Stewart v. State

531 N.E.2d 1146, 1988 Ind. LEXIS 357, 1988 WL 137394
Indiana Supreme Court·Decided December 16, 1988·No. 82S00-8712-CR-1145·Published·Cited by 60 cases

Opinions

GIVAN, Justice.

A jury trial resulted in appellant’s conviction of Child Molesting, a Class B felony, for which he received a sentence of fifteen (15) years.

The facts are: Ten-year-old T.C. and his three-year-old brother M.C. were playing in a park near their home in Evansville when they saw appellant. T.C. testified that he knew appellant, and they were friends at one time. Appellant told T.C. to go away, so he went over to the sandbox area. From there he watched appellant pull down M.C.’s pants to his knees, then M.C. sat on the top portion of a picnic table. Appellant sat on the bench portion of the picnic table, fondled M.C.’s penis and performed fellatio as M.C. cried. After appellant stopped molesting M.C., T.C. ran over to his brother and pulled up his pants. Appellant told T.C. that he would cut his mother’s insides out and cut his father’s penis off if he told them about the incident.

T.C. took his brother home and reported the incident to his mother. She testified that she noticed pinch or bite marks on M.C.’s scrotum and that it was very red. She called the police.

Officer Beverly Thompson testified that on August 2, 1986 she knocked on appellant’s door and told his parents that she would like to speak with their son. Appellant appeared and before Officer Thompson could state the purpose of her visit, appellant yelled, “Just whose dick was I supposed to have sucked?” He stated that he was not a homosexual. He then called Officer Thompson obscene names. Officer Thompson told appellant’s parents that the Detectives Office needed to speak with their son and she left.

Appellant argues the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict. He claims that the discrepancy of the date on which the offense occurred rendered the evidence so incredible that it was beyond belief, and it prohibited him from presenting a viable alibi defense.

The information alleges that appellant committed child molesting on or about July 30, 1986. Appellant filed a notice of alibi for that date. On February 27, 1987, the State filed a notice alleging the offense occurred on August 1, 1986. Also, on February 27, 1987, the State filed a corrective notice which stated that the previous notice erroneously alleged the date of the offense to be August 1,1986 when in fact the State intended to prove that the offense occurred August 2, 1986.

Appellant filed a notice of intent to prove alibi for both July 30, 1986 and August 2, 1986 and each listed his whereabouts on [1148] those days. Appellant’s trial began on May 20, 1987.

At trial, the victim's mother testified that the incident occurred on August 2, 1986, and she filed a report with a police officer that day and took the children to the police station for a statement on the following day. Officer Thompson’s police report indicates that she visited appellant’s home on August 2, 1986 to ask him questions, but the offense occurred on July 30, 1986 at 5:00 p.m. Officer Thompson testified that the victim’s parents told her the offense occurred on July 30, 1986.

Appellant asserts he was misled by the discrepancy of the date on which the offense occurred. He believes that no credible evidence was presented to show that the offense occurred on August 2, 1986, and he was prejudiced by the State’s notice alleging the offense occurred on that date because he gave up the opportunity to present alibi evidence as to other possible dates.

When the date on which the offense allegedly occurred varies between the information and the State’s response to alibi notice, to amount to reversible error the variance must be of such substantial nature that it misleads the accused in preparing and maintaining his defense. Smith v. State (1982), Ind., 439 N.E.2d 634; Quillen v. State (1979), 271 Ind. 251, 391 N.E.2d 817.

In response to the alibi notice, the State fixed the date of the alleged offense as August 2, 1986. Notices so informing appellant were filed February 27, 1987 and again on April 7, 1987. The State presented the victim’s mother, who testified that the offense occurred on August 2, 1986.

Appellant presented witnesses who gave exculpatory testimony about his whereabouts on July 30, 1986 and August 2, 1986. Appellant was notified of the August 2, 1986 date well before trial and prepared a defense accordingly. We do not find that appellant was misled in preparing or maintaining his defense. Id.

Appellant also argues the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction because the incident could not have occurred on August 2, 1986. Appellant believes the evidence relating to the date of the offense is inherently unbelievable.

We recognize that witnesses’ testimony as to the date of the offense was conflicting. However, this Court will not reweigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of the witnesses. Collins v. State (1988), Ind., 521 N.E.2d 682. A conviction may be sustained on the uncorroborated testimony of a single witness. Mullins v. State (1987), Ind., 504 N.E.2d 570. We find the evidence is sufficient to sustain appellant’s conviction.

Appellant argues the trial court erroneously excluded evidence of prior sexual misconduct committed by the only competent eyewitness, T.C.

By presenting the testimony of C.P. and E.J., appellant offered to prove that while T.C. was sitting near C.P. on a park bench in July of 1986, T.C. said that C.P. had played with his penis, when in fact she did not.

Appellant asserts that evidence of false accusations of similar sexual misconduct is admissible on the issue of T.C.’s credibility. He cites Little v. State (1980), Ind.App., 413 N.E.2d 639 and Hall v. State (1978), 176 Ind.App. 59, 374 N.E.2d 62 to support his argument

In Little, a fourteen-year-old rape victim told police that others had sexually violated her, and she later recanted the accusation. The Court of Appeals stated that generally, a witness may not be impeached by specific acts. However, in sex offense cases in which the victim made a false allegation of conduct similar to that with which the defendant was charged, the victim may be impeached by these specific acts. The court held that evidence of false accusations of similar sexual misconduct is admissible on the issue of the victim’s credibility, so long as the allegations are demonstrably false.

Appellant acknowledges that in his case, the person sought to be impeached is a witness and not the victim. He believes, however, that the rule stated in Little [1149] should apply to T.C. because the victim was an incompetent witness and T.C. was the only witness who testified that the molestation occurred.

Indiana’s Rape Shield Act states that in prosecution for a sex crime, evidence, opinion evidence, and reputation evidence of the past sexual conduct of the victim or a witness may not be admitted. Ind.Code § 35-37-4-4.

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Stewart v. State, 531 N.E.2d 1146, 1988 Ind. LEXIS 357, 1988 WL 137394 (Ind. 1988).

531 N.E.2d 1146 (Stewart v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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