Richard Lawrence-Ari Brooks, Jr. v. State of Indiana

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided January 31, 2025·No. 23A-CR-02602·Published

Opinion

IN THE

Court of Appeals of Indiana Richard Lawrence-Ari Brooks, Jr., Appellant-Defendant FILED Jan 31 2025, 10:38 am

v. CLERK Indiana Supreme Court

Court of Appeals

and Tax Court

State of Indiana,

Appellee-Plaintiff

January 31, 2025

Court of Appeals Case No.

23A-CR-2602

Appeal from the Monroe Circuit Court The Honorable Valeri Haughton, Judge Trial Court Cause No.

53C02-2105-F3-369

Opinion by Judge May

Judges Brown and Pyle concur.

May, Judge.

[1] Richard Lawrence-Ari Brooks, Jr., appeals his three convictions of Level 3 felony child molesting. 1 During trial, Brooks challenged the admissibility of evidence collected following a ping 2 of Brooks’s cell phone based on police performing that ping without first obtaining a search warrant, and he also challenged the admissibility of evidence collected pursuant to a search warrant for which Brooks argued the police filed an intentionally invalid probable cause affidavit. The trial court admitted all evidence over Brooks’s objections.

[2] On appeal, Brooks argues the trial court abused its discretion by admitting the evidence collected following the ping because that ping violated: (1) Indiana Code section 35-33-5-12, which limits police authority to use geo-location information available from cellular networks; (2) the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and (3) Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. Brooks also argues the trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence collected pursuant to the search warrant that Brooks alleges the police thereafter obtained using a misleading probable cause affidavit. After considering Brooks’s arguments, we affirm his convictions of Level 3 felony child molesting.

1 Ind. Code § 35-42-4-3(a).

2 Pinging a phone is a process whereby law enforcement can submit a formal request to a cell phone carrier for assistance locating the phone associated with a specific cell phone number on that carrier’s network. “[I]f the carrier finds that information to be exigent or worthy of a ping, they will then provide the [location] information back to dispatch[.]” (Tr. Vol. 2 at 71.)

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 23A-CR-2602 | January 31, 2025 Page 2 of 20

Facts and Procedural History [3] During the months at issue, S.W. was a thirteen-year-old who lived with her

mother, father, and brother near Bloomington, Indiana. S.W.’s parents homeschooled her after she was bullied at the local public school, and because S.W. was unable to interact with other students during school, she decided to try to meet people online. In the spring of 2021, S.W. started using an app called SnapChat to talk to strangers, and when her parents found out, they took away all of S.W.’s electronic devices. While S.W. did not have her electronic devices, she began using her great-grandmother’s phone to access apps called Monkey and Omegle, which allow users to video chat with strangers and required S.W. to falsify her age as seventeen or eighteen years old. In May 2021, S.W.’s parents returned her computer, and she began playing games on Roblox, which is for children over thirteen years of age and allows users to interact only by chat.

[4] In the first week of May, when S.W. was using Monkey on her great- grandmother’s phone, she got paired with Brooks for a video chat. She asked Brooks if he lived in Bloomington, and he said “yes.” (Id. at 203.) S.W. told Brooks that she was thirteen, and Brooks said “he was like 16 or something.” (Id. at 217.) S.W. “kinda liked” Brooks, (id. at 204), so she gave him the number for her great-grandmother’s phone, and the two talked on the phone. S.W. also downloaded SnapChat again and used it to talk to Brooks. In addition, Brooks and S.W. “friended” one another on Roblox so they could play games together. (Id. at 205-6.) When S.W. was with her great-

grandmother, S.W. would use her great-grandmother’s phone to Facetime with Brooks. During one conversation, S.W. told Brooks about her family, her friends, and her school. She also told him that she was in seventh grade. Brooks told S.W. that he worked at Walmart, but he did not tell her about his family or friends.

[5] Just before Mother’s Day weekend, S.W. asked Brooks if he wanted to meet in person, and he said yes. On Saturday, May 8, 2021, S.W. attended a family party for Mother’s Day and, during that party, took her younger brother and two young cousins outside to play at a park. While they were playing, Brooks got out of his car in the parking lot. S.W. wanted to go talk to Brooks, but her brother insisted she stay with him. Brooks then got back into his car and drove away. Later that day, when S.W.’s parents were away from home, Brooks stopped by S.W.’s house to see her, and S.W. wanted to get into Brooks’s car, but her brother pulled her away from the car.

[6] After S.W.’s parents had gone to bed that night, S.W. called Brooks, and he drove to her house to pick her up. S.W. got into his car, and Brooks drove to a parking lot a few minutes down the road. After he parked the car, S.W. and Brooks got into the back seat of the car. They kissed, both took off their clothes, they touched each other’s bodies, and Brooks put his fingers into S.W.’s vagina. He tried to have intercourse with S.W. but was unable to achieve penetration. When Brooks took S.W. back to her parents’ house, he told her she should shower, and she did. S.W.’s parents did not hear her leave or return that night.

[7] The next day, Sunday, May 9, 2021, when they chatted on Roblox, Brooks checked to make sure S.W. had showered when she returned home. They also made plans to get together again when S.W.’s parents were asleep. About 10:00 p.m. that night, Brooks and S.W. were talking on S.W.’s home telephone, and S.W. told Brooks to come get her. Twenty minutes later, S.W. left her house and walked to the end of the driveway for Brooks to pick her up in his car. When Brooks picked her up, he took her to a hotel in Bloomington and before they entered the building, he told her to tell anyone who might ask that they were “brother and sister.” (Id. at 223.) In the room Brooks had rented, Brooks had both vaginal and anal sex with S.W., which was painful for S.W. She was “screaming, it hurts, it hurts” (id. at 227), but Brooks did not stop. After Brooks finished, S.W. noticed she was bleeding onto the sheets.

[8] Around 4:10 a.m. on May 10, 2021, S.W.’s parents called 911 to report their thirteen-year-old daughter missing from their house. One of the first officers to arrive at the residence was Lieutenant Allen Mullis of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. S.W.’s parents reported the home phone “was laying on the floor beside where [S.W.] was last sleeping.” (Id. at 6.) They had found the main entrance of the house standing open six or eight inches, and they did not know of any reason why S.W. would have run away. Because S.W. did not have a history of sleepwalking and the door was left open, Lieutenant Mullis became concerned “there was a possible abduction involved.” (Id.)

[9] Lieutenant Mullis and S.W.’s mother checked the house to confirm that S.W. had not fallen asleep in an unexpected location, while another deputy walked the grounds around the house, and two other deputies drove to check parking lots, playgrounds, churches, and other nearby locations. The deputies were in constant contact via radio, and none of them found any leads. Lieutenant Mullis began asking S.W.’s parents about S.W.’s access to social media and then asked them to determine whether there were any unknown phone numbers on the caller ID feature of the home telephone. S.W.’s mother noticed a phone number from area code 574 that she did not recognize (hereinafter “the 574 number”). The 574 number had called several times in the prior two days and was identified as belonging to “Richard Brooks.” (Id. at 9.) S.W.’s parents did not know who Richard Brooks was.

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