Todd Slavin v. State of Indiana

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided August 9, 2012·No. 49A04-1111-CR-569·Unpublished

Opinion

Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited before any Aug 09 2012, 9:18 am

court except for the purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: SUZY ST. JOHN GREGORY F. ZOELLER Marion County Public Defender Attorney General of Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana

MICHELLE BUMGARNER

Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

TODD SLAVIN, )

)

Appellant, )

)

vs. ) No. 49A04-1111-CR-569 )

STATE OF INDIANA )

)

Appellee. )

APPEAL FROM THE MARION SUPERIOR COURT The Honorable Barbara Cook Crawford, Judge Cause No. 49G21-1105-CM-28704

August 9, 2012

MEMORANDUM DECISION – NOT FOR PUBLICATION

MATHIAS, Judge

Todd Slavin (“Slavin”) was convicted in Marion Superior Court of Class A misdemeanor invasion of privacy. Slavin appeals and argues: (1) that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting certain evidence, and (2) that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction.

We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History Slavin, a Carmel, Indiana resident, and M.M. have known each other for ten years and were romantically involved for two of those years. On October 4, 2010, Slavin left Indiana for an extended stay in New York City and he remained in the New York City area for several months. On the same day as his departure, M.M. obtained an ex parte order for protection against Slavin, which prohibited Slavin from “harassing, annoying, telephoning, contacting or directly or indirectly communicating with [M.M.].” Ex. Vol. p. 261, State’s Ex. 2.

The order of protection was served at Slavin’s Carmel address while he was out of state. The Indiana Protective Order Registry indicated service of the protective order on October 27, 2010 by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department. Additionally, M.M. testified that she informed Slavin of the protective order either by speaking with Slavin on the phone or by texting him. Evidence admitted into the record indicates that Slavin contacted M.M. many times between October 4, 2010 and January 11, 2011. It is undisputed that M.M. contacted Slavin many times as well, beginning in December of 2010.

The volume of text messages sent between Slavin and M.M. drastically increased over the winter holidays in December 2010 and January 2011, and included many text messages from M.M. to Slavin. On January 14, 2011, M.M. met with Detective Rizwan Khan (“Detective Khan”) and showed him the text messages Slavin had sent her. At this meeting, Detective Khan used M.M.’s phone to take screenshots1 of the text messages that Slavin sent to M.M..

On January 14, 2011, Detective Khan contacted Slavin. When the two met that day, Detective Khan told Slavin about the protective order and gave a copy of the order to him. Slavin was not arrested at that time. In April of 2011, Detective Khan called Slavin and told him that he would be arrested.

On May 23, 2011, the State charged Slavin with Class A misdemeanor invasion of privacy for “telephoning and/or texting [M.M.] multiple times” between January 4 and 11, 2011. Appellant’s App. p. 15. On October 6, 2011, Slavin was convicted following a bench trial. Slavin now appeals.

I. Admissibility of Evidence Slavin appeals the admission of two pieces of evidence at trial. First, Slavin argues that State’s Exhibit 3, a printout of the Indiana Protective Order Registry service history indicating that the protective order was served at Slavin’s Carmel address on October 27, 2010, contained inadmissible hearsay and violated his Sixth Amendment confrontation rights. Second, Slavin asserts that State’s Exhibit 4, which consists of

1 Screenshots are images that show the content of a computer or smartphone display.

screenshots taken from M.M.’s iPhone of the text messages Slavin sent to M.M., is misleading and incomplete and therefore inadmissible.

As an initial matter, we note that the State did not address Slavin’s arguments concerning the admissibility of State’s Exhibits 3 and 4 in its brief. An appellee’s failure to respond to an issue raised in the appellant’s brief is analogous to failing to file a brief on that issue. Cox v. State, 780 N.E.2d 1150, 1162 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002). For an appellant to win reversal on an issue to which the appellee did not respond, he or she must establish that prima facie error was committed by the lower court. Id. Prima facie is defined as at first sight, on first appearance, or on the face of it. Id. However, the purpose of this rule is not to benefit the appellant, but rather “to relieve this Court of the burden of developing arguments on behalf of the appellee.” State v. Moriarty, 832 N.E.2d 555, 558 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005). The burden of showing trial court error remains with the appellant. State v. Combs, 921 N.E.2d 846, 850 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010). We are obligated to apply the appropriate law to the facts. Mateyko v. State, 901 N.E.2d 554, 557 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010), trans denied.

The admission of evidence is within the discretion of the court, and the “decision whether to admit evidence will not be reversed absent a showing of manifest abuse of the trial court’s discretion resulting in the denial of a fair trial.” Dixon v. State, 869 N.E.2d 516, 519 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007) (citing Cox v. State, 774 N.E.2d 1025, 1026 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002)). An abuse of discretion is a decision that is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances before the court. Id. In determining the admissibility of

evidence, the reviewing court considers only the evidence in favor of the trial court’s ruling and any uncontested evidence in the defendant’s favor. Id.

A. State’s Exhibit 3 Slavin argues that the information contained within State’s Exhibit 3 is hearsay and therefore inadmissible. Specifically, Slavin states that the exhibit “contains an officer’s out-of-court statements that the protective order was served in order to prove that the protective order was served.” Appellant’s Br. at 8.

“Hearsay is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at trial, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” Ind. Evidence Rule 801(c). “Hearsay is not admissible unless it falls within one of the exceptions provided in the evidence rules.” Ind. Evidence Rule 802. We will affirm the trial court’s hearsay ruling on any legal basis apparent in the record. Robinson v. State, 730 N.E.2d 185, 194 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000).

State’s Exhibit 3 constitutes hearsay because it includes an out-of-court statement that the protective order was served at Slavin’s Carmel address, and the exhibit was offered for the purpose of establishing that Slavin had, in fact, been served with the protective order. However, a pertinent exception to the hearsay rule, one regarding “public records and reports” is contained within Indiana Evidence Rule 803(8):

[u]nless the sources of information or other circumstances indicate lack of trustworthiness, records, reports, statements, or data compilations in any form, of a public office or agency, setting forth its regularly conducted and regularly recorded activities, or matters observed pursuant to duty imposed by law and as to which there was a duty to report, or factual findings resulting from an investigation made pursuant to authority granted by law.

The following types of records are explicitly excluded from the rule:

(a) investigative reports by police and other law enforcement personnel, except when offered by an accused in a criminal case; (b) investigative reports prepared by or for a government, a public office, or an agency when offered by it in a case in which it is a party; (c) factual findings offered by the government in criminal cases; and (d) factual findings resulting from special investigation of a particular complaint, case, or incident, except when offered by an accused in a criminal case.

Ind. Evidence Rule 803(8).

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