Case Title: Garcia v. State

Citation: 292 N.E.2d 810

Docket Number: 871S239

State: indiana

Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Date: 1973-02-27T00:00:00Z

Document:
292 N.E.2d 810 (1973)
Casemiro GARCIA, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Indiana, Appellee.
No. 871S239.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
February 27, 1973.
Rehearing Denied April 26, 1973.
Patrick N. Ryan, Jack B. Welchons, Ryan & Welchons, Alan R. Diodore, Marion, for appellant.
Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., William D. Bucher, Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellee.
GIVAN, Justice.
Appellant was charged by affidavit with the crime of carrying pistols without a license. Trial by jury resulted in a verdict of guilty. The appellant was sentenced to the Indiana State Prison for a period of three years.
The record discloses the following facts:
On November 16, 1969, Grant County Deputy Sheriff Stephenson went to 1104 S. McClure in Marion, Indiana, to serve an attachment on appellant. When Stephenson arrived, the appellant had already left the address but was pursued by Stephenson and three patrolmen from the Marion Police Department, and after a brief chase was stopped. Appellant was searched for weapons. Two loaded pistols were removed from his person.
There seems to be some difference of opinion between the police officers as to the amount of force used in making the arrest and the search of the appellant. In *811 any event there appears to have been an altercation of some sort between the officers and the appellant at the time of his arrest resulting in an injury to appellant's eye.
At the time of his arrest, appellant was employed in Coldwater, Michigan, where he lived in a motel during the week. On weekends he returned to the home of one Helen Purvis with whom he lived in Marion. On the date of his arrest, appellant had been ordered out of Miss Purvis' home.
During the course of the trial, the appellant attempted to introduce evidence to the effect that the injury he sustained to his eye during the arrest resulted in the removal of his eye. The State objected to testimony concerning the eye injury as being irrelevant to the charge against the appellant. The State's objection was sustained by the trial court.
Appellant first argues the verdict of the jury is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law. It is appellant's position that evidence showed him to be a resident of Michigan and, therefore, he does not come within the statute forbidding the carrying of weapons without a license. In the first place, it does not appear the jury was bound to find from the evidence that the appellant was a Michigan resident. There was just as much evidence before the jury that he was in fact an Indiana resident. However, if we assume for the sake of argument that the appellant was in fact a resident of the state of Michigan, it does not follow that he was automatically excluded from the statute. IC 1971 XX-XX-X-X, Burns' Ind. Stat. Ann., 1956 Repl., § 10-4736 reads as follows:
Exceptions to the above statute are found in IC 1971 XX-XX-X-X, Burns' Ind. Stat. Ann., 1972 Supp., § 10-4737 which reads as follows:
There is nothing in the evidence in this case to indicate that appellant comes within any of the specified exceptions. There is *812 nothing in the statute that exempts residents of another state from the requirement of obtaining a license.
Appellant, however, argues that additional implied exceptions arise from IC 1971 XX-XX-X-X(1), Burns' Ind. Stat. Ann., 1972 Supp., § 10-4738(1) which provides as follows:
Appellant cites Kelley v. State (1954), 233 Ind. 294, 119 N.E.2d 322, for the proposition that criminal statutes should be strictly construed against the State. He argues that since no provision exists for the licensing of out of state travelers in Indiana, they are exempt from the licensing requirement. In the Kelley case this Court held at page 298, 119 N.E.2d at page 324:
The clear wording of the statute applies to all persons within the jurisdiction of Indiana. This Court may not alter a statute to exclude a group any more than it can alter a statute to include a group. Such a function is within the discretion of the General Assembly. We, therefore, hold the appellant did not come within the exceptions in the statute, and that he was clearly required to have a license to carry pistols on his person within the state of Indiana.
Appellant's only other contention of error is that the trial court erred in excluding evidence concerning the injury he received to his eye at the time of his arrest. He contends that evidence of the loss of his eye should have been allowed to mitigate any possible sentence on a finding of guilty. In support of this contention he cites Kistler v. State (1876), 54 Ind. 400. In that case the Court held that evidence that the accused had served eighteen months in jail on the same offense under a previous trial was improperly excluded. *813 More recent cases have followed this same general principle concerning time previously served by a person on trial for the second time on the same offense. See North Carolina v. Pearce (1969), 395 U.S. 711, 89 S. Ct. 2072, 23 L. Ed. 2d 656. We hold, however, that appellant does not come within the rule in these cases. The fact that he may have lost an eye as a result of his altercation with the police officers, and the further possibility that such altercation was a result of police brutality rather than reasonable arrest tactics should in no way serve as mitigation for the commission of an offense wholly unrelated to the possible altercation with the officers. Appellant had violated the firearms statute prior to his arrest, and the manner in which the arrest was accomplished had no bearing on that violation or the accumulation of evidence for the prosecution thereof. If appellant's contentions are true, he may resort to civil courts for redress, but the facts would not justify mitigation of the offense for the violation of the firearms act.
The trial court is affirmed.
ARTERBURN, C.J., and HUNTER and PRENTICE, JJ., concur.
DeBRULER, J., concurs in result with opinion.
DeBRULER, Justice (concurring in result).
It was the duty of the jury in this case, upon finding the appellant guilty of carrying a pistol without a license, to fix the punishment. IC 1971, 35-8-2-1, being Burns' § 9-1819. The punishment prescribed by statute for this offense is a determinate term of imprisonment of not less than one nor more than ten years, or a fine of not more than one thousand dollars. IC 1971, XX-XX-X-XX, being Burns' § 10-4747.[1] In my view, evidence that the appellant lost an eye at the time of the arrest was admissible. It was not admissible on the issue of whether the appellant was guilty or not, but it was admissible and the jury was entitled to hear it, because it would assist the jury in discharging its duty to fix punishment. Kistler v. State (1876), 54 Ind. 400; Blue v. State (1946), 224 Ind. 394, 67 N.E.2d 377; Wilson v. State (1961), 247 Ind. 680, 221 N.E.2d 347. The physical impairment to the appellant as a result of the injury received at the time of arrest should be considered by the authority fixing the term of punishment. It is a detrimental consequence flowing to the appellant from his criminal act. One of the purposes of imprisonment intended to serve is the deterrence of future criminal conduct. While admittedly not the case here, surely evidence of a physical impairment would be admissible if it were of such a nature as to render a defendant incapable of repeating the crime for which he is convicted.
I believe it was error to exclude appellant's evidence. However, witnesses did testify at trial without objection that the appellant was struck by police at the time of the arrest and that appellant received an eye injury and that shortly after the receipt of the injury, appellant's eye was surgically removed. The error of the trial court was therefore harmless.
[1]  Under the proposed Indiana Code of Criminal Procedure the jury does not fix fines or punishment as it presently does. § 35-6.1-5-1.