Wells v. State

568 N.E.2d 558, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 404, 1991 WL 37120
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 18, 1991
Docket79A02-8907-CR-346
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 568 N.E.2d 558 (Wells 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
Wells v. State, 568 N.E.2d 558, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 404, 1991 WL 37120 (Ind. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

BAKER, Judge.

Defendant-appellant, Eugene E. Wells, Jr. (Wells), appeals the denial of his motion to correct error following his convictions and 70-year sentence for armed robbery, a Class B felony, 2 confinement, a Class B felony, 3 intimidation, a Class C felony, 4 attempted rape, a Class A felony, 5 and sexual battery, a Class C felony. 6 On appeal, he asks this court to determine whether:

I. The trial court properly excluded one of his witness's testimony.
II. The photo identification procedure used was proper.
III. The trial court properly instructed the jury.
IV. He received a manifestly unreasonable sentence.

We affirm in part and reverse in part.

FACTS

At 11:00 p.m. on July 6, 1988, the victim in this case, a staff resident for a Purdue *560 University dormitory, was in her room. A man whom the victim later identified as Wells, knocked on her door and asked if she could help him locate someone he claimed lived in the same dormitory. While the victim made phone calls in an effort to locate the person, Wells entered the victim's room and pointed a gun at her. He took some money from the victim's purse, handed her some handcuffs, and told her to put them on. The victim fumbled with the handcuffs and pretended not to know how to operate them. Wells then ordered her to remove the robe she was wearing. When she failed to comply, Wells undid her robe and pushed it off her shoulders. He then grabbed the victim by the throat and pushed her onto the bed. After laying the gun down, Wells started to unfasten his pants. At this point, the victim grabbed for the gun and struggled with Wells. Wells was able to regain control of the gun and then fled the scene.

Later that evening, the victim went to the police station where she was shown a photographic lineup. The victim viewed seven photographs and selected Wells's picture as that of her attacker. She stated, however, that she was not absolutely certain of her selection. Two days later, the victim returned to the police station where she was shown a second photographic lineup that contained 15 photos. The pictures of Wells in the second lineup were more recent than the ones in the first lineup. Again, the victim identified Wells as her attacker, but stated there was something different about his appearance in the picture. She was then shown two additional photographs of Wells that were taken from a different angle. The victim pointed to one of the photographs of Wells and stated she was absolutely certain that the person depicted was her attacker.

An initial hearing was held on July 14, 1988, at which the trial court set the omnibus hearing date for September 12, 1988. On January 9, 1989, Wells filed a notice of his intent to offer an alibi defense. Having determined that Wells's alibi notice was not timely filed, the trial court granted the State's motion to exclude the testimony of the alibi witnesses. On Wells's motion to reconsider, the trial court allowed the testimony of three alibi witnesses whom the State had an opportunity to depose.

A jury convicted Wells of the five felonies listed above and acquitted him of attempted criminal deviate conduct. The trial court subsequently sentenced Wells to consecutive terms of 20 years for armed robbery, 20 years for confinement, and 80 years for attempted rape, for a total executed sentence of 70 years. The intimidation and sexual battery convictions were merged with the attempted rape conviction. Wells appeals.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

I.

Wells first argues the trial court erred in excluding the testimony of D'Angelo Goings, one of his alibi witnesses. IND.CODE 85-86-4-1 requires an alibi notice be filed no later than 20 days prior to the omnibus date. Wells's filing of his notice nearly four months following the omnibus date was untimely. He none theless argues that Goings's testimony should have been allowed because the tardiness of the notice was solely his attorney's fault, he maintained he had an alibi from the time he was arrested, and the State was not prejudiced by the untimely filing. To support his position, Wells cites Baxter v. State (1988), Ind., 522 N.E.2d 362. He points to language in Baxter that deals with the effect of the alibi statute on an accused's right to testify. Since the excluded alibi testimony in the present case was not from the accused, the language Wells cites does not apply to this case.

Wells's argument fails on other grounds as well. IND.CODE 35-36-4-3 provides that an untimely filing of an alibi notice shall result in exclusion of the alibi evidence unless the defendant can show good cause for his failure to comply with the filing limitations. James v. State (1980), 274 Ind. 304, 411 N.E.2d 618; Denney v. State (1988), Ind.App., 524 N.E.2d 1301, trans. denied. Accordingly, the trial court would have been justified in excluding all of the alibi evidence Wells presented. *561 James, supra. The trial court, however, allowed Wells to present three of his alibi witnesses despite his failure to comply with the statutory notice requirements. As with the defendant in Jomes, supra, the trial court's actions conferred a consideration on Wells not contemplated by the statute, and we will not find error in the trial court's exclusion of an additional witness's testimony.

IL.

Wells next contends the photographic lineup used to assist the victim in identifying him was unduly suggestive. Wells neither filed a pretrial motion to suppress nor did he object at trial to the vie-tim's testimony relating to her identification of Wells. To avoid waiver of the issue on appeal, Wells invites us to review the issue under the fundamental error doctrine. A similar invitation was declined by our supreme court in Outlaw v. State (1985), Ind., 484 N.E.2d 10. Despite Wells's waiver of the issue, we can find no basis for reversal.

Contrary to Wells's assertion, the fact that the two arrays both contained pictures of him does not constitute undue suggestiveness. Stewart v. State (1985), Ind., 474 N.E.2d 1010. This is particularly true since photographs of three people other than Wells were also included in both arrays. Similarly, the fact that the detective handed the victim two additional photographs of Wells does not taint the identification. The victim independently selected Wells's photograph and, according to her testimony, was 80 to 90 percent certain he was her attacker. The victim told the detective that her hesitation was because the angle in the photograph was different than the angle at which she observed Wells in her room.

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Bluebook (online)
568 N.E.2d 558, 1991 Ind. App. LEXIS 404, 1991 WL 37120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wells-v-state-indctapp-1991.