Damon Guy Hill v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED
this Memorandum Decision shall not be Oct 02 2019, 9:10 am
regarded as precedent or cited before any
CLERK
court except for the purpose of establishing Indiana Supreme Court
Court of Appeals
the defense of res judicata, collateral and Tax Court
estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
R. Brian Woodward Curtis T. Hill, Jr.
Crown Point, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
Courtney Staton
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Damon Guy Hill, October 2, 2019
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
19A-CR-1178
v. Appeal from the Lake Superior
Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable Clarence D.
Appellee-Plaintiff Murray, Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
45G02-1703-F5-31
Baker, Judge.
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[1] Damon Guy Hill appeals the sentence imposed by the trial court after he
pleaded guilty to Level 5 Felony Reckless Homicide.1 Hill argues that (1) the
trial erred by relying on improper sentence aggravators; and (2) the sentence
should be revised in light of the nature of the offense and Hill’s character.
Finding no reversible error and that the sentence is not inappropriate, we
affirm.
Facts
[2] On March 21, 2017, Hill and his cousin, Corey Brazelton, were at Hill’s
mother’s house in Gary with some friends. Hill and the others were smoking
marijuana and listening to music. While listening to music, Hill pulled out a
handgun and began dancing with the gun in his hand. As he danced, Hill
accidentally discharged the gun and fatally shot Corey in the chest. Hill initially
told police that Corey had been shot during a drive-by shooting, but eventually
admitted that he had shot Corey on accident.
[3] On March 23, 2017, the State charged Hill with Level 5 felony reckless
homicide and Level 6 felony criminal recklessness. On April 20, 2018, the State
amended the charging information to include a firearm enhancement, alleging
that both the reckless homicide and criminal recklessness had been committed
with a firearm. On February 15, 2019, Hill pleaded guilty to reckless homicide
1
Ind. Code § 35-42-1-5.
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pursuant to a plea agreement, which also provided that the State would dismiss
the criminal recklessness charge and the firearm enhancement.
[4] At a sentencing hearing on April 26, 2019, the trial court sentenced Hill to a
five-year sentence, with four years executed at the Department of Correction
and one year suspended to formal probation. In determining Hill’s sentence, the
trial court found as aggravating factors the nature and circumstances of the
crime, Hill’s attempt to lie and conceal the crime, Hill’s contemporaneous use
of marijuana, and Hill’s possession of a handgun without a license. As
mitigating factors, the trial court noted Hill’s lack of criminal history and that
he pleaded guilty; however, it did not consider Hill’s limited criminal history to
be a significant mitigating factor because “one would not expect any individual
of Mr. Hill’s age to have a significant criminal history.” Tr. Vol. III p. 35. 2 Hill
now appeals.
Discussion and Decision
I. Aggravators
[5] Hill first argues that the trial court erred in the sentencing process. Specifically,
he challenges each of the sentence aggravators and argues further that the trial
court improperly “used the elements of the offense to aggravate Hill’s sentence
without a corresponding finding that the elements were particularly heinous,”
2
At the time of the incident, Hill was twenty-one years old.
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appellant’s br. p. 8, and that the court relied on facts not supported by the
record.
[6] Sentencing decisions are within the sound discretion of the trial court and we
thus afford great deference to the trial court’s judgment. Anglemyer v. State, 868
N.E.2d 482, 490 (Ind. 2007), clarified on reh’g, 875 N.E.2d 218. The trial court
must enter a sentencing statement that includes “a reasonably detailed
recitation of the trial court’s reasons for imposing a particular sentence.” Id. The
trial court may err in its sentencing process if, among other things, it relies on
aggravators not supported by the record or are improper as a matter of law. Id.
at 490-91. We will not review the relative weight the trial court gave to any
properly found aggravators or reasons. Id. at 491.
[7] The trial court articulated the following aggravating circumstances in its
sentencing statement:
1. The Court finds the nature and circumstances of the crime to
be a significant aggravating factor in that [Hill] shot the
victim, his cousin, while in the process of smoking a
marijuana blunt, dancing and waving a handgun at the
victim. The victim died. [Hill] attempted to conceal his
involvement in the crime by resorting to lies and subterfuge
with the police. Specifically, [Hill] initially told police that his
cousin was shot by a drive-by assailant. The Court finds
[Hill’s] efforts to conceal the crime to be a significant
aggravating factor.
2. The Court also finds that [Hill’s] act of smoking marijuana,
an illegal substance, to also be an aggravating factor. Finally
the Court finds that the defendant was in possession of a
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handgun without a license at the time of the commission of
the offense.
Appealed Order p. 1.
A. Nature and Circumstances of the Crime
[8] The nature and circumstances of a crime is generally considered to be a valid
aggravating factor for the trial court to use in sentencing. McCann v. State, 749
N.E.2d 1116, 1120 (Ind. 2001). In doing so, the court must explain “what about
this crime was worse than a typical [offense]”—meaning here, it must explain
what about Hill’s offense was worse than a typical Level 5 felony reckless
homicide. Smith v. State, 872 N.E.2d 169, 178-79 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007); see also
Ind. Code § 35-38-1-7.1(a) (providing that in imposing a sentence, the trial court
may consider as an aggravating circumstance whether “[t]he harm, injury, loss,
or damage suffered by the victim of an offense was . . . greater than the
elements necessary to prove the commission of the offense”). The trial court
may not, however, use a material element of the offense as an aggravating
circumstance, Caraway v. State, 959 N.E.2d 847, 850 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011),
which Hill argues the trial court did here.
[9] In its sentencing statement, the trial court specified that the nature and
circumstances were significantly aggravating because Hill “shot the victim . . .
while in the process of smoking a marijuana blunt, dancing and waving a
handgun at the victim.” Appealed Order p. 1. At the sentencing hearing, the
trial court further explained:
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This doesn’t make sense. Whatever the relationship was between
these two men it was destroyed in a split second because they
were getting high and playing with a gun. That is absolutely
outrageous. That’s crazy. That doesn’t make sense. And so the
outcome is equally nonsensical. The gun goes off and someone
dies. So incredibly tragic. So incredibly deadly. And so incredibly
reckless.
Tr. Vol. III p. 37. Though the trial court mentions recklessness and the death of
the victim in its reasoning,3 it did not improperly rely on those elements of the
offense in determining that the nature and circumstances was an aggravating
factor; instead, we find that the trial court was merely explaining why this crime
was worse than a typical Level 5 felony reckless homicide.
B. Concealment
[10] Hill also argues that his initial effort to conceal the crime should not have been
found to be an aggravator because he “almost immediately recanted” and
confessed to the police. Appellant’s Br. p. 14. But the fact remains that Hill,
despite eventually coming forward with the truth, “initially resorted to lies and
subterfuge in order to conceal the crime” by telling police it was a drive-by
shooting. Tr. Vol. III p. 35. We agree that this “initially frustrated the efforts of
law enforcement to solve a crime,” id., and find no error in the trial court’s
conclusion that it was an aggravating factor.4 If anything, the trial court already
3
A person who commits reckless homicide “recklessly kills another human being.” I.C. § 35-42-1-5.
4
The State correctly points out that a person who “gives a false report of the commission of a crime or gives
false information in the official investigation of the commission of a crime, knowing the report or
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accounted for Hill’s later confession by finding his admission via plea
agreement to be a mitigating circumstance.
C. Marijuana Use
[11] Hill next contends that his marijuana use at the time of the offense was not an
appropriate aggravating circumstance. Hill focuses his argument on whether
using marijuana had a causal effect on or contributed in some form to Corey’s
death. Regardless, the fact remains that Hill was using marijuana, an illegal
substance, at the time of the offense. The trial court did not err in determining
that Hill’s marijuana use was an aggravating circumstance.
D. Possession of Handgun Without a License
[12] Lastly, Hill challenges the trial court’s finding that Hill possessed a handgun
without a license to be an aggravating circumstance, arguing that this
aggravator is improper as a matter of law because he was not legally required to
possess a license at the time of the incident and that there is no support in the
record for this aggravator. We agree. Though a license is typically required to
carry a handgun, a person may carry a handgun without a license if “the person
carries the handgun . . . on property that is owned, leased, rented, or otherwise
legally controlled by the person,” or if the person carries the gun “on property
that is owned, leased, rented, or otherwise legally controlled by another person,
information to be false” commits a Class B misdemeanor, Ind. Code § 35-44.1-2-3, which further supports
our conclusion that the trial court’s finding of Hill’s false report to be an aggravator was appropriate.
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if the person . . . has the consent of the owner, renter, lessor, or person who
legally controls the property to have the handgun on the premises.” Ind. Code §
35-47-2-1(b)(1), (2).
[13] Here, the record shows that Hill was not licensed to carry a handgun, but at the
time of the offense, he was in his mother’s home, and his mother was aware he
had the gun in her home. See Tr. Vol. III p. 8-9. In its sentencing statement, the
trial court explained that the aggravating circumstance was Hill’s “possession of
a handgun without a license at the time of the commission of the offense,”
appealed order p. 1 (emphasis added), not his potentially unlicensed possession
of a gun in the days or weeks leading up to the incident, outside the setting of
Hill’s mother’s home. Nothing in the record establishes that Hill carried the
handgun illegally at the time the offense occurred. As such, we agree that it was
improper for the trial court to find this to be an aggravating circumstance.
[14] Even though the trial court committed error with respect to this aggravator,
there are still multiple valid aggravating circumstances that support the trial
court’s sentencing judgment. “A sentence enhancement may still be upheld
when a trial court improperly applies an aggravator but other valid aggravators
exist.” Cox v. State, 780 N.E.2d 1150, 1156 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002). And even if we
do find an aggravator to be improper, we will remand for resentencing only “if
we cannot say with confidence that the trial court would have imposed the
same sentence had it properly considered reasons that enjoy support in the
record.” Anglemyer, 868 N.E.2d at 491. Given the presence of multiple valid
aggravators and the fact that the unlicensed possession aggravator was not
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indicated as “significant,” we find that the trial court would have imposed the
same sentence even without the challenged aggravator and that Hill is not
entitled to resentencing on this basis.
II. Appropriateness
[15] Hill’s second argument on appeal is that the sentence imposed by the trial court
is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and his character. Indiana
Appellate Rule 7(B) provides that this Court may revise a statutorily authorized
sentence “if, after due consideration of the trial court’s decision, the Court finds
that the sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the
character of the offender.” In conducting this review, “substantial deference”
must be given to the trial court’s decision, “since the ‘principal role of [our]
review is to attempt to leaven the outliers,’ and not to achieve a perceived
‘correct’ sentence.” Knapp v. State, 9 N.E.3d 1274, 1292 (Ind. 2014) (quoting
Chambers v. State, 989 N.E.2d 1257, 1259 (Ind. 2013)) (internal citations
omitted).
[16] For Level 5 felony reckless homicide, Hill faced a term of one to six years, with
an advisory sentence of three years. I.C. § 35-50-2-6(b). The trial court imposed
a five-year sentence, with four years executed at the Department of Correction
and one year suspended to formal probation.
[17] With respect to the nature of the offense, we again note that Hill was smoking
marijuana while dancing and waving a gun around in front of his cousin when
the gun discharged. Hill then lied to police about what happened, changing his
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story only once confronted with conflicting statements given by his family. The
trial court also emphasized the impact the offense had on Hill’s and Corey’s
family, noting that it had “shatter[ed] [the] family” and was simply
“nonsensical” and “tragic.” Tr. Vol. III p. 36-37. Even Hill admitted that Corey
had been “like [his] little brother,” id. at 34, further exacerbating the overall
tragedy of the crime.
[18] With respect to Hill’s character, we recognize that Hill had no history of
criminal convictions and admitted guilt via a plea agreement. Hill admits that
he began smoking marijuana at age twelve, and that since age thirteen or
fourteen he smoked marijuana every day until when he was arrested for the
present offense at age twenty-one. See, e.g., Cook v. State, 119 N.E.3d 1092, 1098
(Ind. Ct. App. 2019) (noting defendant’s daily marijuana use for several years
up to the time of the murder offense at issue as relevant to defendant’s character
in 7(B) analysis). Hill also began drinking alcohol at age fifteen and continued
to do so every day until he was arrested.
[19] We agree that the above circumstances and aspects of Hill’s character are by no
means the worst of the worst—but the trial court recognized as much when it
chose to not impose the maximum sentence and ordered that a portion of the
sentence will be suspended to probation. We do not find the sentence imposed
by the trial court to be inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and
Hill’s character.
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[20] The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Kirsch, J., and Crone, J., concur.
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