Tranell Nash v. State of Indiana

Pursuant to Ind.Appellate Rule 65(D),
this Memorandum Decision shall not be
regarded as precedent or cited before
any court except for the purpose of
establishing the defense of res judicata, Aug 09 2013, 9:25 am
collateral estoppel, or the law of the
case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:
CARA SCHAEFER WIENEKE GREGORY F. ZOELLER
Wieneke Law Office, LLC Attorney General of Indiana
Plainfield, Indiana
GARY R. ROM
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
TRANELL NASH, )
)
Appellant-Petitioner, )
)
vs. ) No. 49A02-1210-PC-874
)
STATE OF INDIANA, )
)
Appellee-Respondent. )
APPEAL FROM THE MARION SUPERIOR COURT
The Honorable Sheila A. Carlisle, Judge
Cause No. 49G03-0312-PC-224922
August 9, 2013
MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATION
BARNES, Judge
Case Summary
Tranell Nash appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief (“PCR
petition”), which challenged his conviction for Class A felony attempted robbery. We
affirm.
Issue
The sole issue before us is whether the post-conviction court properly concluded
that Nash did not receive ineffective assistance of trial counsel.
Facts
We described the facts of this case in Nash’s direct appeal as follows:
On November 21, 2003, Antoinette Quarles
(“Antoinette”) and her brother Anthony Quarles (“Anthony”)
were outside the Family Dollar Store at 34th Street and Moller
Road in Indianapolis when they saw two black males run up
to a white Pontiac Grand Am in the parking lot. Antoinette
and Anthony recognized one of the men as Ronald Brooks
(“Brooks”). The second man was later identified as Nash.
Brooks and Nash attempted to get into the driver’s side
of the white Grand Am, but were prevented from doing so by
the driver, William Riley (“Riley”). Nash then entered the
Grand Am on the passenger side, and Brooks ran back to a
red Mustang. The Grand Am began to move toward 34th
street. Antoinette and Anthony heard a “pop” and Nash
“rolled out” of the Grand Am. (Tr. 50, 91.) Nash ran to the
red Mustang, which drove away. The Grand Am continued to
move forward until it crashed into a dumpster. When
Indianapolis police officers arrived, they found Riley in his
vehicle, shot in the head. Riley later died as a result of the
gunshot wound.
On December 19, 2003, Nash was arrested on an
unrelated warrant. After his arrest, Nash gave a statement to
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Detective Kenneth Martinez wherein he admitted his
involvement in a plan to rob Riley.[1] On December 24, 2003,
the State charged Nash with [felony] murder, attempted
robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious
violent felon.
Nash v. State, No. 49A02-0504-CR-321, slip op. pp. 2-3 (Ind. Ct. App. Nov. 8, 2005),
trans. denied.
Nash’s jury trial was held on February 28-March 1, 2005. The jury acquitted Nash
of felony murder but convicted him of Class A felony attempted robbery; Nash then
waived jury trial on the firearm count and the trial court found him guilty of that charge.
On direct appeal, Nash challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his
convictions and the fifty-year sentence he received. We affirmed in all respects.
Nash filed a pro se PCR petition on November 21, 2006. On September 12, 2011,
hired counsel amended the petition. The sole issue raised in the amended petition was
whether Nash’s trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to a final jury instruction
defining attempted robbery. After conducting a hearing, the post-conviction court denied
the petition on October 1, 2012. Nash now appeals.
Analysis
“Post-conviction proceedings are civil proceedings in which the defendant must
establish his claims by a preponderance of the evidence.” Wilkes v. State, 984 N.E.2d
1236, 1240 (Ind. 2013) (citing Ind. Post–Conviction Rule 1(5)). A defendant appealing
the denial of a PCR petition is appealing from a negative judgment and thus must
1
Nash claimed that Brooks shot Riley.
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establish that the evidence as a whole unmistakably and unerringly points to a conclusion
opposite that reached by the post-conviction court. Id. “We review the post-conviction
court’s factual findings for clear error, but do not defer to its conclusions of law.” Id.2
A claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel is a proper post-conviction
argument. Id. To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a petitioner
must demonstrate both that his or her counsel’s performance was deficient and that the
petitioner was prejudiced by the deficient performance. Ben–Yisrayl v. State, 729
N.E.2d 102, 106 (Ind. 2000) (citing Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.
Ct. 2052, 2064 (1984)), cert. denied. An attorney’s performance is deficient if it falls
below an objective standard of reasonableness based on prevailing professional norms.
French v. State, 778 N.E.2d 816, 824 (Ind. 2002). To meet the appropriate test for
prejudice, the petitioner must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for
counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.
Id. “A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the
outcome.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S. Ct. at 2068. Failure to satisfy either prong
will cause the claim to fail. Grinstead v. State, 845 N.E.2d 1027, 1031 (Ind. 2006).
When a defendant claims ineffective assistance of trial counsel based on failure to
object to an allegedly erroneous jury instruction, he or she must establish that if trial
2
As noted by Nash, the post-conviction court here adopted verbatim the State’s proposed findings and
conclusions as its own. Our supreme court permits this practice, though it can in some cases erode our
confidence “that the findings reflect the considered judgment of the trial court.” Prowell v. State, 741
N.E.2d 704, 708-09 (Ind. 2001). This case presents essentially a pure legal question, which we would
review de novo in any event.
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counsel had lodged an objection, the trial court would have had no choice but to sustain
it. Taylor v. State, 922 N.E.2d 710, 716 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010), trans. denied. In
determining whether a trial court would have been required to sustain an objection to a
jury instruction, we keep in mind that instructing a jury generally lies within a trial
court’s sound discretion. Orta v. State, 940 N.E.2d 370, 376 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011), trans.
denied. Factors to consider in reviewing the propriety of a jury instruction include
whether the instruction correctly stated the law; whether there was evidence in the record
to support the giving of the instruction; and whether the substance of the instruction was
covered by other instructions given by the court. Id. To constitute an abuse of discretion,
the jury instructions as a whole must be erroneous and misstate the law or otherwise
mislead the jury. O’Connell v. State, 970 N.E.2d 168, 172 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012). “[I]t is
bedrock law that a defendant in a criminal case is entitled to have the jury instructed on
all the elements of the charged offense.” Thomas v. State, 827 N.E.2d 1131, 1134 (Ind.
2005).
The trial court gave the following jury instruction regarding attempted robbery,
without objection:
A person who knowingly or intentionally takes
property from another person or from the presence of another
person, by using or threatening the use of force on any
person, or by putting any person in fear, commits robbery, a
Class C felony.
The offense is a Class A felony if it results in serious
bodily injury to any person other than the defendant.
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A person attempts to commit a robbery, when acting
the culpability required for commission of the robbery he
engages in conduct that constitutes a substantial step toward
commission of the robbery. The crime of attempted robbery
is a Class A felony.
Before you may convict the Defendant of attempted
robbery, the State must have proved each of the following
elements beyond a reasonable doubt:
1. The Defendant, Tranell Nash
2. Acting with the culpability required to commit the
crime of robbery, which is defined as:
A. The Defendant, Tranell Nash;
B. Knowingly or intentionally;
C. Took property, that is: a motor vehicle and/or
personal property, from the person or presence of
William Riley;
D. By putting William Riley in fear, or by using or
threatening the use of force on William Riley
E. And the commission of elements 1 through 4
resulted in serious bodily injury, that is: a gunshot
wound of the head to William Riley;
3. Did approach the vehicle of William Riley while
William Riley sat inside the vehicle, and confronted William
Riley at gunpoint inside said vehicle;
4. Which was conduct constituting a substantial step
toward the commission of the crime of robbery.
If the State failed to prove each of these elements
beyond a reasonable doubt, you must find the Defendant not
guilty of the crime of attempted robbery, a Class A felony,
charged in Count II.
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Trial App. pp. 153-54.
Nash acknowledges that this instruction was pieced together from two pattern
criminal instructions, numbers 2.01 (regarding attempt) and 3.49 (regarding robbery).
Although pattern instructions are not always upheld as correct statements of the law, it
nevertheless is the preferred practice to give such instructions when possible. Boney v.
State, 880 N.E.2d 279, 294 (Ind. Ct. App. 2008), trans. denied. However, Nash contends
as put together the instruction misadvised the jury as to the elements of Class A felony
attempted robbery, claiming it would have permitted the jury to convict him of that
offense if it found only that he had intended to cause serious bodily injury to Riley, when
in order to be convicted of that offense the State had to prove that serious bodily injury
actually resulted to Riley. Nash argues that in order to be correct, part 2(E) of the
instruction should instead have been made a separate part 5 at the end of the instruction.
In order to convict Nash of Class A felony attempt robbery, the State was required
to prove that he (1) engaged in conduct that constituted a substantial step toward, (2) the
knowing or intentional, (3) taking of property from the person or presence of Riley, (4)
by putting him in fear or by using or threatening the use of force on him, (5) which
resulted in serious bodily injury to Riley. See Stokes v. State, 922 N.E.2d 758, 764 (Ind.
Ct. App. 2010), trans. denied. The State was not required to prove any mens rea with
respect to the injury Riley sustained. See Wethington v. State, 655 N.E.2d 91, 96 (Ind.
Ct. App. 1995), trans. denied. Additionally, it was not required to prove that Nash, as
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opposed to Brooks, actually shot Riley. See Ballard v. State, 540 N.E.2d 46, 48 (Ind.
1989).
We agree that the trial court’s attempted robbery instruction could have been more
artfully drafted. Placing part 2(E) of the instruction at the end of the instruction as a
separate subsection 5 would have more clearly divorced the serious bodily injury
requirement for Class A felony attempted robbery from the mens rea required to commit
that offense. Taken as a whole, however, the instruction adequately informed the jury
that the State had to prove that Riley actually sustained a serious bodily injury as a result
of the attempted robbery, not merely that Nash intended to cause such injury. Despite its
awkward location in the instruction, part 2(E) adequately and accurately instructed the
jury that it could convict Nash of Class A felony attempted robbery only if “the
commission of elements 1 through 4 resulted in serious bodily injury . . . .” Trial App. p.
153 (emphasis added). We do not believe the jury would have been misled into thinking
that it could convict Nash only upon evidence that he intended to cause serious bodily
injury to Riley but failed to do so. We also do not believe the trial court would have been
required to sustain an objection to this instruction because it did not constitute an abuse
of discretion to give it. Trial counsel’s performance, therefore, did not fall below an
objective standard of reasonableness by failing to object to the instruction.
Nash also discusses the apparent oddity of the jury acquitting him of felony
murder—based on a killing during the course of attempted robbery—but convicting him
of Class A felony attempted robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, i.e. death. Nash
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raised this issue primarily as a means of showing alleged prejudice resulting from the
attempted robbery jury instruction; because we have found trial counsel’s performance to
be objectively reasonable, we need not resolve the prejudice issue. To the extent Nash
argues the inconsistent verdicts point to an inherent flaw in the attempted robbery
instruction that counsel should have objected to, we observe that although Indiana courts
previously had the power to review and correct jury verdicts that appeared to be
“extremely contradictory and irreconcilable,” they no longer do so. Beattie v. State, 924
N.E.2d 643, 648 (Ind. 2010). The Beattie court acknowledged that a jury’s decision to
return two apparently logically inconsistent verdicts could mean that the jury
misunderstood the instructions, but that “it is more likely that the jury chose to exercise
lenity, refusing to find the defendant guilty of one or more additionally charged offenses,
even if such charges were adequately proven by the evidence.” Id. The court also
recognized the possibility of compromise jury verdicts but stated that defendants were
adequately protected from such verdicts by appellate review of the sufficiency of the
evidence. Id. at 649. Given Beattie, we decline to assume, as Nash seems to do, that
juries always act logically in the verdicts they return, nor do we take the allegedly
inconsistent verdicts here as proof that the attempted robbery instruction was fatally
flawed.
Conclusion
Nash failed to establish that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and
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we affirm the post-conviction court’s denial of his PCR petition.
Affirmed.
NAJAM, J., and BAILEY, J., concur.
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