Victor S. Perez, Jr. v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D),
this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED
regarded as precedent or cited before any Dec 14 2016, 8:43 am
court except for the purpose of establishing
CLERK
the defense of res judicata, collateral Indiana Supreme Court
Court of Appeals
estoppel, or the law of the case. and Tax Court
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Michelle F. Kraus Gregory F. Zoeller
Fort Wayne, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
Eric P. Babbs
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Victor S. Perez, Jr., December 14, 2016
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
02A05-1605-CR-1065
v. Appeal from the Allen Superior
Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable John F. Surbeck,
Appellee-Plaintiff. Jr., Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
02D04-1510-F5-284
Altice, Judge.
Case Summary
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[1] Following a jury trial, Victor S. Perez, Jr., was convicted of Level 5 felony
criminal confinement, Level 6 felony strangulation, and class A misdemeanor
battery. On appeal, Perez argues that the State presented insufficient evidence
to support his convictions.
[2] We affirm.
Facts & Procedural History
[3] On the night of October 3, 2015, Perez and his girlfriend, S.L., were listening to
music and drinking alcohol at Perez’s apartment. An argument ensued when
Perez became angry at S.L. for singing along to a song with lyrics about a
woman cheating on her boyfriend. S.L. told Perez that she was leaving, and
Perez hugged her and would not allow her to leave. S.L. then tried to call her
mother to ask her to pick her up, but Perez took S.L.’s cell phone and hid it.
S.L. found her phone when it started ringing, and she managed to call her
mother and scream for help before Perez took the phone from her again.
[4] S.L. tried to leave again, but Perez stood in front of the door, and S.L. slapped
him in the face. Perez then pushed S.L. down into a garbage can, choked her,
and spit in her face. When S.L. was finally able to escape from Perez’s grasp,
she grabbed his keys and ran outside. Perez chased her and dragged her back
inside by her hair. Perez then took the keys and locked the door to the stairway
leading to his apartment door. The door had a deadbolt that required a key
both to enter and to exit.
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[5] Once back inside the apartment, Perez locked himself inside a bedroom and
threatened to kill himself. S.L. believed that Perez had a gun because she
“could hear it cocking back.” Transcript at 44. S.L. then ran out of the
apartment and down the stairs, but she could not leave the building because the
exterior door was still locked and she did not have the key. Meanwhile, S.L.’s
mother had arrived, and she used a tire iron to try to break the glass in the door
to free S.L., but was unable to do so. When police arrived, S.L. and her mother
frantically explained that Perez had a gun and that S.L. was trapped inside.
The officers broke the glass surrounding the exterior door in order to pull S.L.
to safety.
[6] After S.L. escaped, Perez refused to come out of his apartment, and the ensuing
four-hour standoff ended only after the SWAT team used tear gas to force Perez
out. During a subsequent search of Perez’s apartment, police discovered two
handguns hidden in the ceiling tiles.
[7] As a result of these events, the State charged Perez with criminal confinement,
kidnapping, strangulation, and battery. A two-day jury trial commenced on
March 15, 2016, at the conclusion of which Perez was found guilty of criminal
confinement, strangulation, and battery, but acquitted of kidnapping. Perez
now appeals.
Discussion & Decision
[8] Perez challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions.
Our standard of review for sufficiency of the evidence claims is well settled.
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We consider only the probative evidence and reasonable inferences supporting
the conviction. Drane v. State, 867 N.E.2d 144, 146 (Ind. 2007). We do not
assess the credibility of witnesses or reweigh evidence, and we will affirm unless
no reasonable fact-finder could find the elements of the crime proven beyond a
reasonable doubt. Id. It is not necessary that the evidence overcome every
reasonable hypothesis of innocence; rather, the evidence will be found sufficient
if an inference may reasonably be drawn from it to support the conviction. Id.
at 147. “The uncorroborated testimony of one witness, even if it is the victim,
is sufficient to sustain a conviction.” Whitener v. State, 982 N.E.2d 439, 444
(Ind. Ct. App. 2013), trans. denied.
[9] On appeal, Perez has done nothing more than argue that S.L’s testimony
should not be believed and that we should instead credit other conflicting
testimony. We will not indulge this blatant request to reweigh the evidence and
judge the credibility of witnesses. S.L. testified to the foregoing facts, and this
testimony was sufficient standing alone to support Perez’s convictions.
Additionally, S.L’s testimony was corroborated by the testimony of her mother
and the responding officers, as well as photos introduced into evidence of S.L.’s
injuries and the handguns discovered during the search of the apartment.
Perez’s convictions were amply supported by the evidence.
[10] Judgment affirmed.
[11] Riley, J. and Crone, J., concur.
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