Opinion ID: 853566
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Habitual Offender

Text: As a final point Craig attacks the admission of documentary evidence during the habitual offender phase. The habitual offender charge alleged that, prior to the molestation of C.R., Craig had accumulated two prior unrelated felony convictions: a 1981 burglary conviction from Kosciusko County and a 1985 burglary conviction from Wisconsin. The State sought to prove the predicate offenses in part through certified public documents. State's exhibit one is a packet of certified documents from the Indiana Department of Correction. The cover page contains a certification that the attached seven documents are true and correct copies of records for Craig. However, four of the seven documents on the list of attached documents are whited-out, and only the remaining three listed documents are attached. The whited-out documents apparently pertain to a conviction from Whitley County, which the State redacted at the trial court's instruction. Although Craig agreed that these other documents should not be submitted to the jury, he contended at trial, and now on appeal, that removing these pages from a certified document rendered the documents uncertified and therefore inadmissible. He cites no authority in support of this contention. The admission of documentary evidence at trial requires the proponent to show that the evidence has been authenticated, or simply put, that the evidence is what its proponent claims. Ind. Evidence Rule 901(a). A piece of evidence may be authenticated by any method provided by rule of this Court, statute, or the state constitution. Evid. R. 901(a)(10). Where the document at issue is a domestic public record, certified in accordance with Trial Rule 44(A)(1), the document is self-authenticating and no extrinsic evidence is necessary for its admission. Ind. Evidence Rule 902(1). This Court has previously rejected challenges to the admissibility of a multi-page exhibit that contained a certification attached to the top of the copies stating that the foregoing was correctly taken and copied from the original record. See, e.g., Chanley v. State, 583 N.E.2d 126, 131 (Ind. 1991); Miller v. State, 563 N.E.2d 578, 584 (Ind.1990). In Miller, we held the placement of the certificate on the top of the papers rather than on the back in no way causes any confusion as to the authenticity of the papers. 563 N.E.2d at 584. We reach the same conclusion here, where the certification clearly refers to the three attached documents but omits other documents unrelated to the case and prejudicial to the defendant. There is no question about the authenticity of the three remaining documents that bear the defendant's name and either the same cause number or Department of Corrections prisoner number that appears on the certification page. The same is true of State's exhibit three, the certified records from Wisconsin. Although it is not clear from the record, it appears that rather than whiting out information, the prosecutor removed documents that contained information about other offenses and Craig's juvenile record. The certification of that exhibit states that it contains copies of Craig's fingerprint cards, photographs, and final disposition reports. It includes his prison identification number and date of birth. Unlike exhibit one, it does not list the specific documents attached. Nevertheless, each of the attached documents bears Craig's name, date of birth, and prison identification number. Whatever documents may have been removed do not affect the authenticity of those that remained. In sum, the trial court properly admitted exhibits one and three. These exhibits, in combination with the other evidence presented during the habitual offender phase of the trial, constitute sufficient evidence of probative value from which a reasonable jury could have found that Craig had committed two prior unrelated felonies.