Moore v. State

569 N.E.2d 695, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 570, 1991 WL 53955
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 10, 1991
Docket64A04-8912-CR-00592
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 569 N.E.2d 695 (Moore 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
Moore v. State, 569 N.E.2d 695, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 570, 1991 WL 53955 (Ind. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

BARTEAU, Judge.

John W. Moore appeals after a jury con-viected him of two counts of rape 2 and two counts of criminal deviate conduct, 3 all four counts as Class A felonies; one count of criminal confinement 4 and one count of attempted eriminal confinement, 5 both as Class B felonies. On each of the four Class A offenses, the trial judge enhanced the presumptive thirty-year sentence 6 to forty-five years and ordered the sentences run consecutively, for a total of 180 years. Both of the Class B offenses were enhanced from the presumptive ten-year sentence 7 to seventeen years, and run coneur-rent to each other and concurrent to the Class A consecutive sentences.

Eight issues are presented:

(1) Was it error to admit evidence that Moore had committed another rape not charged in this trial?
(2) Was the sentence manifestly unreasonable and did the trial court adequately explain its departure from the presumptive sentences?
(8) Was it error to admit the testimony of a police investigator through deposition?
(4) Was it error to admit exhibits that the defense did not see before trial despite a mutual discovery order?
(5) Was it error to deny Moore's motion for directed verdict on the charge of attempted criminal confinement?
(6) Was Moore denied effective assistance of counsel?
(7) Was the evidence sufficient on each count?
(8) Was it error to keep the jury on duty for seventeen hours?

We affirm.

FACTS

Moore abducted seventeen-year-old M.B. at knifepoint from the parking lot of a convenience store in the early. morning hours of April 10, 1988. He forced her into his car and drove to one secluded area and then a second, compelling her into anal intercourse and fellatio at the first stop, and raping her at both. Those events were the basis for all the charges except attempted criminal confinement.

Moments before abducting M.B., Moore had run at Jeannine Ullom, who was in a car parked at the same store. Ullom saw Moore approaching, armed with a knife, and locked her car door in the instant before he grabbed the outside door handle. As Ullom drove away, Moore struck the driver's side window with his knife, chipping the glass. The charge of attempted criminal confinement reflects that conduct.

*698 The defense was mistaken identity and alibi. Further facts are supplied where necessary.

EXTRINSIC OFFENSE

(1) Was it error to admit evidence that Moore had committed another rape not charged in this trial?

D.H. testified that Moore had raped her five months before M.B. was raped. Generally, such extrinsic offense evidence is inadmissible; however, where the commission of a crime is undisputed but the identity of the perpetrator is at issue, such evidence is admissible if the charged crime and the extrinsic one are "so strikingly similar that one can say with reasonable certainty that one and the same person" committed both. Penley v. State (1987), Ind., 506 N.E.2d 806, 810.

The parties have ably mustered the facts for and against a holding of striking similarity. According to the State, both M.B. and D.H. were attacked in or near the same shopping mall. In each case, the rapist used a knife; repeatedly struck the victim about the head; drove to a secluded area then committed the rape in the back seat of the car; injured the victim's breasts; took her money; ineffectively blindfolded her, and bragged of his other rapes and his enjoyment of the crime.

Moore points out ten dissimilarities between the two rapes, including: M.B.-taken from a convenience store in the car of her attacker, who openly displayed a knife, who engaged in sodomy and cunnilingus, burned her with a cigarette, threatened to cut her breasts or to kill her, and said nothing about being afflicted with AIDS; D.H.-taken from a tavern in her own car by an attacker who said he had a knife but never displayed it, who committed neither sodomy nor cunnilingus, did not burn her with a cigarette, or threaten to cut or kill her, but did say he had AIDS.

These facts make our Penley inquiry a close question. Aware that sex crimes contain "inherent similarities," Penley, supra at 810, yet realizing that even strikingly similar crimes need not be perfectly identical, we would conclude that D.H.'s testimony was inadmissible under the Penley standard. Cf. Sizemore v. State (1988), Ind., 530 N.E.2d 736, 738 ("carefully prepared strips of towel" to bind victims satisfied Penley ).

However, we need not make that decision. Even if admission of D.H.'s testimony was error under Permley, the error did not affect the verdict and was therefore harmless. - Substantial independent evidence supported the jury's verdict. See Staton v. State (1988), Ind., 524 N.E.2d 6, 9. Given that M.B. and Ullom unequivocally identified Moore at trial, and given the quality and quantity of other inculpatory evidence, we are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that D.H.'s testimony did not contribute to the verdict. Moreover, although neither party has discussed the point, we see no contemporaneous objection by Moore to admission of D.H.'s testimony. Thus, it could be said that Moore has waived the issue. Akins v. State (1981), Ind., 429 N.E.2d 232, 237, reh'g denied.

It is true, as Moore repeatedly argues, that both M.B. and Ullom initially selected from a photo array the same picture, not of Moore. In Penley, that the victim initially misidentified her attacker compelled the conclusion that admitting testimony of an extrinsic rape not strikingly similar required reversal despite unequivocal identification at trial. However, here both M.B. and Ullom stated when selecting the photo that it resembled the rapist, but was not him. Thus, it cannot be said that M.B. and Ullom misidentified their attacker. Therefore, D.H.'s testimony was not crucial, and reversible error cannot flow from its admission.

SENTENCING

(2) Whether the sentence of 180 years is unreasonable and not supported by an adequate explanation?

Sentencing is within the discretion of the trial court. A sentence authorized by statute will not be revised unless it is "manifestly unreasonable," ie., "no reasonable person could find such sentence appropriate to the particular offense and offender *699 for which such sentence was imposed." Appellate Rule 17(B).

The trial court's discretion in sentencing is regulated by 1.C. 35-88-1-7.1. 8

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Bluebook (online)
569 N.E.2d 695, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 570, 1991 WL 53955, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-state-indctapp-1991.