Opinion ID: 2078420
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: In addressing the issue of sufficiency of the evidence, we will affirm the conviction if, considering only the probative evidence and reasonable inferences supporting the verdict, without weighing evidence or assessing witness credibility, a reasonable trier of fact could conclude that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Case v. State (1984), Ind., 458 N.E.2d 223; Loyd v. State (1980), 272 Ind. 404, 407, 398 N.E.2d 1260, 1264, cert. denied, 449 U.S. 881, 101 S.Ct. 231, 66 L.Ed.2d 105. The evidence most favorable to the judgment of conviction is as follows. At approximately midnight on April 6, 1984, the victim, David Ruffin, drove to the Gibson Lounge in Indianapolis. As he was walking from the parking lot toward the lounge, three men, one of whom was identified as Bowens, approached him and announced a stick up. They led him to a car and put him in the back seat. Ruffin testified that Bowens climbed into the front seat, pointed a gun at him, and demanded his money. Appellant told Ruffin that if he had to take the money himself, he would pop Ruffin. Although Ruffin attempted to retrieve his money for appellant, appellant instead reached into Ruffin's pocket, took approximately $50.00 from him, and shot Ruffin in the chest. Ruffin was allowed to leave the car, and his assailants drove away. Bowens' attack on the sufficiency of the evidence focuses on testimony that the victim was a heroin dealer and that the shooting occurred during a drug transaction. Ruffin admitted he had sold heroin near the Gibson Lounge two days prior to the robbery, but he testified there was not a drug transaction under way the night he was shot. The two other men in the car that night testified at trial for the State. They said that Bowens first purchased some drugs from Ruffin and then robbed him of the proceeds. As the State argues, even this scenario constitutes a robbery and does not, as Bowens claims, operate to negate an element of the crime charged. The evidence was sufficient to sustain Bowens' conviction for robbery.