Opinion ID: 2103701
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Issue II: Evidence of Depraved Sexual Instinct

Text: Appellant also argues that the trial court improperly admitted certain evidence accusing him of past sexual misconduct. At trial, three different people testified that appellant had molested them. Ray Eldon Meyers, a ten-year-old boy, testified that appellant had accosted Meyers, offering him candy for sex. [2] Paul Scott Cummings, a nineteen-year-old, testified that appellant had molested Cummings approximately 10 years earlier. Christopher Robert Staniford, an eighteen-year-old, testified that appellant had also molested Staniford some ten to twelve years earlier. Appellant's counsel objected to the testimony of Cummings and Staniford, but not Meyer; using the following objection in both instances: Your Honor, I'd  I'd object to the  Apparently this is getting into evidence which occurred twelve years ago. I mean, that's the reason that we have statutes of limitations and such like that. This is unreasonable to expect [appellant] to be able to prepare a defense to these allegations at a point twelve years later. The trial court overruled each objection, but issued identical limiting instructions: This evidence will be admitted for the sole purpose of showing either the defendant's intent or his sexual propensities and the jury will consider the evidence for that limited purpose alone. There was no objection lodged to such instructions. The trial of the case was governed by cases such as Kerlin v. State (1970), 255 Ind. 420, 265 N.E.2d 22, which gave great latitude in receiving evidence of past sexual misconduct to show a depraved sexual instinct. Quite reasonably therefore, the objection focused upon the remoteness of the evidence as its weakness, and not upon its tendency to show depraved sexual instinct. The content of the jury instruction clearly supports this understanding of the objections. Several months after the completion of this trial, this Court decided Lannan v. State (1992), Ind., 600 N.E.2d 1334. In Lannan, we abandoned the depraved sexual instinct rationale. We also held that sex offense cases pending on direct appeal at the time we issued Lannan should receive the same treatment as did Lannan. Pirnat v. State (1992), Ind., 600 N.E.2d 1342, reh'g denied (1993), 607 N.E.2d 973. However, we did not abandon the requirements of the contemporaneous objection rule. Ind. Trial Rule 46. Appellant filed his praecipe on August 7, 1992, before this Court handed down its decision in Lannan. Thus, this appeal is subject to our Lannan holding. At trial, it is evident that appellant, in objecting that the evidence of Cummings and Staniford was too remote, did not claim any impingement from application of the then-governing pre- Lannan rule, which broadly sanctioned evidence of prior sexual misconduct. We therefore conclude that appellant is not entitled to the remedy afforded Lannan, and that there was no error.