Rubalcada v. State

731 N.E.2d 1015, 2000 Ind. LEXIS 647, 2000 WL 877044
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 30, 2000
Docket82S00-9902-CR-113
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 731 N.E.2d 1015 (Rubalcada 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
Rubalcada v. State, 731 N.E.2d 1015, 2000 Ind. LEXIS 647, 2000 WL 877044 (Ind. 2000).

Opinion

DICKSON, Justice

The defendant-appellant, Tommy James Rubalcada, was convicted of conspiracy to *1017 commit robbery 1 and felony murder 2 for the February 1998 death of Brian Jamison. On direct appeal, the defendant alleges the following errors: (1) his review of the police investigative file concerning the victim was restricted; (2) his wife was permitted to testify against him; (3) his cross-examination was limited; and (4) a prosecution witness received a plea bargain which was not disclosed at trial. We affirm.

Review of Police Records

The defendant claims that he was denied his federal constitutional rights to due process, confrontation, and compulsory process when the trial court refused to order production of police intelligence records concerning the victim, Brian Jamison. 3 He argues that the denial of this information prevented him from learning of the self-interest and motivations of the State’s witnesses, from preparing adequately to cross-examine and impeach these witnesses, and from developing alternate defense theories.

Prior to trial, the defendant issued four subpoenas duces tecum directing the Indiana State Police, the Warrick County Sheriff, the Evansville Police Department, and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff to provide the trial court with “all intelligence reports ... concerning Brian Jamison” for in camera inspection. Record at 132-39. The agencies produced fifty-five pages of intelligence reports and one audiotape, which the trial court individually reviewed in camera at a hearing attended by counsel for the defendant and the State. At the hearing, the court afforded the State an opportunity to describe each item and to present any objections and allowed .defense counsel to argue for disclosure. The in camera review hearing resulted in the trial court ordering five of the pages disclosed to the defendant and concluding that the remaining fifty pages and the audiotape met the definition of criminal intelligence information under Indiana Code section 5-2-4-1 4 and that, under Indiana Code section 5-2-4-6, 5 they need not be disclosed. The trial court also concluded:

[N]one of the information which has not been ordered to be disclosed has any apparent exculpatory benefit to the defendant and neither is any of that information relevant to any of the issues that have been raised in this case or any defenses that have been raised in this case. And until such time as those issues and defenses are presented to the Court that makes any of these documents or information relevant, the Court will order that they not be produced.

Record at 167.

We consider together the defendant’s claimed violations of his rights to *1018 due process and compulsory ■ process. Claims such as those raised by the defendant here have traditionally been evaluated by the U.S. Supreme Court under the broader protections of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, 480 U.S. 39, 56, 107 S.Ct. 989, 1001, 94 L.Ed.2d 40, 57 (1987). The compulsory process • clause provides no greater protections than those afforded by due process, and a due process analysis is appropriate for determining whether compulsory process rights have been violated. Id.

It is well settled that the Due Process Clause requires the government to turn over evidence in its possession that is both favorable to the accused and material to guilt or punishment. Id. at 57, 107 S.Ct. at 1001, 94 L.Ed.2d at 57 (citing United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976)); Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 1196, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, 218 (1963). The same analysis applies to both exculpatory and impeachment evidence. Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 433, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 1565, 131 L.Ed.2d 490, 505 (1995). Evidence is material only “ ‘if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different.’ ” Id. at 433-34,115 S.Ct. at 1565, 131 L.Ed.2d at 505 (quoting United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 3383, 87 L.Ed.2d 481, 494 (1985) (opinion of Blackmun, J.); id. at 685, 105 S.Ct. at 3385, 87 L.Ed.2d at 496 (White, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment)).

In Ritchie, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that portion of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision that would have allowed defense counsel to examine all of the government’s confidential information. Instead, the Court in Ritchie remanded to the trial court for in camera review of the government’s information to determine whether the evidence at issue was favorable to the defendant and material to either guilt or punishment. Id., 480 U.S. at 60-61, 107 S.Ct. at 1002-03, 94 L.Ed.2d at 59-60. A defendant’s right to discover exculpatory evidence, however, does not include the authority to search through the government’s files unsupervised. Id. at 59, 107 S.Ct. at 1002, 94 L.Ed.2d at 58. The Ritchie Court required that the government files be submitted to the trial court, which “would be obligated to release information material to the fairness of the trial.” Id. at 60, 107 S.Ct. at 1003, 94 L.Ed.2d at 59. The Court held that the defendant was entitled to have the government file “reviewed by the trial court to determine whether it contains information that probably would have changed the outcome of his trial.”. Id. at 58, 107 S.Ct. at 1002, 94 L.Ed.2d at. 58.

In contrast to Ritchie, the trial court in this case did conduct an in camera review prior to trial and détermined that the intelligence matters the defendant sought were not relevant to the issues presented in the case and did not have “any apparent exculpatory benefit to the defendant.” Record at 167.

We review the trial court’s ruling, based on its in camera inspection of government investigative materials, for an abuse of discretion in denying access to material, exculpatory, or impeachment evidence. See Pilarski v. State, 635 N.E.2d 166, 172 (Ind.1994); United States v. Plescia, 48 F.3d 1452, 1457 (7th Cir.1995).

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Bluebook (online)
731 N.E.2d 1015, 2000 Ind. LEXIS 647, 2000 WL 877044, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rubalcada-v-state-ind-2000.