Tacy v. State

641 N.E.2d 57, 1994 Ind. App. LEXIS 1426, 1994 WL 557102
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 13, 1994
DocketNo. 20A04-9311-PC-413
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 641 N.E.2d 57 (Tacy 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
Tacy v. State, 641 N.E.2d 57, 1994 Ind. App. LEXIS 1426, 1994 WL 557102 (Ind. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

RATLIFF, Senior Judge.

In 1981, Aaron Tacy was convicted of attempted murder, theft, and burglary, resulting in concurrent sentences of thirty-four (34), two (2), and twelve (12) years. His convictions were affirmed by our Supreme Court on direct appeal. Tacy v. State (1983), Ind., 452 N.E.2d 977. Tgey now appeals from the denial of his Petition for Post-Conviction Relief. We affirm in part, and reverse in part.

ISSUES

I. Did the trial court's instructions on the offense of attempted murder constitute fun[59]*59damental error because they did not instruct the jury on the element of specific intent?

II. Is the issue whether the juvenile court acquired jurisdiction over Tacy res ju-dicata?

III. Was Tacy denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel at trial and on appeal?

FACTS

As previously described by our supreme court, the following events gave rise to Tacy's charges and convictions:

"At about 9:80 P.M. on April 9, 1980, two officers from the Elkhart Sheriff's Department were dispatched to an Elkhart grocery store parking lot to investigate a truck. The officers found [Tacy] sitting in the truck. While one of the officers was questioning [Tacy] the other ran a radio check on the truck and was told it had been reported stolen. In the meantime a third officer arrived on the scene. While [Tacy] was on the ground and the officers were attempting to handeuff him, he managed to withdraw a concealed handgun and fire two shots. One shot struck one of the officers on the shoulder but caused no injury because the officer was wearing a bulletproof vest. [Tacy] fled into the grocery store. One of the officers fired twice at him as he was running. Both shots struck [Tacy] in the arm. He soon surrendered along with a juvenile companion who had been inside the store during the incident.
At [Tacy's] trial the companion, a cousin named Alan Stamper, testified the boys had run away from home three or four days earlier. He related that during this time the boys had stolen a motorcycle and broken into a residence. They spent a total of two nights and a day in the residence consuming food and liquor they found in the house, stole some guns and other items of personal property, and vandalized the house as well. For a time they separated and Stamper stole the truck from which [Tacy] was apprehended. They had spent all day in the grocery store parking lot on April 9, having driven there in the morning to buy cigarettes and being forced to stay because the truck would not restart."

Id. at 979.

Tacy filed a Petition for Post-Convietion Relief in 1986. He amended the petition on June 16, 1992, and the trial court heard it on September 11, 1992. Both Tacy's trial and appellate counsel testified at the hearing. The court denied Tacy's petition, and he now appeals.

DECISION

I. Jury Instructions

Tacy argues that the trial court's instrue-tions on the offense of attempted murder constituted fundamental error because they did not instruct the jury on the element of specific intent. The State argues that Tacy has waived this issue because he could have raised it on direct appeal and failed to do so. We agree with Tacy.

In general, issues which could have been raised on direct appeal are not available for review in post-conviction proceedings. Weatherford v. State (1993), Ind., 619 N.E.2d 915, 917, reh'g denied. However, a claim of fundamental error can be raised in a post-conviction petition regardless of whether such issue was waived in the direct appeal process. Haggejos v. State (1986), Ind., 493 N.E.2d 448, 450. Fundamental error is blatant error which, if not rectified, would deny the petitioner fundamental due process. Id. Our supreme court has held that failure to instruct the jury on the element of specific intent in the crime of attempted murder is fundamental error. Smith v. State (1984), Ind., 459 N.E.2d 355, 358.

In Snuth, the trial court instructed the jury as follows:

You are instructed that the essential elements of the crime of attempted Murder which the State of Indiana must prove beyond a reasonable doubt are the following: 1) That the Defendent [sic] knowingly, 2) Engaged in conduct that constituted a substantial step toward the commission of Murder.

Id. at 857. Smith argued that the instruction on attempted murder failed to include an essential element of the offense, namely, that he must have had the specific intent to commit murder in order to be found guilty of [60]*60attempted murder. The State argued that the instructions, considered as a whole, did inform the jury of the specific intent requirement. Our supreme court agreed with Smith, found fundamental error, and stated as follows:

"Nowhere in these instructions ... is there any statement to the effect that if the Defendant is to be found guilty of attempted murder, there must first be a finding that when he engaged in the conduct proscribed, he intended to kill [the victim]. Nor did any of the instructions modify, explain, or nullify the erroneous instruction which was given. Thus, we are left with instructions which would lead the jury to believe that the Defendant could be convicted of attempted murder if he knowingly engaged in conduct which constituted a substantial step toward the commission of murder. Although one may be guilty of murder, under our statute, without entertaining a specific intent to kill the victim, he cannot be guilty of attempted murder without entertaining such intent. The attempt must be to effect the proscribed result and not merely to engage in pro-seribed conduct. An instruction which correctly sets forth the elements of attempted murder requires an explanation that the act must have been done with the specific intent to kill. Here, the instruction does not, and the jury might infer from the instructions given that they could find the Defendant guilty of attempted murder even if there was no intent to kill the victim at the time he acted."

Id. at 858.

Our supreme court reaffirmed Smith in Spradlin v. State (1991), Ind., 569 N.E.2d 948. In Spradlin, the trial court instructed the jury as follows:

"To convict the defendants, the State must have proved each of the following elements: the defendants 1) knowingly or intentionally, 2) strike, stab and cut the body of Robert Grubbs, 3) that the conduct was a substantial step toward the commission of the crime of murder."
"The requirements set out in Spradlin are those which the trial court should apply in instructing a jury, and which we will apply when we review an instruction on attempted murder."

Id. at 950-51.

On the Spradlins' direct appeal, the supreme court found that the instructions did not include a requirement that the State prove that, "at the time that the [Spradlins] struck, stabbed and cut the victims, [they] intended to kill such victims." Id. at 951. The court further stated as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
641 N.E.2d 57, 1994 Ind. App. LEXIS 1426, 1994 WL 557102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tacy-v-state-indctapp-1994.