Sanchez v. State

732 N.E.2d 165, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 860, 2000 WL 722258
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 5, 2000
DocketNo. 92A03-9908-CR-322
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 732 N.E.2d 165 (Sanchez v. State) 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
Sanchez v. State, 732 N.E.2d 165, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 860, 2000 WL 722258 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

VAIDIK, Judge

Appellant, Guadalupe A. Sanchez, appeals his convictions for Rape,1 a Class A felony, and Confinement,2 a Class B felony. Specifically, he contends that the trial court instruction, informing the jury that it could not consider evidence of his voluntary intoxication, violates the Due Course of Law provision of the Indiana Constitution. In 1996, the United States Supreme Court held that states could prevent defendants from presenting evidence of voluntary intoxication to show that they did not have the requisite intent to commit the charged offense. Sanchez acknowledges this holding but argues that the right is preserved under the Indiana Constitution and in particular, the Due Course of Law provision. Our review of the history at the time of the 1851 convention does not reveal that the drafters intended to guarantee a defendant the right to present evidence of intoxication under the Indiana Constitution. Additionally, subsequent case law, analyzing claims under the Due Course of Law provision, have utilized federal due process analysis. Therefore, we disagree that Sanchez is entitled to present evidence of intoxication under the Due Course of Law provision. Moreover, we conclude that even if our constitution does preserve such a right, because Sanchez was not entitled to an instruction on voluntary intoxication, no error can arise from the instruction given. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

On July 6, 1998, seventeen-year-old H.S. went to the birthday party of Caesar Montezuma at a trailer situated on a horse farm. Sanchez was a guest at the party that began around 9:30 p.m. During the evening, Sanchez drank alcoholic beverages. After a while, the guests, including Sanchez, began dancing. While dancing with some of the female guests, Sanchez began touching their buttocks and between their legs. As a result, Montezuma’s girlfriend, Jessica Alvarez, asked Sanchez to leave the party.

Around 11:30 p.m., most of the guests left the party. H.S. remained behind with two of her friends. Shortly thereafter, Sanchez returned and knocked on the door of the trailer. Montezuma opened the door and saw Sanchez carrying a 25 caliber semi-automatic handgun. Although H.S., Jessica and another girl attempted to flee, they were summoned back to the trailer. Sanchez then questioned them concerning the whereabouts of another girl who had been at the party. Although they informed Sanchez she was not there, he continued to ask about her. Sanchez then instructed them to bring him all of the telephones in the trailer. Jessica complied with this instruction. Shortly thereafter, Sanchez became convinced that the young woman he was looking for was not at the trailer. Consequently, he grabbed H.S. and forced her at gunpoint to leave with him. He then informed the others that if they moved, he would kill them.

Sanchez led H.S. to a cornfield where he ordered her at gunpoint to take off her clothes. The defendant then took off his clothes, except for his pants which were at his ankles. Still holding the gun, Sanchez ordered H.S. to lie on the ground where he [167]*167forced her to engage in sexual intercourse. Sanchez then performed oral sex on H.S. and kissed her. In disgust, H.S. spit which made Sanchez angry. He told her that if she spit again, he would kill her. Sanchez then lay on top of H.S. and began to have sexual intercourse with her again. Before he was finished, he instructed H.S. to get on her hands and knees and penetrated her from behind. Sanchez then ordered H.S. to straddle him and forced her to engage in sexual intercourse again.

Following the series of rapes, Sanchez allowed H.S. to get dressed. Once H.S. dressed and stood up, Sanchez began kissing her again. He then ordered her to lie on the ground, took off her clothes and engaged her in sexual intercourse again. Sanchez placed his penis in H.S.’s face and taunted her by asking, “You want, you want?” Record at 382.

At that point, H.S., believing that the police would be looking for them, suggested that Sanchez take her to his house. Sanchez agreed and led H.S. by foot to his home which was about three and half miles away. They followed a road for most of the way. Whenever a car approached, Sanchez would hide H.S. in the bushes or ditch. At one point, when they were close to Sanchez’s house, H.S. attempted to escape by suggesting that they take different routes to the house. Sanchez refused.

Eventually they entered Sanchez’s house. Sanchez took H.S. to the basement. Because H.S. was cold, she asked Sanchez for a blanket. While Sanchez was upstairs retrieving the blanket, H.S. heard him say to another occupant of the house, “I have a b — ch downstairs, Don’t mess with us.” Record at 390. When Sanchez returned with the blanket he again forced H.S. to engage in sexual intercourse. At one point during the night, both Sanchez and H.S. saw flashing lights and believed that the police had arrived. When this occurred, Sanchez responded, “Oh — it, [t]he f — ing cops,” and instructed H.S. to tell the police that she was his girlfriend. Record at 392. Shortly thereafter, Sanchez and H.S. fell asleep.

During the early morning hours, the police arrived and found Sanchez and H.S. asleep in the bed. The gun, which Sanchez had been carrying, was positioned on the bed near Sanchez’s right hand. Sanchez’s other hand was positioned under H.S.’s head and neck. Sanchez was placed under arrest and charged with rape and confinement.

A jury trial commenced on June 15, 1999. During the trial, the jury was instructed, over Sanchez’s objection, that voluntary intoxication was not a defense to the charged offenses. The jury was further instructed that it was not permitted to consider Sanchez’s intoxication in determining whether he acted knowingly or intentionally. Thereafter, the jury found Sanchez guilty as charged.

Discussion and Decision

Sanchez challenges the trial court’s instruction which prohibited the jury from considering evidence of voluntary intoxication. That instruction provided as follows: “Voluntary intoxication is not a defense to the charge of rape and confinement. You may not take voluntary intoxication into consideration in determining whether the defendant acted knowingly or intentionally as alleged in the information.” Record at 766. According to Sanchez, the instruction improperly removed consideration of his voluntary intoxication from the jury in violation of the Due Course of Law provision of Article 1, Section 12 of the Indiana Constitution.

The instruction given by the trial court is based upon Ind.Code § 35-41-2-5, which went into effect in July 1997. That statute provides that “[ijntoxication is not a defense in a prosecution for an offense and may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state that is an element of the offense unless the defendant meets the requirements of IC 35-41-3-5.” I.C. § 35^1-2-

[168]*1685. Those requirements include becoming intoxicated without the person’s consent or not knowing that the substance might cause intoxication. I.C. § 35-41-3-5(l)(2). Sanchez does not suggest that either exception applies. Rather, he argues that our constitution, and in particular, the Due Course of Law provision, guarantees a defendant the right to present evidence of voluntary intoxication.

In support of his argument, Sanchez relies on our supreme court’s decision in Terry v.

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Related

Sanchez v. State
749 N.E.2d 509 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
732 N.E.2d 165, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 860, 2000 WL 722258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanchez-v-state-indctapp-2000.