Sams v. State

688 N.E.2d 1323, 1997 Ind. App. LEXIS 1788, 1997 WL 778954
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided December 19, 1997·No. 49A02-9609-CR-577·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinions

OPINION

FRIEDLANDER, Judge.

Following a jury'trial, Casey Sams was convicted of Operating a Motor Vehicle After His Driving Privileges Were Forfeited For Life,1 a class C felony, Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated (OWI),2 a class D felony because he had a previous OWI conviction within the five years immediately preceding the offense, and Public Intoxication,3 a class B misdemeanor. The trial court bifurcated Sams’s trial, and the jury was not asked to determine whether Sams was guilty of OWI as a class D felony until after it had initially determined that Sams was guilty of OWI as a class A misdemeanor. Sams raises the following restated issues on appeal:

[1324]*13241. Was sufficient evidence presented to establish Sams’s identity beyond a reasonable doubt?
2. Did the trial court abuse its discretion in admitting into evidence Sams’s motor vehicle driving record in its entirety?

We affirm.

The facts most favorable to the judgment are as follows. Jaren Trammell testified that while she and her six-year-old daughter Kelly were walking down Prospect to a gas station at about 6:00 p.m. on December 2, 1995, Sams drove his ear over the curb and approximately three feet onto the sidewalk, nearly striking Kelly. Trammell comforted Kelly and then castigated Sams, who, by that time, had backed up his car and parked it in the street close to Trammell. According to Trammell, Sams appeared to be drunk, smelled of beer, had numerous beer cans in his car, and told Trammell, “Oh, I didn’t hit her, she’s fine. I ain’t gonna hurt no kid.” Record at 166. Sams also made a comment to Trammell to the effect that his car had “died”. Record at 175. Sams then went up to an apartment building and knocked on one of the doors. Trammell and Kelly continued on to the gas station. When the two were returning home from the gas station about fifteen minutes later, Trammell saw Sams come out of a bar, get back into his car, and unsuccessfully attempt to start it. According to Trammell, she then telephoned the police, but they declined to respond because, by that time, Sams was no longer in his car. Tram-mell went home and told her husband about the incident. Trammell’s husband went outside to confront Sams, and Trammell also went out and again encountered Sams. According to Trammell, Sams had on the same clothing each time she encountered him that day.

At some point, Trammell again called the police. When police officers arrived, Sams identified himself as “Junior A. Sams”, Record at 185, and gave officers several different dates of birth and different Social Security numbers. He was unable to produce any identification. Sams claimed that his brother had been driving the car. He also denied both that he had been driving and that the car belonged to him, but the police found paperwork and two bottles of prescription medicine bearing Sams’s name in the car and keys to the ear in Sams’s pocket. At that point, Sams fled from the scene, but he was apprehended a short time later. The car was towed from the scene.

At trial, Trammell and the police officers called to the scene unequivocally identified Sams as the man they had encountered on December 2,1995.

In his defense, Sams presented the testimony of his mother, who claimed that she gave Sams a ride to the corner of Prospect and State at approximately 6:00 p.m. on December 2, 1995. Sams also presented the testimony of his friend, Robert Wade. Wade claimed that Sams’s brother Carl looked “almost identical”to Sams, Record at 263, that the car matching the description of the one involved in this case belonged to Carl, and that he (Wade) and Carl had been drinking at a friend’s house on December 2, 1995 when they decided to go to a local bar. Wade also claimed that, after Carl drove his car to the bar that evening, the car’s engine quit, and Carl went into the bar to call Sams for assistance in getting the car started. Wade further claimed that he never saw Sams that evening, but that the car was gone when they left the bar.

Sams also testified in his own defense at trial and denied that he had driven a car on December 2, 1995. He claimed that his brother Carl had called and asked him for assistance in getting his car started. Sams claimed that his mother drove him to the bar where the car was located, and that, while he was trying to get the car started, Trammell walked by, called him names, and claimed that he almost ran her over.

Before and during trial, Sams offered to stipulate to the fact that his license had been suspended for life. Sams’s entire driving record consisted of many serious offenses, including, among others, reckless driving and [1325] numerous offenses of operating a vehicle while his driving privileges were suspended, OWI, and operating a vehicle as an habitual traffic offender. He argued that the entire driving record would be highly prejudicial and, given his offer to stipulate, would have little or no probative value and its admission into evidence would violate Rule 403 of the Indiana Rules of Evidence. The State refused to accept the stipulation offered by Sams, and the trial court allowed the State to establish its case by introducing evidence of Sams’s entire driving record.

At no time did Sams request that the trial court instruct the jury that it was to consider Sams’s entire driving record for the limited purposes of establishing that his license had been suspended for life and his knowledge of such suspension.

The jury found Sams guilty of the charged offenses.

1.

There is no merit to Sams’s claim that the eyewitness identification of him by Trammell was insufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the driver of the car. When reviewing a claim of insufficient evidence, we do not reweigh the evidence or judge the credibility of witnesses, and we will affirm if there is evidence of probative value from which a jury could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Jenkins v. State, 677 N.E.2d 624 (Ind.Ct.App.1997). It is within the province of the jury to assess the truth and veracity of witnesses’ testimony, and we will not impinge on the jury’s resolution of credibility disputes unless the witness’s testimony is so incredibly dubious or inherently improbable that it runs counter to human' experience and no reasonable person could believe it. Id. Sams’s claim that there was insufficient evidence of his identity as the driver of the car is nothing more than an invitation for this court to reweigh the evidence. This we will not do.

2.

Sams contends that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting into evidence his motor vehicle driving record in its entirety and that this error mandates a reversal of his convictions.

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Sams v. State, 688 N.E.2d 1323, 1997 Ind. App. LEXIS 1788, 1997 WL 778954 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997).

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Sams v. State
688 N.E.2d 1323 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1997)