Moore v. State

653 N.E.2d 1010, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 811, 1995 WL 419291
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided July 18, 1995·No. 48A02-9310-CR-568·Published·Cited by 21 cases

Opinions

[1013] OPINION

SULLIVAN, Judge.

Thomas 0. Moore (Moore) appeals his convictions of attempted criminal deviate conduct,1 a class A felony, and confinement,2 a class B felony. As this is Moore’s second appeal, some additional explanation is in order.

Moore was initially charged with two counts by information. Those counts read as follows:

“[COUNT I]
ATTEMPTED CRIMINAL DEVIATE CONDUCT CLASS A FELONY I.C. 35-41-5-1
On or about the 8th day of October, 1986, in Madison County, State of Indiana, THOMAS D. MOORE did attempt to commit the crime of Criminal Deviate Conduct by knowingly asking [L.M.] to get into an automobile which was driven by one THOMAS D. MOORE, by striking and beating and closing the automobile door on [her], by threatening the use of a deadly weapon, to-wit: a knife and threatening the life and safety of [L.M.] if she did not perform fellatio on the said Thomas D. Moore, which conduct constituted a substantial step toward the commission of said crime of Criminal Deviate Conduct.
[COUNT II]
CRIMINAL CONFINEMENT CLASS B FELONY I.C. 35-42-3-3
On or about the 8th day of October, 1986, in Madison County, State of Indiana, THOMAS D. MOORE did knowingly confine [L.M.] without her consent by forcing [L.M.] into the automobile being driven by THOMAS D. MOORE by force and by
threat, and while armed with a deadly weapon, to-wit: a knife.”

Record at 5.

At trial, Moore was convicted of both crimes. Upon appeal, this court determined that the trial court erroneously refused to give an instruction which would have allowed the jury the option of convicting Moore of the lesser included offense of battery as within the alleged attempted criminal deviate conduct. Moore v. State, No. 48AO2-8909-CR-472 (May 29, 1991) (Memorandum Decision upon Petition for Rehearing). Accordingly, that initial disposition reversed the attempted criminal deviate conduct conviction, while leaving the confinement conviction intact, and ordered a new trial upon the attempted deviate conduct charge alone.

Upon rehearing, we found that further clarification of the disposition was necessary:

“Footnote 2 of our earlier decision is the only allusion to the confinement conviction and states in effect that whether that conviction should remain of full force and effect will depend upon the outcome of the retrial upon the attempted deviate conduct charge. By citing to Ryle v. State (1990) 2d Dist., Ind.App., 549 N.E.2d 81, trans. denied, it was our intention to imply that the evidence of record supports the conviction for confinement. For that reason we were of the view that there was no reason to require the State to reprove that charge.
On the other hand, viewed in the context of an attempted criminal deviate conduct conviction (should that be the result of retrial) the conviction for confinement should be set aside because it is, under the Ryle analysis, an included offense of the deviate conduct offense as charged. [Emphasis in original.]
Only if retrial results in a conviction of the lesser included offense of battery, may the confinement conviction remain valid. This is so because the battery, i.e., the ‘striking and beating and closing the automobile door on [her]’ is an offense separate and apart from the confinement which oc[1014] curred when Moore forced the victim into the automobile.
We now reaffirm our decision which reverses the judgment of conviction upon the attempted criminal deviate conduct charge and remand for trial upon that count only. Following that trial, the trial court must determine whether the confinement conviction remains valid or whether it must be vacated for the reasons stated herein.” Record at 26-27 (hereinafter, “opinion upon rehearing”).

On remand for a second trial, Moore was again convicted of attempted criminal deviate conduct.3 The evidence most favorable to that judgment indicated that, while driving home on State Road 32 around one o’clock in the morning, L.M. noticed a car closely following her own. Because she saw red flashing lights, and assumed the car was a police officer, she pulled to the side of the road, and stepped out of her ear. A man, whom she later identified as Moore, approached her car with a flashlight, asking if she knew how fast she had been going. At that point, Moore threw her up against her car, then back into the driver’s seat, where he began to strangle her. She was then dragged out of her car and forced into Moore’s car, which had been parked behind her own.

Once partially inside the car, L.M. continued to struggle. While he tried to get her into the passenger side of the car, Moore closed the car door on her leg. Moore then got into the driver’s seat, held a knife to L.M.’s throat, and attempted to force her to perform fellatio upon him. L.M. continued to struggle, escaping from Moore’s car when police pulled up behind the two vehicles.

To lend further support to its case, the State also introduced evidence that Moore had been convicted of the rape of a second woman, A.L., in Tipton County.

Once Moore was again convicted of attempted criminal deviate conduct, the trial court, in clear violation of our instructions in our opinion upon rehearing, denied his request to vacate the confinement charge as a lesser included offense. It is from this second trial that the present appeal arises. We reorganize and restate the issues as follows:

(1) whether, in its retrial of Moore, the trial court committed reversible error in admitting evidence of an unrelated offense which occurred eleven months after the offense for which he was charged;
(2) whether it was error for Moore to be retried upon the attempted criminal deviate conduct charge when he had previously been convicted of the lesser included offense of confinement based upon the same factual circumstances;
(3) whether the trial court erred in imposing a consecutive sentence and in refusing to vacate Moore’s confinement conviction as a lesser included offense after this court so directed upon rehearing.

Initially, we note that the State has filed no brief in opposition to Moore’s arguments upon appeal. Nevertheless, we are bound to examine the issues presented and correctly apply the applicable law. Nash v. State (1982) Ind.App., 433 N.E.2d 807.

I. EVIDENCE OF AN UNRELATED CRIME

At Moore’s second trial, the prosecution introduced evidence of an attack upon another woman, A.L., which occurred eleven months after the original offense.

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Moore v. State, 653 N.E.2d 1010, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 811, 1995 WL 419291 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995).

653 N.E.2d 1010 (Moore v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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