Pitman v. State

547 N.E.2d 805, 1989 Ind. LEXIS 376, 1989 WL 152113
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 11, 1989
Docket49S00-8807-CR-00616
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 547 N.E.2d 805 (Pitman v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pitman v. State, 547 N.E.2d 805, 1989 Ind. LEXIS 376, 1989 WL 152113 (Ind. 1989).

Opinion

PIVARNIK, Justice.

Following a jury trial in the Marion Superior Court Criminal Division Room I, Defendant-Appellant Dennis Pitman was convicted of Robbery, a Class B felony, and Conspiracy to Commit Robbery, a Class B felony, and sentenced to a term of twenty (20) years on each count, said terms to be served concurrently.

Pitman raises three issues in this direct appeal:

1. error in overruling defendant’s motion in limine;
2. error in denying defendant’s motion for mistrial; and
3. insufficiency of the evidence to support defendant’s conviction for conspiracy to commit robbery.

The evidence supporting the verdicts showed that on the morning of December 3, 1987, at approximately 9:15, victim Stephen Robling went to the Bank One branch at Twin-Aire Shopping Center to cash about eight thousand dollars ($8,000) worth of checks. Robling was employed as the merchandiser-manager for Michel Pharmacy. Michel Pharmacy provided a check cashing service for its customers and Ro-bling would take the checks, totalling between seven and eight thousand dollars ($7,000-8,000), to the bank branch approximately one mile from the pharmacy on each day between the hours of 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. He usually went alone, using the company’s 1976 cream colored Oldsmobile Cutlass automobile. On the morning of December 3, 1987, he obtained eight thousand dollars ($8,000) in cash from the bank which money was strapped and in denominations of twenty, ten, five, and one dollar bills. As he started to enter his automobile he was robbed by Pitman and Preston Setzer. Pitman stabbed Robling in the leg with a kitchen knife to keep him from following them and Pitman and Set-zer then ran to a waiting pickup truck which was driven by Ambrose Chappell. Pitman and Setzer jumped into the bed of the truck, covered themselves with a sheet or blanket and Chappell then drove away. While leaving the scene, Pitman threw the knife onto the parking lot.

Witness Donald McFarland was stopped at a traffic light on Southeastern Avenue where it intersects with Rural, English, and Oxford Streets. He saw two men run around the corner of a building near the Little Caesar’s Pizza shop and run toward a green 1976 pickup truck. He noticed one of the men drop a knife into a puddle of water, saw both of them dive into the back end of the pickup truck and cover themselves with “a blanket or tarp” of some kind, and then saw the truck drive away. He and two others located the knife in the parking lot and showed it to the policemen. He was able to give some identification of the perpetrators, including Pitman. Chap-pell and Setzer both plea bargained with the State and testified, each naming Pit-man as one of the perpetrators of this robbery. Both Chappell and Setzer said they had been talked into committing the robbery by Pitman. Pitman knew each of them needed money and there had been discussions for some period of time about robbing Robling. Pitman told Setzer and Chappell that he knew the times Robling came to the bank and left with the money and that he had someone who could advise *807 him of when Robling would be coming and at what time. Pitman told them they could count on getting between seven and eight thousand dollars ($7,000-8,000) from Ro-bling, that he, Pitman, had robbed Robling before and gotten seven thousand dollars ($7,000), and that it was easy to rob him because he was a “fag.” About February or March, 1987, Pitman had talked to Chap-pell and another person about robbing Ro-bling and had taken Chappell to the scene, pointing out where and how it could be done. Chappell was seventeen (17) years old at the time and needed money to buy drugs but was afraid to take part in the robbery. When he went to the bank earlier in the year with Pitman and another person, Robling did not show up. Pitman, Chappell, and then Setzer continued to talk from time to time about how and when they would rob Robling and Pitman would encourage them, stating it was easy, he had done it before, and they could get a lot of money. They finally settled on the date of December 3 and committed the robbery on that date.

Jean Marie Brengle testified that Pitman lived in her home with another person at the time of this robbery and recalled she did not work on December 3,1987, a Thursday, because of a problem at her place of employment. When she arose at 8:00 a.m. that morning, Pitman was gone. Later that morning Pitman came to Brengle’s home acting nervous and scared and told her he had to change clothes and get out of there. He took his billfold out of his pocket and dumped the contents on a mattress. He had four or five bundles of five hundred dollars ($500) made up of twenty dollar ($20) bills and wrapped in bank slips. He advised her to tell anyone who asked that she had not seen him that day. Later, in February, 1988, Pitman called Brengle and told her she would receive a letter from his attorney and she was to tell the attorney that Pitman was at home with her all morning on December 3, 1987, to provide him an alibi at the time of the robbery. She received a letter from Pitman the day after the phone call regarding their conversation and the alibi and turned it over to the police. Setzer also testified Pitman had talked him into committing the robbery, that he needed money, that Pitman told him it would be an easy job because Ro-bling was a “fag,” and that Pitman had robbed him before and knew how to do it so they could get the money quickly with no risk.

I

Pitman’s counsel became aware pri- or to trial that Chappell would testify for the State and his testimony would include conversations with Pitman, Chappell, Setzer and another person, directed to the robbery of Robling. Pitman filed a motion in limine asking the court to direct the State to exclude from Chappell’s testimony Pitman’s statements concerning his, Pit-man’s, prior robbery of Robling in February, 1987. Although Pitman claims error in the court’s denial of the motion in limine, an examination of the transcript reveals that counsel objected to the testimony at the time of trial. Denial of a motion in limine does not raise a reviewable issue; the question of error is presented when the testimony is admitted before the jury. Since the defense did object at the time of its admission, we will review the issue. Pitman claims the admission of the testimony was improper for two reasons. First, he claims the statements made to Chappell earlier in the year involved a prior conspiracy and that no robbery was committed following that plan and a different conspiracy, if any, occasioned the December 3rd robbery. Chappell’s testimony, however, supported by Setzer’s, revealed that discussions and plans continued from February or March throughout the summer and fall and culminated in the December 3rd robbery. Chappell testified that Pit-man had told him of the previous successful robbery on several occasions both earlier in the year and prior to the commission of the robbery on December 3rd.

Pitman’s second claim of error in this regard is that he was prejudiced by the admission of this testimony because it was a prior crime for which he was not charged or convicted and was inadmissible because *808 it was irrelevant and did not fit into the pattern of common scheme or plan.

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Related

Pitman v. State
635 N.E.2d 1098 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1994)
Schlomer v. State
580 N.E.2d 950 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1991)
Ford v. State
555 N.E.2d 829 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
547 N.E.2d 805, 1989 Ind. LEXIS 376, 1989 WL 152113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pitman-v-state-ind-1989.