Pink A. Robinson v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided October 7, 2019·No. 18A-CR-2218·Published

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 07 2019, 5:31 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 Mark D. Altenhof Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Goshen, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana

Monika Prekopa Talbot

Supervising Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Pink A. Robinson, October 7, 2019 Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.

18A-CR-2218

v. Appeal from the Elkhart Circuit Court

State of Indiana, The Honorable Michael A. Appellee-Plaintiff. Christofeno, Judge Trial Court Cause No.

20C01-1609-F3-45

Friedlander, Senior Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-2218 | October 7, 2019 Page 1 of 20

[1] Pink A. Robinson appeals his three convictions of robbery with a deadly

1

weapon, all Level 3 felonies. He also appeals his aggregate sentence of forty-

eight years, with three years suspended. We affirm.

[2] Kristina Wortinger was an assistant manager at a women’s clothing store in Elkhart, Indiana. On January 9, 2016, at 8:30 p.m., she was at work, along with Reta Holley, a sales associate. A customer, Angela Heitzman, was also present. The sun had set, and it was raining.

[3] Two men entered the store through the front door just as Heitzman had finished paying Holley for a purchase. One of the men wore a hooded jacket with the hood up and was carrying a bag bearing the store’s logo. Wortinger greeted him, thinking he was returning a purchase. Next, Wortinger noticed the second man was wearing a bandana over his face, leaving only his eyes visible. At that point, the man in the hooded jacket walked around the counter and pointed a handgun at her. The man in the bandana approached Heitzman and pointed a handgun at her. The men yelled at all three women, ordering them to go to the dressing room.

[4] Once they were all in the dressing room, the men asked which of them was the manager and had keys. Wortinger admitted she was the manager, and the man in the hooded jacket ordered her to come with him. As she complied, she

1 Ind. Code § 35-42-5-1 (2014).

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-2218 | October 7, 2019 Page 2 of 20 noticed he was wearing black gloves, and the man in the bandana was wearing blue latex gloves.

[5] Wortinger and the man went to the safe, which was near the cash register. It appeared to her that the man already knew where the safe was located. Wortinger unlocked the safe, but it was empty. Next, the man ordered her to open the cash registers. He took money from the registers and ordered Wortinger to return to the dressing room.

[6] While Wortinger and the man in the hooded jacket were gone, the man in the bandana had remained in the dressing room with Holley and Heitzman. In a loud voice, he ordered them to undress down to their underwear as he continued to point a handgun at them. They complied. The man in the bandana also ordered Heitzman to give him her purse. She handed the purse to him, but as she did so she attempted to dump it out, and some of the contents fell on the floor. The man took the purse, which Heitzman later learned still contained her wallet and car keys.

[7] When Wortinger and the man in the hooded jacket returned to the dressing room, she noticed that a third man was present and was accompanying the two gunmen. The men told her to deactivate the alarm on the store’s back door. Wortinger initially lied, saying she did not know how to turn it off. Two of the men pointed their guns at her face, and told her they knew she could deactivate the alarm.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-2218 | October 7, 2019 Page 3 of 20

[8] Wortinger, who was thinking of her daughter back home, turned off the back door alarm. One of the men initially wanted to order the women to go with them, but after a brief discussion they instead ordered the women to lie on the ground for ten minutes. The men left, taking Holley and Heitzman’s clothes with them. After the men left, Wortinger called 911 to report the robbery and locked the doors. She was terrified and crying. Holley and Heitzman began to put on clothes they found in the store.

[9] Corporal Dustin Young of the Elkhart Police Department (“EPD”) was dispatched to the store along with other officers, and he arrived within a few minutes of Wortinger’s call. He knocked on the front door, and Wortinger unlocked it and let him in. She appeared to be very frightened and wanted to lock the door behind the officer, even after he explained more officers were on the way. Corporal Young also saw Holley and Heitzman putting on clothes.

[10] Wortinger continued to cry and had difficulty communicating, but she managed to describe the three robbers’ clothes for Corporal Young. She also told Corporal Young she was terrified and had thought that she was going to die.

[11] Next, Officer Kacy Weaver (who subsequently married and changed her name to Kacy Weaver Denesuk) arrived at the store. She had been trained in collecting evidence and took photographs throughout the store. Officer Weaver noted that the cash register area had been ransacked. When she entered the

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-2218 | October 7, 2019 Page 4 of 20 dressing room area, she photographed items that were scattered on the floor, which Heitzman later identified as having been in her purse.

[12] Another officer arrived with a K9 unit and searched behind the store. He found a boot near two blue latex gloves on the ground and contacted Officer Weaver. She also found a dollar bill on the ground a little further away. Officer Weaver photographed and collected the boot, gloves, and dollar bill. Holley later identified the boot as hers.

[13] The blue latex gloves were sent to a state laboratory for DNA testing. An analyst generated a DNA profile from one of the gloves and uploaded the profile into Indiana’s DNA database. The analyst learned that the DNA profile matched Robinson’s already-existing profile in the database. The EPD then obtained a search warrant for a DNA sample from Robinson, collected the sample, and submitted it to the laboratory for further testing. The analyst developed a DNA profile from Robinson’s sample and compared it with the DNA profile derived from the blue latex glove. The profiles were consistent and estimated to occur once in more than eight trillion unrelated individuals.

[14] After the robbery, Holley continued to work at the store, but she works only during daylight hours and is scared of male customers. When a male customer enters the store, she hides in the bathroom until they leave. Heitzman did not go back to the store for four months.

[15] On September 21, 2016, the State charged Robinson with three counts of robbery while armed with a deadly weapon, all Level 3 felonies. The case was Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-2218 | October 7, 2019 Page 5 of 20 tried by jury, and the jury determined Robinson was guilty as charged. The trial court sentenced Robinson to an aggregate sentence of forty-eight years, with three years suspended to probation. This appeal followed.

[16] Robinson raises five issues, which we consolidate and restate as:

1. Whether the trial court erred in granting the State’s challenge for cause of a potential juror.

2. Whether the trial court erred in allowing a witness to testify about fingerprint evidence.

3. Whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain Robinson’s convictions.

4. Whether Robinson’s sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender.

1. Jury Selection – Challenge for Cause [17] Robinson argues the trial court erred in granting the State’s challenge for cause

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