Razien McCullough v. State of Indiana

985 N.E.2d 1135, 2013 WL 1701057, 2013 Ind. App. LEXIS 178
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 19, 2013
Docket49A02-1210-CR-789
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 985 N.E.2d 1135 (Razien McCullough v. State of Indiana) 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
Razien McCullough v. State of Indiana, 985 N.E.2d 1135, 2013 WL 1701057, 2013 Ind. App. LEXIS 178 (Ind. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

BRADFORD, Judge.

INTRODUCTION 1

Appellant-Defendant Razien McCullough lived in Indianapolis with Lawrence Miles, Kharisma Archie, and Archie’s two young children. Late on December 8, 2010, or early the next morning, McCullough shot and killed Miles and Archie. McCullough shot both Miles and Archie in the head and also shot Archie in the thigh. McCullough concealed the bodies on the back porch of the residence and contacted police the next day. McCullough told police in a statement that he had acted in self-defense. The State charged McCullough with two counts of murder, a jury found him guilty as charged, and the trial court sentenced him to an aggregate term of 115 years of incarceration. McCullough contends that the State failed to produce sufficient evidence to disprove his claim of self-defense and that his sentence is inappropriately harsh. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In December of 2010, McCullough lived with Miles, Archie, and Archie’s two young children in a house on Temple Avenue in Indianapolis. McCullough had previously known Miles in New Jersey. Late on December 8, 2010, or early the next morning, McCullough, Miles, and Archie became involved in an argument in the basement of the home. At some point, McCullough managed to obtain a handgun and shot both Miles and Archie to death. Miles died of a single gunshot wound to the head that entered at his right temple and exited behind his left ear. Archie suffered two gunshot wounds, a fatal wound to the head that entered in the back and exited near her mouth, breaking her upper jaw and two teeth, and a wound to her thigh. McCullough removed the bodies from the basement and concealed them under a thin piece of wood on the back porch.

At approximately 8:00 p.m. on December 9, 2010, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Jacob Tranchant was dispatched to a Kroger nearby the house where Miles and Archie were killed, where the officer encountered McCullough. McCullough told police that he wanted to get something off of his chest and that they probably already knew what he had done to the people on Temple. Officer Tranchant and two other officers proceeded to the house on Temple, where they communicated with Archie’s two children through a window. The children eventually allowed the officers entry, where they soon found what appeared to be blood stains in the basement and Miles’s and Archie’s bodies on *1138 the back porch. In an interview with police later that evening, McCullough claimed that he had acted in self-defense: he had attempted to intervene in an argument between Miles and Archie, Miles had come at McCullough with a gun, McCullough disarmed and shot Miles in the head, and Archie “came right after [McCullough] and [he] shot her too.” State’s Ex. 84 p. 135. McCullough told police that before killing Miles, he “[put] his weight on him and [he] knew [he] had him.” State’s Ex. 84 p. 145. McCullough told police that he told Archie’s children the next morning before he left the house that Archie and Miles had argued, that Archie was at the store, and that they would be back at some point.

On December 14, 2010, the State, charged McCullough with two counts of murder. ■ On February 24, 2012, McCullough filed a notice of self-defense. On August 21, 2012, the jury found McCullough guilty as charged. On September 6, 2Ó12, the trial court sentenced McCullough to fifty-five- years of incarceration for the murder of Miles, sixty years for the murder of Archie, and ordered that the sentences be served consecutively. The trial court found McCullough’s multiple victims and criminal history to be aggravating circumstances. The trial court found McCullough’s history of mental health issues, the fact that he turned himself in, and the fact that he seemingly attempted to hide Miles’s and Archie’s bodies from her children to be mitigating circumstances, although it noted that McCullough was not taking prescribed medication at the time but was using illegal drugs.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

I. Whether the State Produced Sufficient Evidence to Rebut McCullough’s Self-Defense Claim

McCullough argues that the State produced insufficient evidence to rebut his testimony that his murders of Miles and Archie were acts of self-defense. A valid claim of self-defense is legal justification for an otherwise criminal act. Birdsong v. State, 685 N.E.2d 42, 45 (Ind.1997). The defense is defined in Indiana Code Section 35_41_3_2(a): “A person is justified in using reasonable force against another person to protect the person or a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force.”

When a person raises a claim of self-defense, he is required to show three facts: (1) he was in a place where he had a right to be; (2) he acted without fault; and (3) he had a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily harm. Wallace v. State, 725 N.E.2d 837, 840 (Ind.2000). Once a person claims self-defense, the State bears the burden of disproving at least one of these elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Hood v. State, 877 N.E.2d 492, 497 (Ind.Ct.App.2007), trans. denied. The State may meet this burden by rebutting the defense directly, by affirmatively showing the person did not act in self-defense, or by relying upon the sufficiency of its evidence in chief. Id, Whether the State has met its burden is a question of fact for the factfin-der. Id. The trier of fact is not precluded from finding that a person used unreasonable force simply because the victim was the initial aggressor. Birdsong, 685 N.E.2d at 45.

If a person is convicted despite his claim of self-defense, we will reverse only if no reasonable person could say that self-defense was negated by the State beyond a reasonable doubt. Wilson v. State, 770 N.E.2d 799, 800-01 (Ind.2002). The standard on appellate review of a challenge to the.sufficiency of evidence to rebut a claim of self-defense is the same as the standard for any sufficiency of the evidence claim. Id. at 801. We neither *1139 reweigh the evidence nor judge the credi-' bility of witnesses. Id. If there is sufficient evidence of probative value to support the conclusion of the trier of fact, the verdict will not be disturbed. Id.

The State produced sufficient evidence to rebut McCullough’s claim of self-defense. Although there seems to be no dispute that McCullough had a right to be in the basement, the only evidence that he acted without fault or that his reactions were reasonable was contained in his statement to police, an audio recording of which was played to the jury. The jury, however, was under no obligation to credit this evidence and did not.

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985 N.E.2d 1135, 2013 WL 1701057, 2013 Ind. App. LEXIS 178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/razien-mccullough-v-state-of-indiana-indctapp-2013.