O'NEILL v. State

597 N.E.2d 379, 1992 Ind. App. LEXIS 1303, 1992 WL 198934
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 20, 1992
Docket49A05-9108-CR-255
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 597 N.E.2d 379 (O'NEILL 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
O'NEILL v. State, 597 N.E.2d 379, 1992 Ind. App. LEXIS 1303, 1992 WL 198934 (Ind. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinions

SHARPNACK, Judge.

Thomas O'Neill appeals both his conviction of four counts of armed robbery and his adjudication as a habitual offender. We affirm.

O'Neill raises five issues in his brief. We consolidate and restate these issues as follows:

1. Was O'Neill deprived of his right to a speedy trial?
2. Should the trial court have excluded from evidence O'Neill's confession?
3. Did the trial court err in admitting into evidence documents which were not properly certified?
4. Was O'Neill deprived of his right to counsel when the trial court compelled his defense counsel to testify in order to provide the foundation for admission into evidence of certain documents?

The following are the facts most favorable to the judgment of the trial court. In the early morning hours of May 28, 1989, O'Neill entered the Subway Sandwich shop located at 984 East Hanna in Indianapolis. He ordered a sandwich, and when the time came to pay, he gave the Subway employee who had waited on him a large bill in payment. When the employee opened the cash drawer to deposit the bill and retrieve O'Neill's change, O'Neill produced what appeared to be a semiautomatic pistol and ordered the employee to give him the money in the drawer. O'Neill also demanded money from the other customers who were in the shop.

Several of the customers gave O'Neill their money. The Subway employee also gave O'Neill money from the cash drawer. O'Neill then left the shop and ran off into the night.

Detective David Burks, who was investigating the Subway robbery, received information that O'Neill had committed the crime. After he received this information, Burks interviewed the Subway employee and showed him an array of photographs including O'Neill's photograph. The Subway employee identified O'Neill as the robber. Two of the customers who also had been victimized identified photographs of O'Neill in similar photo arrays. Following these identifications, officers of the Indianapolis Police Department obtained an arrest warrant and arrested O'Neill. On the evening of O'Neill's arrest, Detective Burks interviewed O'Neill and obtained a taped statement in which he confessed to the robbery.

O'Neill asserts that the state violated both the Indiana rules of criminal procedure and the federal constitution when it brought him to the trial that resulted in his conviction. In his appellant's brief, O'Neill offers extensive argument that various periods of delay both before and after his first trial-which ended in a mistrial-should be attributed to the state for purposes of determining whether the delay violated Ind.Crim.Rule 4(C) or United States Const. amend VI. In his reply brief he abandons this argument with regard to C.R. 4(C) in favor of the assertion that the state failed to bring him to trial within a reasonable period of time following the aborted trial. The state argues that it first brought O'Neill to trial within one year-excluding delays attributable to O'Neill-of the date of his arrest. In addition, the state argues that it brought O'Neill to retrial within a reasonable period of time following the mistrial.

The determination of whether a particular delay in bringing a defendant to trial violates the speedy trial guarantee largely depends on the specific cireum-stances of the case. Barker v. Wingo (1972), 407 U.S. 514, 530-531; 92 S.Ct. 2182, 2192, 33 L.Ed.2d 101, 117. In judging whether the specific cireumstances establish a violation of the speedy trial right, the court balances four factors: 1) the length of the delay; 2) the reasons for the [382]*382delay; 3) the timeliness and vigor of the defendant's assertion of the right to a speedy trial; and 4) the prejudice, if any, the delay caused the defendant. Barker, 407 U.S. at 530, 92 S.Ct. at 2192, 33 L.Ed.2d at 117. In order to ensure that it does not deny criminal defendants the right to a speedy trial, a state may adopt a presumptive rule setting a fixed time limit within which criminal cases normally must be brought to trial. Barker, 407 U.S. at 430 n. 29, 92 S.Ct. at 2192 n. 29, 33 L.Ed.2d at 116 n. 29.

Our supreme court has adopted such a rule, C.R. 4(C), which provides in part:

"No person shall be held on recognizance or otherwise to answer a criminal charge for a period in aggregate embracing more than one year from the date the criminal charge is filed, or from the date of his arrest on such charge, whichever is later; except where a continuance was had on his motion, or the delay was caused by his act, or where there was not sufficient time to try him during such period because of congestion of the court calendar...."

This rule is intended to give effect to the right to a speedy trial guaranteed by both the federal and state constitutions. State v. Moles (1976), 166 Ind.App. 632, 646, 337 N.E.2d 543, 552. However, the time limits for bringing a defendant to trial set forth in the rule are not coextensive with the requirements of the federal and state constitutions. - Williams v. State (1976), 265 Ind. 190, 193, 352 N.E.2d 733, 738; they are, in fact, more rigorous than the constitutional requirements. Tyner v. State (1975), 166 Ind.App. 45, 49, 333 N.E.2d 857, 859.

Our supreme court has held that C.R. 4(C) does not anticipate mistrials. State ex rel. Brumfield v. Perry Circuit Court (1981), Ind., 426 N.E.2d 692, 695. Because the rule does not specify a time in which a retrial must be brought following a mistrial, the court held that the state is required to bring the defendant to retrial within a reasonable time. Id.; State v. Roth (1992), Ind.App., 585 N.E.2d 717, 718. The trial court possesses the discretion to determine what constitutes a reasonable time. Brumfield, 426 N.E.2d at 695.

When a trial court is vested with discretion in a matter, we may reverse its decision only if it abuses its discretion. Harvest Insurance Agency v. Inter-Ocean Insurance Co. (1986), Ind., 492 N.E.2d 686, 688. The trial court commits an abuse of discretion only when it reaches an erroneous conclusion and judgment-that is to say, one which is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts or the reasonable, probable deductions which may be drawn from the facts and circumstances of the case. Boles v. Weidner (1983), Ind., 449 N.E.2d 288, 290; Klagiss v. State (1992), Ind.App., 585 N.E.2d 674, 680.

Here, we do not find that the trial court abused its discretion in bringing O'Neill to trial approximately six months after the declaration of the mistrial. The trial court originally scheduled the second trial for December 3, 1990. However, on that day the court, apparently on its own motion, vacated the jury trial setting and continued the case due to calendar congestion.1

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O'NEILL v. State
597 N.E.2d 379 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
597 N.E.2d 379, 1992 Ind. App. LEXIS 1303, 1992 WL 198934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oneill-v-state-indctapp-1992.