Lyles v. State

834 N.E.2d 1035, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 1795, 2005 WL 2386110
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 29, 2005
Docket30A01-0406-CR-241
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 834 N.E.2d 1035 (Lyles 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
Lyles v. State, 834 N.E.2d 1035, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 1795, 2005 WL 2386110 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

CRONE, Judge.

Case Summary

Mevester Lyles appeals his convictions and sentences for class B felony robbery, 1 class B felony burglary, 2 class B felony criminal confinement, 3 as well as his habitual offender 4 finding and sentence. We affirm and remand with instructions.

Issues

Lyles raises ten issues, which we consolidate and restate as follows:

I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence seized from Lyles' car during an inventory search;
II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence of the victim's identification pursuant to a show-up procedure;
Whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying Lyles motion for mistrial predicated upon alleged prosecutorial misconduct; III.
IV. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by permitting the State to elicit testimony through cross-examination of Lyles' witnesses and the State's rebuttal witness;
V. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by failing to instruct the jury on the definition of "prior unrelated felony" and the State's burden of proof during the habit, ual offender phase of the trial;
VI. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in failing to find mitigating factors and weighing the aggravating and mitigating factors; and
Whether claims. VIL. Lyles waived other

Facts and Procedural History

On August 18, 2003, at approximately 1:00 p.m., sixty-five-year-old Ron England returned to his McCordsville home in Hancock County and saw a car parked in his driveway that he later described as a maroon Buick or Oldsmobile with left front fender damage. He also noticed that his back door had been "jimmied." Tr. at *1041 589-91. When he entered his kitchen, he saw Lyles in the hallway only four or five feet away. England asked Lyles what he was doing in his home. Lyles answered that he was a police officer. England asked to see his badge, and Lyles reached behind his back as if to reach for a gun. England then reached for his phone and discovered that it had been torn off the wall. Lyles ordered England to lie down on the floor and went through his pockets. He found England's keys and threw them down the hallway. Lyles retrieved a knife from the counter, jabbed it three or four times into the floor next to England's head, and told England, "I will stab you thirty or forty times if I have to to kill you." Id. at 600. Lyles then tied up England with a phone cord.

Lyles left the home through the back door. England then untied himself and ran out the front door to his neighbor's house, where he asked the neighbor to call 9-1-1. The neighbor handed the phone to England, who remained outside. As Eing-land described the events leading to the emergency call, he saw the maroon vehicle drive away. England then told the dispatcher that the vehicle was leaving and gave the dispatcher a description of the vehicle. Within minutes, police officers arrived at England's home.

England described the perpetrator to Hancock County Sheriff's Detective Kevin Haggard as a black male, 559" or 5510" tall, weighing a little over two hundred pounds, with a shaved head, a thin line mustache, gold chains around his neck, and wearing an orange and black basketball outfit with "CHICAGO" written on it in black. Id. at 538-39, 596-97. England also reported that his gun and knife collections were missing. England accompanied Detective Haggard to Lexington Park Apartments in Marion County to identify a vehicle matching England's description. However, England was not sufficiently certain that the vehicle was the one he had seen in his driveway.

At approximately 2:10 p.m., Hancock County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Campbell and Marion County Sheriffs Corporal Kevin Kendall met at Lexington Park Apartments to investigate a report from the apartment manager that a yellow pil-lowease containing guns, knives, and other items had been discovered in a bush near the pool. During his investigation of the grounds, Corporal Kendall noticed Lyles, who matched England's description, walking to a vehicle, which also matched England's description. Lyles drove away from the complex. Corporal Kendall returned to his squad car, began following Lyles car, and called for backup. When backup arrived, Corporal Kendall activated his emergency equipment to stop the vehicle. Approximately one-half mile from the apartment complex, Lyles stopped his car in the middle of the street. Because Lyles was a felony suspect for a burglary in which guns and knives had been stolen, Corporal Kendall ordered Lyles to exit the vehicle with his hands up, directed him to walk backward to the trunk of his car, and handcuffed him for officer safety. Id. at 938.

Corporal Kendall checked the vehicle for other occupants but found no one. Next, he ran a check on Lyles' drivers license and learned that it had been suspended. Pursuant to Marion County Sheriff's Department policy, when a person's license has been suspended, that person's vehicle must be impounded. Accordingly, Corporal Kendall called for a wrecker to tow Lyles' vehicle. The Marion County Sheriff's Department also requires officers who impound a vehicle to inventory all the items in the vehicle because the department is responsible for every item in the vehicle while it is impounded. Pursuant to this policy, Corporal Kendall began an inventory search of the vehicle by inspecting *1042 the passenger compartment of Lyles vehicle. He then opened the trunk for inspection and found several guns. Knowing that guns had been stolen earlier that day in Hancock County, he immediately contacted the Hancock County Sheriffs Department and stopped the inventory.

In the meantime, Detective Haggard, England, and England's wife and daughter had returned to the apartment complex. There, England identified as his the yellow pillowease and its contents as well as some coins found in the same vicinity. Immediately thereafter, Detective Haggard and England drove to the location where Corporal Kendall had stopped Lyles so that England could participate in a show-up identification. As they approached the location, Detective Haggard turned down his police radio. Several police cars were present, so Detective Haggard parked some yards behind the last vehicle.

Detective Haggard asked England to remain in his car while he left to discuss the show-up identification procedure with Corporal Kendall. Detective Haggard returned to his car and advised England that a person would be brought to the rear of the police cars. Detective Haggard would then drive closer until England told him to stop, and Emgland should determine whether the person was the one that he saw in his home. Subsequently, two officers escorted Lyles, in handcuffs, to the end of the line of police cars. Detective Haggard pulled forward and stopped his vehicle. England asked him to pull up a little closer until they were approximately twenty-five feet away from Lyles.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
834 N.E.2d 1035, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 1795, 2005 WL 2386110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyles-v-state-indctapp-2005.