Rufer v. State

413 N.E.2d 880, 274 Ind. 643
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 22, 1980
Docket180S11
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 413 N.E.2d 880 (Rufer 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
Rufer v. State, 413 N.E.2d 880, 274 Ind. 643 (Ind. 1980).

Opinions

PRENTICE, Justice.

This is an appeal from the denial of post conviction relief. Petitioner (Appellant) was convicted after trial by jury of being an accessory before the fact to the commission or attempt to commit a felony while armed and conspiracy to commit a felony. He was sentenced to twenty (20) years imprisonment on the accessory charge and to imprisonment for an indeterminate period of from two (2) to fourteen (14) years on the conspiracy charge, sentences to run consecutively. This Court affirmed the conviction. Rufer v. State, (1976) 264 Ind. 258, 342 N.E.2d 856. This appeal presents the following issues:

(1) Whether there was an undisclosed agreement between the State and one of its witnesses.

(2) Whether the petitioner’s sentence on the accessory charge must be reduced to conform with the sentence subsequently received by the principal.

(3) Whether there was fundamental error in the judgment of conviction for conspiracy.

(4) Whether the merger doctrine is applicable to these convictions.

(5) Whether the trial court’s imposition of consecutive sentences was proper.

(6) Whether there was prosecutorial misconduct at the trial.

(7) Whether the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions.

ISSUE I

Petitioner contends that he was denied due process of law as a result of the State’s nondisclosure of all the relevant circumstances which induced the testimony of Craig Caron, an accomplice who was never charged. He attempts to support this claim in several ways.

Caron testified at the petitioner’s trial that the prosecutor did not make any offers of leniency. At the later trial of Martin O’Conner, also an accomplice, Caron testified that the prosecutor told him that there was a good chance that he would not be prosecuted. Defendant argues that, based upon the statements at O’Conner’s trial, Caron’s testimony at the petitioner’s trial was perjured.

At the post conviction hearing, Caron again testified that no offer of leniency was made, and that he was told that he probably would not be charged.

[882]*882The prosecutor testified at both the trial and the post conviction proceeding and explained in detail the facts and circumstances of Caron’s case.

“* * * I told him that if he would testify as to what happened, if his testimony was truthful and if it was accurate with other facts that we knew about, that because of these things that he was a juvenile and he wasn’t directly involved at the scene, that there was a good possibility that he wouldn’t be prosecuted.”

Further, Petitioner contends that the prosecutor “practically admitted” in his closing argument to the jury to having made an agreement with the witness. This contention is without support in ,the record. The “admissions” alluded to were nothing more than references to clearly hypothetical circumstances mentioned to illustrate a weakness in Petitioner’s argument.

In post conviction proceedings the trial judge, as trier of the facts, is the sole judge of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. Hoskins v. State, (1973) 261 Ind. 291, 295, 302 N.E.2d 499, 501. The trial court found that the testimony at the petitioner’s trial adequately reflected the circumstances surrounding the testimony of the witness, Caron. The record supports this finding. Lamb v. State, (1975) 263 Ind. 137, 143, 325 N.E.2d 180, 183.

The prosecutor does have a duty to disclose the existence of agreements made with a State’s witness, Richard v. State, (1978) 269 Ind. 607, 614, 382 N.E.2d 899, 904 (cases cited therein), cert. denied, (1979) 440 U.S. 965, 99 S.Ct. 1515, 59 L.Ed.2d 781; however, the record in this case does not reflect that an agreement was made. See Baker v. State, (1980) Ind., 403 N.E.2d 1069, 1071.

ISSUE II

The petitioner contends that his sentence on the accessory charge must be reduced to correspond to the ten (10) year sentence subsequently imposed on Martin O’Conner, the principal. He is correct in asserting that the accessory’s conviction must conform to the principal’s when there have been two separate judicial determinations on the merits of the respective cases. Schmidt v. State, (1973) 261 Ind. 81, 300 N.E.2d 86; Combs v. State, (1973) 260 Ind. 294, 295 N.E.2d 366. His next assertion, however, is without merit.

In Tessely v. State, (1978) 267 Ind. 445, 454, 370 N.E.2d 907, 912, we said:

“When the sentence of the principal is not the result of a trial on the merits, no legal contradiction arises from inconsistent sentences.”

Petitioner contends that this statement necessarily implies that when the sentence of the principal is the result of a trial on the merits, a legal contradiction does arise from inconsistent sentences. But such implication does not necessarily follow. The contrary was held in Wright v. State, (1977) 266 Ind. 327, 343, 363 N.E.2d 1221, 1230.

As an accessory, the petitioner was subject to the same penalties and the same judicial discretion in their imposition as was the principal. Ind.Code § 35-12-1-1 (Burns 1975). The twenty (20) year sentence is within the parameters set by Ind.Code § 35-12-1-1 (Burns 1975), and we find no error in its imposition. Wright v. State, supra.

ISSUE III

The petitioner contends that the wording of the information charging the conspiracy was defective and that his conviction on that charge, therefore constitutes fundamental error, citing Miller v. State, (1968) 250 Ind. 338, 236 N.E.2d 173.

The substance of the claim relates to the information’s failure to set out the elements of the robbery, which was the object of the conspiracy.

Miller does not stand for the proposition that the failure to charge the elements of the underlying felony of a conspiracy is fundamental error.

“To be categorized as fundamental error and thus to transcend our procedural requirements, the error must be blatant, [883]*883and the potential for harm must be substantial and appear clearly and prospectively.” Nelson v. State, (1980) Ind., 409 N.E.2d 637, 638.

While this error may be blatant, Bickel v. State, (1978) Ind.App., 375 N.E.2d 274

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413 N.E.2d 880, 274 Ind. 643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rufer-v-state-ind-1980.