Jameil Cotton v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.) ( 2018 )

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED
this Memorandum Decision shall not be Dec 19 2018, 7:46 am
regarded as precedent or cited before any CLERK
Indiana Supreme Court
court except for the purpose of establishing Court of Appeals
and Tax Court
the defense of res judicata, collateral
estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Stephen T. Owens Curtis T. Hill, Jr.
Public Defender of Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
J. Michael Sauer Ian A. McLean
Deputy Public Defender Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Jameil Cotton, December 19, 2018
Appellant-Petitioner, Court of Appeals Case No.
18A-PC-1236
v. Appeal from the Marion Superior
Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable Stanley E. Kroh,
Appellee-Respondent. Magistrate
The Honorable Sheila A. Carlisle,
Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
49G03-9811-PC-177029
Tavitas, Judge.
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Case Summary
[1] Jamiel Cotton, pro se, appeals the post-conviction court’s (“PC court”)
resentencing judgment. We affirm.
Issue
[2] Cotton raises a single issue which we restate as whether the PC court erred in
resentencing Cotton to the maximum sentence of twenty years on Cotton’s
burglary conviction, which the PC court reduced, on double jeopardy grounds,
from a Class A felony to a Class B felony.
Facts
[3] The facts, as stated in Cotton’s direct appeal, are as follows: “[O]n October 17,
1998, Defendant Jameil Cotton broke into the apartment of Charese Cook.
[Cotton] shot [Cook] seven times in the head, chest, and shoulder, killing
[Cook].” Cotton v. State, 753 N.E.2d 589, 589-90 (Ind. 2001) (internal footnotes
omitted). On November 16, 1998, the State charged Cotton with murder and
burglary, a Class A felony.
[4] After a jury trial, Cotton was convicted on both counts. On February 4, 2000,
the trial court sentenced Cotton to sixty-five years in the Department of
Correction (“DOC”) for murder and to twenty years in the DOC for burglary, a
Class A felony, with the sentences to be served consecutively. Id. at 591.
[5] Cotton filed a direct appeal on June 21, 2000. Attorney Aaron E. Haith served
as Cotton’s appellate counsel. On appeal to our supreme court, Attorney Haith
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argued only that the trial court abused its discretion in denying Cotton a new
competency hearing. Our supreme court affirmed the trial court’s judgment on
August 20, 2001. Id.[6] On May 5, 2016, Cotton, pro se, filed a petition for post-conviction relief.
Cotton alleged that Attorney Haith rendered ineffective assistance of appellate
counsel in failing to argue on appeal that Cotton’s convictions for murder and
burglary, a Class A felony, violated double jeopardy principles. Specifically,
Cotton argued that Cook’s death was proved by the same evidence that was
used to elevate the burglary to a Class A felony due to serious bodily injury.
Cotton argued that, had Attorney Haith raised the double jeopardy issue,
Cotton’s burglary conviction would have been reduced to a Class B felony.
[7] The PC court conducted an evidentiary hearing on August 15, 2017. The State
did not contest Cotton’s double jeopardy claim and agreed that Cotton’s
burglary conviction should be reduced to a Class B felony.
[8] On May 15, 2017, the PC court entered its order in which it found that
Attorney Haith rendered ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. The PC
court concluded that, had the double jeopardy issue been properly raised in
Cotton’s direct appeal, our supreme court “would have remanded with
instructions to reduce the class A felony burglary conviction to a class B felony
and . . . impose[d] a twenty-year sentence on the burglary, consecutive to the
sixty-five year sentence for murder, . . . consistent with the trial court’s original
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intention.” Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 134. The PC court resentenced Cotton
accordingly. Cotton now appeals.
Analysis
[9] Cotton alleges a denial of PC relief stemming from the PC court’s resentencing
decision. Specifically, Cotton argues that the PC court: (1) erred in
“speculat[ing]” that a maximum twenty-year sentence for Class B felony
burglary was “consistent with the trial court’s original intention”; and (2) erred
in resentencing Cotton to a twenty-year term on the reduced Class B felony
conviction. Appellant’s Br. pp. 8, 13.
[10] Cotton contends that, pursuant to caselaw in effect when Cotton’s direct appeal
was decided in 2001, “there were only two possible results had the double
jeopardy issue been raised: either remand with instructions to impose the
minimum sentence for burglary as a class B felony because the trial court had
imposed the minimum sentence for burglary as a class A felony, or remand for
resentencing on burglary as a class B felony without instructions.” Id. at 13.
[11] Our supreme court has stated:
The petitioner in a post-conviction proceeding bears the burden
of establishing grounds for relief by a preponderance of the
evidence. When appealing from the denial of post-conviction
relief, the petitioner stands in the position of one appealing from
a negative judgment. To prevail on appeal from the denial of
post-conviction relief, a petitioner must show that the evidence as
a whole leads unerringly and unmistakably to a conclusion
opposite that reached by the post-conviction court. [Where, as
here, a post-conviction court has made findings of fact and
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conclusions of law in accordance with Indiana Post-Conviction
Rule 1(6), we] do not defer to the post-conviction court’s legal
conclusions[.] A post-conviction court’s findings and judgment
will be reversed only upon a showing of clear error – that which
leaves us with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has
been made.
Hollowell v. State, 19 N.E.3d 263, 268-69 (Ind. 2014) (internal quotations and
citations omitted). As the clearly erroneous standard “is a review for
sufficiency of evidence, we neither reweigh the evidence nor determine the
credibility of witnesses.” State v. Greene, 16 N.E.3d 416, 418 (Ind. 2014).
“Rather, we ‘consider only the evidence that supports that judgment and the
reasonable inferences to be drawn from that evidence.’” Id. (quoting Ben-Yisrayl
v. State, 738 N.E.2d 253, 258-59 (Ind. 2000)).
[12] We initially note that, at the time of Cotton’s offense in 1998, the applicable
statutes provided that a person who is convicted of murder shall be imprisoned
“for a fixed term of fifty-five (55) years, with not more than ten (10) years added
for aggravating circumstances or not more than ten (10) years subtracted for
mitigating circumstances.” Ind. Code § 35-50-2-3 (1998).
[13] Also, in 1998, the sentencing range for a Class A felony was thirty years, “with
not more than twenty (20) years added for aggravating circumstances or not
more than ten (10) years subtracted for mitigating circumstances.” I.C. § 35-50-
2-4 (1998). Likewise, the sentencing range for a Class B felony in 1998 was ten
years, “with not more than ten (10) years added for aggravating circumstances
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or not more than four (4) years subtracted for mitigating circumstances.” I.C. §
35-50-2-5 (1998).
[14] At the crux of Cotton’s appeal is his contention that the PC court merely
“speculat[ed]” that the trial court intended to impose a twenty-year sentence for
Cotton’s burglary conviction. Appellant’s Br. p. 13. From our review of the
sentencing record, the trial court made explicitly clear its intention, in its broad
discretion, to impose an aggregate eighty-five-year sentence for Cotton’s
burglary and execution-style killing of Cook.
[15] At Cotton’s original sentencing hearing, the State asked the trial court to
“impose the maximum sentence of eighty-five years based on all the
circumstances and all the recommendation[s] of all the people involved.”
Sentencing Tr. Vol. III p. 108. Subsequently, in the following brief colloquy
between the trial court judge and defense counsel at Cotton’s original
sentencing hearing, the trial court indicated its belief and agreement that an
eighty-five-year sentence was the maximum sentence the trial court could
impose upon Cotton:
THE COURT: I’ll hear your argument.
[Defense counsel]: Thank you, Judge. Let me start off by saying
I believe -- and my understanding of the law is that the maximum
sentence on this case is eighty-five years.
THE COURT: I would agree with you, sir.
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Id. Thereafter, the trial court imposed an eighty-five-year sentence, comprised
of a maximum sixty-five-year sentence for Cotton’s murder of Cook and an
additional twenty years, ordered served consecutively, for the burglary
conviction.
[16] Here, in reviewing Cotton’s post-conviction petition, the PC court found:
The sentencing record in the instant cause clearly shows that it
was the trial court’s intention to impose the maximum sentence
available on both counts. See 607-08. See also T.R. 605 (trial
court agreed with defense counsel’s statement that the maximum
sentence in Cotton’s case was eighty-five years). The reduction
of Cotton’s burglary conviction from a class A to a class B felony
does not change the two aggravating circumstances found by the
trial court: that the defendant has a prior history of juvenile
delinquency, which includes one felony true finding; and that the
facts of this case were particularly aggravating. Nor does it
change that, . . . no mitigating circumstances were adopted by the
trial court. Pertinent case law shows that our supreme court, on
direct appeal, would have remanded with instructions to reduce
the class A felony burglary to a class B felony and to impose a
twenty-year sentence on the burglary, consecutive to the sixty-
five-year sentence for murder, and consistent with the trial court’s
original intention. See Pierce v. State, 761 N.E.2d [826,] 830 [Ind.
2002)]; Duncan [v. State], 23 N.E.3d [805,] 819 [Ind. Ct. App.
2014)].
Appellant’s App. Vol. II pp. 133-34 (internal citations omitted).
[17] From our review of the record, the trial court’s intention was to impose a
maximum sentence. Moreover, the State concedes here that, in light of the
double jeopardy violation, the PC court correctly reduced Cotton’s burglary
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conviction from a Class A felony to a Class B felony. The twenty-year sentence
imposed by the trial court on Cotton’s Class B felony burglary conviction
corresponds with the upper bound of the statutory range prescribed by Indiana
Code Section 35-50-2-5. Given the trial court’s remarks in sentencing Cotton
and, specifically, the trial court’s explicitly-stated intention to impose a
maximum sentence, we simply cannot say that the evidence as a whole leads
unerringly and unmistakably to a conclusion opposite that reached by the PC
court; and we find no clear error therefrom. 1
Conclusion
[18] The PC court did not commit clear error in resentencing Cotton. We affirm.
[19] Affirmed.
[20] Brown, J., and Altice, J., concur.
1
Inasmuch as we find explicit support in the sentencing transcript for the PC court’s resentencing decision,
we do not reach the remainder of Cotton’s arguments.
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