Title: Sharp v. State

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

254 Ind. 435 (1970)
260 N.E.2d 593
SHARP
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 469S81.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed July 29, 1970.
*436 J. Conrad Maugans, C. Michael Cord, Bayliff, Harrigan & Cord, of Kokomo, for appellants.
Theodore L. Sendak, Attorney General, Kenneth M. McDermott, Deputy Attorney General, for appellee.
JACKSON, J.
Appellants were charged by Affidavit, signed by Fred G. Osborn, with the crime of second degree burglary. Separate affidavits were filed for each defendant, however, the language of each is identical, except for the defendant so named therein, and reads in pertinent part as follows:
On July 18, 1968, each appellant entered a plea of not guilty to the crime as charged and requested a trial by jury. On February 18, 1969, said requests were withdrawn, and all three causes were consolidated for trial by the following order:
Also on February 18, 1969, said causes were tried to the court without the intervention of a jury, and the court found each defendant guilty of second degree burglary as charged. On March 17, 1969, appellants filed their motions for new trial, said motions reading in pertinent part as follows:
The motion for new trial filed by each defendant contained the same language as hereinabove set forth. Said motions were overruled on April 8, 1969. Appellants' sole Assignment of Error is that: "1. The Court erred in overruling appellants' motions for a new trial."
From the evidence adduced at trial it appears that, at approximately 12:30 a.m. on the date in question, Mrs. Ethel Helton was at home waiting for her husband to return from work when she heard glass breaking. She quickly turned off the bedroom lights and looked out the window toward a nearby Gulf Service Station which was situated on the northeast corner of the intersection of West Boulevard and Berkley Road in Howard County. The Helton residence is located approximately 100 yards northeast of the station, there being a vacant lot between the two. She saw what appeared to be two men breaking out a window at the station. Having broken the window to gain entrance, the men raised the garage door and entered the building. Mrs. Helton immediately picked up the phone and had the telephone operator call the Sheriff's Department to report the incident. She then saw the two men go in and out of the station carrying what she believed to be tires and other articles. At this time a Sheriff's car pulled up to the side of the station, and Mrs. Helton testified that she saw the men put the garage door down and run "sorta" north from the station. She lost them in the shadows.
At approximately 1:00 a.m. on the night in question, Deputies Hawks and Zeck arrived at the Gulf Service Station aforementioned in response to the call from Mrs. Helton. Deputy Zeck proceeded to the rear of the building where he saw that a window had been broken. He also noticed several articles near a trash bin. Deputy Hawks went to the front, southwest corner of the station, and, while there, he heard footsteps as if someone were running, directly to the rear *440 of the station. He then observed three subjects running west away from the station. He identified himself as a police officer and ordered them to stop. They did not stop and he was not in position to identify them. Deputy Hawks later observed appellants walking south toward the service station and ordered them to halt after identifying himself. They did so, and Deputy Hawks placed them under arrest for second degree burglary. Hawks never at any time identified appellants, or any of them, as the ones who broke into the station or ran west away from it.
"After things had calmed down," Deputy Hawks retraced the path of the three persons he had seen running and located, at various points, three pairs of gloves and other items of automotive equipment. The operator of the service station, who was called to the scene of the alleged burglary, confirmed that these items did in fact belong to the station.
Appellants' sole contention on appeal is that the evidence presented to the trial court is wholly insufficient to sustain their convictions, and that, therefore, said convictions should be reversed. This Court has heretofore held that a conviction will be sustained if there is any evidence of probative value of the facts essential to support the judgment, Butler v. State (1967), 249 Ind. 484, 229 N.E.2d 471; Majko v. State (1965), 246 Ind. 506, 207 N.E.2d 212, and that, when the question of the sufficiency of the evidence is raised on appeal, it will consider only that evidence most favorable to the State together with all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom. Lambert v. State (1969), 252 Ind. 441, 249 N.E.2d 502; McGill v. State (1969), 252 Ind. 293, 247 N.E.2d 514. Further, this Court, on appeal, will not weigh the evidence nor determine the credibility of the witnesses. Lambert v. State, supra; McGill v. State, supra.
In the case at bar, the burden was on the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellants "did * * * unlawfully and feloniously break and enter the building * * * *441 with the intent to commit a felony therein, to-wit: the crime of theft * * *." The only evidence offered by the State to prove the charges against appellants was their "unexplained presence" in the vicinity of the crime shortly after its commission, for neither Mrs. Helton nor Deputies Hawks or Zeck were able to identify any of the other individuals allegedly in the area prior to, during the commission of, or following the burglary. Neither did these nor any other witness identify the appellants or any of them as being the ones who broke into the station or who ran away from it. The evidence upon which the appellants were convicted was, therefore, wholly circumstantial.
In Easton v. State (1967), 248 Ind. 338, 228 N.E.2d 6, this Court stated that:
Therefore, since the evidence in the case at bar is wholly circumstantial, it is our duty to determine whether the evidence is sufficient to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of the assumption of innocence of the appellants or whether it merely tends to establish a mere suspicion of guilty without more.
The evidence is undisputed that Mrs. Helton, the sole witness to the alleged burglary, never saw more than two individuals participate therein even though she testified that her vision was completely unrestricted and that she could see the *442 station quite clearly. Deputy Hawks, however, testified that he saw three subjects running west from the station shortly after his arrival. Neither he nor Mrs. Helton, in spite of their apparently unrestricted vision and proximity to the events and the individuals involved, could identify the appellants as the alleged burglars. There is absolutely no evidence that, when stopped, appellants were breathless, sweaty, or that they had been running prior to the time they were spotted by Deputy Hawks. There is nothing to suggest that they, in any manner, appeared suspicious, other than their "unexplained presence." The evidence clearly shows that appellants were walking toward the service station and the police officers at the time of their arrest, rather than running away from them. The State attempts to minimize the importance of the fact by arguing that there was a fence along the west side of Berkley Road, and that, therefore, appellants were forced to turn either north or south to effectuate their escape. However, there is no evidence that the fence was sufficient in size to preclude fleeing felons from an easy escape, and it would not seem reasonable to infer that fleeing felons who had just been running hard on a warm night would go toward the police rather than away from them, i.e. the fact that they had been running would have been too apparent and incriminatory. Furthermore there is no evidence in the record the appellants were or had been in the vicinity of the station at or near the time of the burglary.
The evidence introduced by the State seems, on its face, more consistent with appellants' innocence than guilt, and, therefore, we cannot say that the circumstantial evidence is "* * * so conclusive and compelling in character that it excludes every reasonable hypothesis of the assumption of innocence of the defendant." Easton v. State, supra.
The evidence, at most, merely supports a suspicion or conjecture that appellants were involved in any manner with the alleged burglary. This clearly is not sufficient *443 to sustain a conviction. In Crawford v. State (1968), 251 Ind. 437, 241 N.E.2d 795, this Court stated that:
The judgment of the trial court is reversed and remanded with instructions to grant the appellants' several motions for a new trial.
Hunter, C.J., DeBruler and Givan, JJ., concur; Arterburn, J., dissents.
NOTE.  Reported in 260 N.E.2d 593.