Curtis Tyrell Cutler v. State of Indiana ( 2013 )

FOR PUBLICATION
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:
ERNEST P. GALOS GREGORY F. ZOELLER
South Bend, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
CYNTHIA L. PLOUGHE
Deputy Attorney General
FILED
Indianapolis, Indiana
Feb 21 2013, 9:08 am
IN THE CLERK
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA of the supreme court,
court of appeals and
tax court
CURTIS TYRELL CUTLER, )
)
Appellant-Defendant, )
)
vs. ) No. 71A05-1206-CR-339
)
STATE OF INDIANA, )
)
Appellee-Plaintiff. )
APPEAL FROM THE ST. JOSEPH SUPERIOR COURT
The Honorable Jane Woodward Miller, Judge
Cause No. 71D01-1107-FB-339
February 21, 2013
OPINION - FOR PUBLICATION
SHEPARD, Senior Judge
A few weeks after the effective date of Indiana’s new rule requiring that custodial
interrogations be recorded as a condition of admissibility, appellant Curtis Tyrell Cutler
broke into Tymesha Coleman’s home and stole her television, her computer, and the like.
The question Cutler’s appeal presents is whether the State may impeach a
testifying defendant by using a prior custodial statement that was indeed recorded but
was not “available at trial” as required by Evidence Rule 617 because neither defense
counsel nor the prosecutor knew of its existence until trial was under way.
We conclude that the trial court did not err in permitting use of the statement for
impeachment, and affirm the conviction.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
When Tymesha Coleman returned home on January 23, 2011, she discovered that
someone had pried open her back door and rummaged through the house, absconding
with various electronics, her checkbook, her Social Security card, and so on. She called
the South Bend Police Department, whose responding officers recorded the scene and
took samples of blood found on a freezer just inside the back door and on the cable cord
that had been unscrewed from the missing television. There was also blood on parts of
the pried door and on its handle and lock. The police sent some of these samples for
DNA analysis, which later indicated that the blood belonged to Cutler.
After receiving these results, the police questioned Cutler, who said he did not
know Tymesha Coleman and had no idea how his DNA could have been found in her
home. Tr. pp. 97-98.
2
The State charged Cutler with burglary, a class B felony, Ind. Code § 35-43-2-1(1999). A jury found him guilty as charged. Judge Jane Woodward Miller sentenced
Cutler to twelve years executed time, it being his second burglary conviction.
ISSUES
Cutler presents two issues on appeal: (1) whether the trial court erred by
permitting the State to impeach him with evidence from his interrogation, and (2)
whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the conviction.
DISCUSSION AND DECISION
I. Does Evidence Rule 617 Require Reversal?
Cutler’s appeal presents an issue of first impression concerning Indiana’s new rule
about the admissibility of custodial statements. The rule provides, in part: “In a felony
criminal prosecution, evidence of a statement made by a person during a Custodial
Interrogation in a Place of Detention shall not be admitted against the person unless an
Electronic Recording of the statement was made, preserved, and is available at trial . . . .”
Ind. Evidence Rule 617(a).
The applicability of Rule 617 arose at trial not during the State’s case in chief, but
rather after Cutler took the witness stand in his own defense. As will be described in
more detail later, the thrust of Cutler’s trial testimony was that he had once visited
Coleman’s home and thus come to touch various objects, leaving his blood behind. He
explained, for example, that he had exited the house as the result of an argument, then
3
forced his way back inside through the kitchen door, cutting himself in the process.
“That’s how your blood got there?” asked his lawyer. “Right,” he answered. Tr. p. 75.
In the course of the State’s cross-examination, the prosecutor sought to confront
Cutler with the statement he had given in July 2011, during which he denied knowing
Coleman, denied knowing where she lived, and said he could not explain how his DNA
came to be in the residence. Defense counsel objected, saying that he had not received
any electronic recording of the interview, only a written police report describing it, and
thought there had not been a recording. Id. at 90.
The trial court invited the jury to depart the courtroom, upon which the judge and
counsel examined Rule 617 and other resources such as Robert L. Miller’s Indiana
Evidence. Counsel made inquiry of the South Bend Police Department, which promptly
reported that there was in fact a recording made of the Cutler interview. The prosecutor
appears to have had in his file only the same thing defense counsel had – a written report
of the interrogating officer. Tr. pp. 90, 95.
Though the prosecutor and defense counsel parried over whether the defense
should have demanded production of any recording in advance of trial, the court correctly
observed that Rule 617 does not impose any such burden on a defendant. Id. at 91. The
Attorney General acknowledges on appeal that the local rule on discovery obliged the
prosecution to disclose to the defense any written or recorded statement by the defendant.
Appellee’s Br. p. 8.
4
The trial court overruled Cutler’s objection, noting that even a statement taken in
violation of Miranda v. Arizona may be used at trial against a testifying defendant. “The
theory being,” said the trial judge, “that if a defendant chooses to take the stand he can’t
be insulated from his prior statements and that those statements can be used for
impeachment purposes only.” Tr. p. 96. The Indiana Supreme Court has recognized this
principle, citing the U.S. Supreme Court. Page v. State, 689 N.E.2d 707, 710 (Ind. 1997)
(citing Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222, 225-26, 91 S. Ct. 643, 645-46, 28 L. Ed. 2d 1,
4-5 (1971)) (“The shield provided by Miranda cannot be perverted into a license to use
perjury by way of defense, free from the risk of confrontation with prior inconsistent
utterances.”). In accord with these authorities, the trial court promptly instructed the jury
that the statements from Cutler’s interrogation could be considered “if at all, solely in
evaluating his credibility as a witness.” Tr. p. 99.
Had the State attempted to use Cutler’s statement from July as substantive
evidence, Rule 617 would surely have required the prosecution to produce the recording
before evidence of the statement could be admitted. Indeed, it seems that under the spirit
of Rule 617, the defense would have been within its rights to insist on hearing the
recording before the prosecutor could confront Cutler with his statements, even given the
late moment at which counsel and the court became aware of its existence.
Still, it is difficult to see defense counsel’s failure to make such a request as
constituting waiver. To the State’s credit, the Attorney General has not argued that it
was.
5
Thus, on the main point at issue, we conclude that the principle recognized in
Page and Harris v. New York applies. There appear not to have been any appellate
decisions elsewhere in the country on the precise issue raised by Cutler. We do note that
courts and legislatures in several states have enacted recording requirements. Some of
these explicitly authorize use of custodial statements in circumstances similar to
Cutler’s,1 and others are silent on the point.2
The court did not err in overruling Cutler’s objection.
II. Was There Sufficient Evidence to Convict?
The evidence favorable to the jury’s verdict indicated that Cutler had been in
Tymesha Coleman’s home during an evening in early January 2011. Coleman testified
that her friend Natasha Winston was present that evening and that Cutler came to the
house to visit Natasha for “no longer than maybe an hour to two hours.” Tr. pp. 35-36.
Winston testified that she had asked ahead of time whether it was all right to invite Cutler
and Coleman had agreed. “We just watched a couple of movies and hung out,” said
Winston. Id. at 45-46. She said Cutler was there for about two hours and then left. Id. at
47.
As indicated above, the State’s evidence about Cutler’s participation in the
January 23rd burglary centered on DNA results indicating that the blood on the freezer in
1
See Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/103-2.1(e) (2005) (mandating recording of custodial interrogations as a condition
for admissibility of statements resulting from interrogation but nonetheless permitting admission of a
voluntary, unrecorded statement if it “has a bearing on the credibility of the accused as a witness”); Tex.
Criminal Code Ann. Art. 38.22(5) (2001) (same).
2
New Jersey Court Rule 3:17.
6
the kitchen and on the television cables belonged to Cutler. The parties stipulated to
these test results. Id. at 11-12.
Cutler testified that he and his friend James Felix had been in the house on that
evening in January. He explained his response in July by saying he had been introduced
to Coleman only as “Tee Tee” or “Tee” and thus did not know who the interrogating
officer was referring to. He also said he had been asked whether he had been to a
particular address, and did not know the actual address he had visited. Id. at 100.
He said that during his visit to Coleman’s he and Natasha Winston fell to arguing,
that he and Felix went outside through the kitchen to cool off, and that Winston had
locked the door behind them. Id. at 71-78. Cutler said that in seeking to re-enter, he
broke the screen door, pushed open the back door with his body, cut himself in the
process, and brushed up against the kitchen freezer on his way back in. Id. at 75. He said
his blood came to be on the television cable when he went over to unscrew it, being
disturbed that Natasha Winston was paying more attention to the television than to him.
Id. at 76. He denied committing the burglary.
Counsel for Cutler urges that Cutler presented a plausible explanation for having
been once present in Coleman’s home, adding that none of the items stolen on January
23rd were ever recovered from him or traced to him. Appellant’s Br. p. 16.
Of course, it is not for a court on appeal to determine what elements of the
evidence warrant acceptance. Rather, we affirm the verdict if there was before the jury
substantial evidence of probative value to support it. Minter v. State, 653 N.E.2d 13827
(Ind. 1995). We conclude there was sufficient evidence to warrant a jury in finding
beyond a reasonable doubt that Cutler committed the burglary.
CONCLUSION
We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
FRIEDLANDER, J., and BRADFORD, J., concur.
8