived in, he flagged down the car for help. The good samaritan called

911.

[7] Joseph’s in-laws were contacted in Mexico, and they returned home on

Sunday. They reported numerous items missing, including two televisions, two

Xbox consoles, sound bars, games, movies, a watch, an entire jewelry box, a 9

mm Beretta, three long guns, $1100 in cash, and prescription drugs.

[8] A couple days after the burglary, Jordan contacted police and told them that

Hoppes and White had taken his white SUV. Tr. Vol. II p. 123. On May 10,

four days after the burglary, Kokomo police stopped the white SUV; Hoppes

and White were inside. Upon searching the SUV, officers found the 9 mm

Beretta that had been stolen from the in-laws’ house on May 6. The officers

spoke with Jordan, and he admitted to the May 6 burglary and identified

everyone involved: himself, Kanable, Hoppes, and White. Id. at 190.

[9] On May 13, detectives with the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department spoke

with Kanable in the Howard County Jail, where he was being held on an

unrelated matter. During the videotaped interview, the detectives told Kanable

that they had to read him his rights. After the detectives read Kanable his

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