Tyson v. State

619 N.E.2d 276, 1993 WL 291726
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 6, 1993
Docket49A02-9203-CR-129
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 619 N.E.2d 276 (Tyson 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
Tyson v. State, 619 N.E.2d 276, 1993 WL 291726 (Ind. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinions

SHIELDS, Judge.

Michael G. Tyson appeals his convictions of rape1 and two counts of criminal deviate conduct,2 all class B felonies.

We affirm.

ISSUES

Tyson raises issues for our review which we reorder and rephrase as:

1. Did the trial court err when it refused to grant Tyson leave to call witnesses for the defense who were not included on his list of witnesses?
2. Did the trial court err when it exelud-ed evidence of alleged incidents between D.W. and her parents?
3. Did the trial court err when it exelud-ed evidence of D.W.'s alleged prior sexual conduct?
4. Did the trial court err when it admitted an audio tape of D.W.'s call to 911, the emergency response number?
5. Did the trial court err when it allowed the State to read from Justice White's partial dissent in United States v. Wade during closing argument?
6. Did the trial court err when it reject ed Tyson's tendered jury instructions on the State's burden of proof and on mistake of fact?
7. Did the trial court err when it refused Tyson's tendered jury instruction on the jury's duty to accept the court's instructions as the law?
8. Did the manner by which the trial judge was selected violate Tyson's right to due process?

FACTS

Tyson was charged with rape, two counts of criminal deviate conduct, and confinement. The confinement charge was dismissed during trial; the jury convicted Tyson of the remaining charges.

Facts pertinent to the issues on appeal appear in the discussion of the particular issue.

DECISION3

L.

Tyson argues the trial court erred when it refused to permit him to call as witnesses three women who came forward during the course of the trial.4 The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it refused to allow the witnesses to testify.

A. Relevant Facts

Prior to trial, on December 11, 1991, the trial court granted the State's discovery motion and ordered that "the Defendant shall disclose to the State of Indiana the names, addresses and phone numbers of all witnesses whose testimony will be relevant specifically to the issue of whether the victim consented to sexual intercourse with the Defendant, on or before December 18, 1991." Record at 498.

Voir dire began on Monday, January 27, 1992; the State began presenting its case on Thursday, January 30, 1992. In the afternoon of that same Thursday, and while the trial court was in session, a secretary from Black Expo contacted the law [281]*281office of James Voyles, one of Tyson's trial attorneys, and told an associate, Mark Webb, that three women had come forward claiming to have information regarding the Tyson case. Webb spoke to one of the women by telephone midday Friday, and had a face-to-face interview with two of the women, Carla Martin and Pam Lawrence, on Friday evening.5

On Friday evening, immediately after his interview with Martin and Lawrence, Webb met with Tyson's trial attorneys, Voyles and F. Lane Heard, III, and told them what he had learned. Voyles and Heard decided to inspect the limousine to determine whether Martin and Lawrence could have seen through the windows as they claimed. Tyson's counsel prepared a motion to produce the limousine and, after viewing it on Saturday evening, Voyles and Heard concluded that it was possible to see through the tinted windows. Voyles and Heard also decided personally to interview Martin and Lawrence, which they did at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 2, 1992. After that interview, Voyles contacted Prosecutor Gregory Garrison at home and gave him the names, telephone numbers, and addresses of Martin and Lawrence, along with a summary of the information the women claimed to have. Later on Sunday afternoon, Voyles reached the third woman, Renee Neal, by telephone. Voyles promptly contacted Garrison with Neal's information. Representatives of the prosecution team met with the three women some time the next evening.

On Monday, February 3, 1992, Tyson filed the motion in which he sought leave to call Martin, Lawrence, and Neal as witnesses. A hearing on the motion was held on Tuesday, February 4, after which the court denied the motion. The court also denied Tyson's Motion for Reconsideration, filed on February 7, 1992.

B. Waiver

The first inquiry is whether, as the State claims, Tyson failed to preserve this issue for review. An offer of proof is the method by which the proponent of evidence preserves any error in its exclusion. "When the proponent does not make an offer of proof, he has not adequately preserved the exclusion of [the] witness' [sic] testimony as an issue for appellate review." Wiseheart v. State (1986), Ind., 491 N.E.2d 985, 991 (citation omitted); see also Jones v. State (1988), Ind., 523 N.E.2d 750, 754. An offer of proof provides the appellate court with the scope and effect of the area of inquiry and the proposed answers, in order that it may consider whether the trial court's ruling excluding the evidence was proper. Thus, the offer of proof must demonstrate the substance, purpose, relevancy, and materiality of the excluded evidence in order to enable the appellate court to determine on appeal whether the exelusion was proper. Strickland v. State (1977), 265 Ind. 664, 670, 359 N.E.2d 244, 249.

The State claims Tyson has waived the issue because his oral offer of proof given during the February 4, 1991, hearing contained only generalized statements of the women's testimony, while his written offer of proof was untimely. The State argues we should not consider the written offer of proof because "it was not provided contemporaneously with the original motion or at the hearing where the exclusion was ordered" and "[slhould this Court consider the late offer, the fairmess and reciprocity upon which discovery is founded ... requires consideration of the State's counteroffer of proof ... when reviewing this issue." Appellee's Brief at 16.

[282]*282The oral offer of proof is too general; however, the written offer provides a detailed summary of the testimony Tyson anticipated eliciting from Martin, Lawrence, and Neal had they been permitted to testify. Hence, the written offer is sufficiently specific to satisfy the requirements of an offer of proof. Furthermore, it is properly before us; the State's argument is untenable. Tyson's written offer of proof was filed during his argument in support of his Motion for Reconsideration. Thus, it was available to the trial court when it ruled on that motion. On the other hand, the State's counter-offer of proof6 was not available because it was not filed until March 25, 1992, well after the trial court had ruled and the trial had concluded.

The issue of the trial court's exclusion of the testimony of Martin, Lawrence, and Neal has not been waived.

C. Discussion

The trial court ordered disclosure of witnesses whom Tyson reasonably anticipated would testify by December 18, 1991.

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Bluebook (online)
619 N.E.2d 276, 1993 WL 291726, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tyson-v-state-indctapp-1993.