Michael W. Willhoite v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 17, 2019
Docket19A-CR-158
StatusPublished

This text of Michael W. Willhoite v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.) (Michael W. Willhoite 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
Michael W. Willhoite v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.), (Ind. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED regarded as precedent or cited before any Oct 17 2019, 10:40 am

court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK the defense of res judicata, collateral Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals and Tax Court estoppel, or the law of the case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE David W. Stone IV Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Anderson, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana Sierra A. Murray Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Michael W. Willhoite, October 17, 2019 Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No. 19A-CR-158 v. Appeal from the Madison Circuit Court State of Indiana, The Honorable Appellee-Plaintiff. Thomas Newman, Jr. Trial Court Cause No. 48C03-1601-F1-144

Kirsch, Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-CR-158 | October 17, 2019 Page 1 of 17 [1] Following a jury trial, Michael W. Willhoite (“Willhoite”) was convicted of

child molesting1 as a Level 1 felony and incest2 as a Level 4 felony. The trial

court sentenced him to twenty-five years for child molesting and a concurrent

six years for incest for an aggregate sentence of twenty-five years. On appeal,

Willhoite raises the following restated issues:

I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it denied Willhoite’s motion for continuance on the eve of trial;

II. Whether statements made by the prosecutor during closing argument—statements to which Willhoite raised no objection at trial—constituted prosecutorial misconduct, the cumulative effect of which rose to the level of fundamental error; and

III. Whether Willhoite’s convictions for child molesting and incest violated Indiana’s prohibition against double jeopardy.

[2] We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand with instructions.

Facts and Procedural History [3] Willhoite and S.Y. were married and had three daughters, J.W., T.W., and

S.W. In 2015, after Willhoite and S.Y.’s marriage ended, Willhoite and his

1 See Ind. Code § 35-42-4-3(a)(1). 2 See Ind. Code § 35-46-1-3.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-CR-158 | October 17, 2019 Page 2 of 17 daughters lived together in a home in Anderson, Indiana, with Willhoite’s

mother. Willhoite slept in a makeshift bedroom in the attic. The girls

occasionally slept with Willhoite in his bed, sometimes all together, and other

times just one of the girls slept with him. Once, when T.W. was alone in bed

with Willhoite, he put his hand on her thigh and touched both the inside and

outside of her leg. Tr. Vol. III at 19, 22, 30-31. T.W. pushed Willhoite’s hand

off. When he put his hand back on T.W.’s thigh, she went “to the bottom of

the bed” to sleep. Id. at 19. T.W. did not tell anyone about the incident. Id. at

31.

[4] Sometime after December 25, 2015, when she was nine years old, T.W. was

sleeping on her side in Willhoite’s bed and was awakened when he “put[] his

penis in [her] butt.” Id. at 13-14. Willhoite was “moving” his penis by “pulling

it out and putting it back in”; T.W. estimated that Willhoite continued this

motion for one to two minutes. Id. at 14, 15. T.W. said that while Willhoite

initially made no sound, he later “started to moan.” Id. at 15. T.W. began to

turn around because she “didn’t know what he was gonna do next” and saw

Willhoite “pulling up his pants the rest of the way.” Id. at 16. T.W. sat up and

asked, “[D]ad, can I use the restroom?” Id. at 17. When Willhoite said,

“[Y]eah, you don’t have to ask,” T.W. pulled up her pants and “went

downstairs to the restroom to think about what [she] was gonna do because

[she] was scared.” Id.

[5] Leaving the bathroom, T.W. went into her grandmother’s bedroom, where her

grandmother was already sleeping. T.W. used tote bags and blankets to cover

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-CR-158 | October 17, 2019 Page 3 of 17 herself and fell asleep on her grandmother’s bedroom floor. Id. at 18. T.W.’s

grandmother did not wake up, and T.W. left the room the next morning

without anyone seeing her. Id. Shortly thereafter, T.W. told her older sister,

J.W., what had happened. T.W. explained, that J.W. “was always there for

[her,] and [T.W.] knew it was good if [she] told somebody.” Id. at 20. J.W.

said that, when T.W. told her about the incident, T.W. was “afraid and like

scared,” and she was “very emotional,” which was not normal for T.W. Id. at

64. T.W. told J.W. not to tell anyone about the incident, but J.W. thought she

should tell someone, so she told their aunt. Id. at 65. The aunt subsequently

informed T.W.’s mother, S.Y. Soon thereafter, T.W. and her sisters were

interviewed at Kids Talk, “a forensic interview location” with a specialty in

interviewing child victims. Id. at 20, 107. During the interview, T.W. related

the same details of the sexual assault.

[6] After the interview, S.Y. took T.W. to an Anderson hospital for a sexual assault

exam. Tr. Vol. III at 71. On the way there, S.Y. asked T.W. what Willhoite

had done. Id. Although T.W. was scared and crying, she told her mother how

Willhoite had sexually assaulted her. Id. The results of T.W.’s medical

examination were normal; the exam found no physical injuries or DNA

present. On January 25, 2016, Willhoite, who was at that time thirty-one years

old, was arrested and charged with Level 1 felony child molesting and Level 4

felony incest. Id. at 113.

[7] Willhoite’s trial was initially set for May 24, 2016. The trial court granted

numerous continuances during the next two and a half years before trial. At

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-CR-158 | October 17, 2019 Page 4 of 17 least four of those continuances were requested by Willhoite. On the eve of

what was then a November 26, 2018 trial date, the trial was continued to

November 28, 2018, by agreement of both parties. Appellant’s App. Vol. II at 17.

On November 26, 2018, defense counsel, David Alger (“Alger”), filed an

amended motion for continuance, arguing that his father was ill, and his illness

would prevent Alger from giving the trial his full attention. Id. at 153. The trial

court denied that motion. Id. at 17. On November 28, 2018, after defense

counsel had engaged in extensive voir dire, and a jury was empaneled, Alger

renewed his motion for a continuance, which the trial court again denied. Tr.

Vol. II at 242.

[8] A jury trial was held November 28 and 29, 2018. Willhoite’s defense during

trial was that T.W. had fabricated the story about him because she was mad at

him and jealous of her sisters. To counter the fact that T.W.’s physical

examination showed no sign of injury, the State offered the testimony of Holly

Renz (“Renz”), a sexual assault nurse examiner employed by Community

Hospital in Anderson. Renz explained the examination procedure and said,

“[A]bout ninety-five percent (95%) of [the] time we see normal exams.” Tr.

Vol. III at 45. Renz said that one of the reasons for a normal exam is “the

perpetrator . . . may groom the child in such a way that there is no injury.” Id.

at 46. Furthermore, there is delayed disclosure because “children generally are

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