Tommy Orlando Townsend, Sr. v. State of Indiana

45 N.E.3d 821, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 699, 2015 WL 6777110
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided November 5, 2015·No. 02A03-1503-CR-90·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

CRONE, Judge. .

Case Summary

[1] Tommy Orlando Townsend, Sr., appeals his convictions and fifty-five-year aggregate sentence for class A felony burglary and class B felony criminal confinement. He contends that his convictions require reversal because the jury’s rejection of his insanity defense is contrary to law. He also contends that the trial court erred in giving the State’s tendered instruction on demeanor evidence and refusing his own instruction on that issue. In addition, he argues that the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him by failing to find that temporary mental illness was a mitigating circumstance. He also asserts that his sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his character.

[2] We conclude that the jury properly rejected Townsend’s insanity defense because there was evidence that his mental state at the time of the offenses was due to voluntary intoxication rather than a result of mental disease or defect. We also conclude that any error in instructing the jury was harmless. With regard to sentencing, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by declining to find that temporary mental illness was a mitigating factor. Finally, we conclude that Townsend has failed to carry his burden to show that his sentence is inappropriate. Therefore, we affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[3] The facts most favorable to the verdicts show that in January 2014, Townsend and Zaida- Ortiz separated after nineteen years of marriage. The following month, Ortiz filed for divorce. Townsend remained living at their family home, while Ortiz moved into an apartment, both in Fort Wayne. Townsend and Ortiz have two sons, who were eight and twenty-three years old at the time. Due to the couple’s estrangement, Townsend became depressed and drank regularly. ■

[4] In April 2014, on the Friday before Easter, the children went to stay with Townsend. That weekend Townsend was “ill.” Tr. at 45-46. On Saturday night, he took 50 milligrams of Flexeril, a prescription muscle relaxant that he received from Ortiz, and one or two capsules of Dime-tapp, an over-the-counter cold medicine. He also took another pill, which was unidentified.

[5] At approximately 9:30 a.m. on Easter, Ortiz finished work and returned to her apartment. She became alarmed, because some of her things were strewn all over her bed, which was not how she had left it. *825 She found Townsend hiding in her bathroom. She was not expecting him to be in her apartment. She had not given him a key to the apartment or permission ■ for him to be there. Ortiz asked Townsend what he was doing there. He told her that they needed to talk. She told him to leave. He said that he wanted to talk about the divorce. He wanted Ortiz to call her attorney and call off the divorce. Ortiz persuaded Townsend to exit the apartment by telling him that she would be willing to talk to him outside, but after he went out she remained inside. ' They argued at the front door. She told him, “You’re obviously not sick.” Id. at 48. She did not think that Townsend appeared to have a cold or the flu. She started to close the door. Townsend blocked it with his foot, but she managed to close it.

[6] Ortiz called her elder son to see whether he had given Townsend a key to her apartment and left a voicemail message. Then she heard noises at the front door and was afraid that Townsend was trying to get back in. She went to the front door. Townsend flung the door open and punched her in the head. Her phone flew across the room. Townsend came at her with a knife, and she started screaming. Townsend told her that she should have called the attorney and stopped the divorce as he had told her to do. He grabbed Ortiz and slammed her to the ground. She felt him hit her three times in the back, and “it hurt so bad [she] could barely breathe.” Id. at 50. Townsend flipped her over. He got on top of her, held her down, and stabbed her in the, chest. At that point she realized that he had stabbed her in the back. Townsend put his hand over her mouth and nose and said, “[D]ie bitch die.” Id. Ortiz could not breathe.

[7] Townsend got up and said, “[0]h my God. What did I do? What did I do? [...] you need to help me. You need to help me.” Id. at 51. Ortiz was still lying on the floor. She told Townsend to call 911. He pretended to call the EMS. He went into the kitchen. Ortiz tried to stand up and walk to the front door, but she fell down. Townsend picked her up and put her back where she had been. She saw blood on the carpet and watched as Townsend tried to clean it with bleach. She wondered why it was taking so long for the EMS to arrive. She asked Townsend if he had really called the EMS. He had not, but he .told her that he had. Id. at 52.

[8] Townsend offered to take Ortiz to the hospital, and shé agreed. He took her outside and put her in the front passenger seat of his Yukon. She looked for someone to help her, but saw no one. Townsend drove away. He told Ortiz that he did not have enough gas. She gave him her debit card, and he stopped for gas. Townsend then drove Ortiz to their family home and parked the Yukon in the garage so that the passenger door was so close to the wall that Ortiz could not open it. Townsend went inside the house. Ortiz was afraid that he was going to kiss their younger son goodbye and then kill her and kill himself. She saw her cell phone, grabbed it, and called 911. She told the operator that she had been stabbed, needed help, and was in a tan Yukon.’ That was all she was able to say before Townsend came back and grabbed the phone.

[9] Townsend drove away. Ortiz began to go'in and out of consciousness. She thought that Townsend appeared to be driving toward Decatur, Indiana. At one point, Townsend stopped the car so that she could urinate. Townsend then dressed the knife wounds in her back with bandages that were in a first-aid kit. He did not have enough bandages for the chest wound, so Ortiz held a towel over it.

*826 [10] They drove on. Ortiz started to suspect that Townsend was driving to Pi-qua, Ohio, about a two hours away, because he had family there. Townsend made at least four more stops: when he asked for directions; when Ortiz lost control of her bowel; when Townsend got her a drink; and when she woke up vomiting. Ortiz, a registered nurse, believed that she was going into shock. She kept asking Townsend to take her to the hospital, but he did not.

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Tommy Orlando Townsend, Sr. v. State of Indiana, 45 N.E.3d 821, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 699, 2015 WL 6777110 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015).

45 N.E.3d 821 (Tommy Orlando Townsend, Sr. v. State of Indiana) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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