Court Opinion

ID: 9859643
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 22:15:27.358332+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:59:49.715971
License: Public Domain

DeBruler, C. J.
Appellant was convicted of assault and battery with intent to gratify sexual desires on a four year old girl. The charge was by affidavit and the trial was by the court without a jury. Appellant charges the trial court erred in certain procedural matters, in allowing the five year old victim to testify and finding venue on insufficient evidence.
Appellant’s brief alleges error on the first point in two parts: (1) In the absence of the appellant, his counsel made his third motion for continuance of the trial which the trial court granted on the condition that no further request for continuance or any dilatory motion either by way of change of judge or change of venue from the county be made. (2) The trial court granted a motion by appellant’s counsel for a jury trial but the trial took place without a jury.
Neither of these two arguments were included in the appellant’s motion for a new trial. Errors occurring prior to the filing of such motion must be included in the motion for new trial in order to be reviewable on appeal. Denton v. State (1965), 246 Ind. 155, 203 N. E. 2d 539.
As an exception to this rule, appellant cites Ford v. State (1967), 248 Ind. 438, 229 N. E. 2d 634, where this Court reversed a conviction for an error by the trial court which was not alleged in the motion for new trial, saying “In civil cases procedural rules are strictly observed, but in criminal cases it is more important that justice be done than to strictly abide by the rule of procedure.” But in that case the injustice was great, being misconduct by the trial judge himself in depriving the defendant of his constitutional right to a jury trial. In this case there is no hint that there was any misconduct on the part of the trial judge; that appellant was involuntarily absent from the proceedings; that he objected to going to trial without a jury; that a change of venue was *590needed, sought or refused. Indeed, there is no showing that appellant was harmed in any way. There is nothing in this case that warrants an extension of the rule in the Ford case.
Appellant’s second contention is that the trial judge was guilty of a manifest abuse of discretion in qualifying Wilma Jean Haley, age five, as a competent witness to testify in this case.
The pertinent statute reads:
“Who are incompetent. . . . The following persons shall not be competent witnesses:
“Second: Children under ten (10) years of age, unless it appears that they understand the nature and obligation of an oath.” (Burns’ Ind. Stat. Anno. § 2-1714)
Whether or not the statutory presumption against the competency of Wilma Jean Haley was overcome was to be determined by the trial court in light of her answers to questions designed to probe her understanding of the “nature and obligation of an oath.” Neither the statute nor the cases set out a precise test that must be followed verbatim in determining if such understanding exists. The complete voir dire examination, which was the basis of the trial court’s ruling that Wilma Jean Haley was a competent witness, is here set out:

“By Mr. Foust:

Q. This is Judge Osburn sitting up there. I will have questions to ask you. And will you answer them loudly enough for your mother and me to hear you?
A. (Wilma Jean Haley shakes head in the affirmative.)

By the Court:

Q. How old are you, Wilma Jean?
A. 5.
Q. Ordinarily, when people come into court, we ask them to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do you understand you have got to tell the truth ?
A. Yes.
*591Q. You understand every word you give to the Court must be the truth?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you willing to tell the truth?
A. Yes.
Q. You understand here is a man whose liberty is at stake. You are willing to tell the truth and, to' put it bluntly, you wiM tell the truth?
A. Yes.
And on cross-examination by Mr. Thomas Wright, attorney for Defendant, the witness Wilma Jean Haley testified as follows:

By Mr. Wright:

Q. My name is Tom. Do they call you Wilma or Jean?

By Mrs. Haley, mother of Wilma Jean Haley:

A. Jean.

By Mr. Wright:

Q. Have you ever told a lie?
A. I don’t know.
Q. You don’t know?
A. No.
Q. Have you ever been spanked for telling a fib ?
A. No.
Q. Never been spanked?
A. Sometimes.
Q. You do tell a fib once in a while?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you have many little friends you play with ? Do you have many little friends you play with?
A. No.
Q. Do you have many little friends you play with?
A. Yes.
Q. You do?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you have? What are their names?
A. Mason.
*592Q. You have — You play games?
A. Yes.
Q. What kind of games do you play?
A. I don’t know.
Q. You don’t know ?
A. No.
Q. You play with — You have dolls you play with?
A. Yes.
Q. What is your dolly’s name?
A. Heidi.
Q. Heidi?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you have any other little friends you play with?
A. Same ones.
Q. Do you have an imaginary friend?
A. No.
Q. Do you all the time tell the truth?
A. Yes.
Q. You never tell a fib?
A. No.
Q. Yes or no?
A. No.

By Mr. Wright:

Your Honor, I am going to object. I don’t think the answers elicited from Wilma Jean show completely that she knows to tell the truth.

By the Court:

I am going to permit her to testify, but to within the scope of the crime. She will have the liberty to tell what happened. If she can’t, the Court will strike it.”
The voir dire included questions put by counsel as well as those by the court. There is no reason in law or logic why the trial court should consider only the answers to its own questions. The nature of the question is determinative, not the author of the question. As long as the question *593seeks to determine to what extent the child understands “the nature and obligation of an oath” and it occurs as an integral part of the court’s inquiry prior to a ruling on the competency of the child, it is a proper part of the voir dire.
On the other hand, questions put after the trial court’s ruling, especially questions on the merits, cannot be used to undermine the ruling of competency. They go to the credibility of the witness and influence the weight to be given to that testimony by the trier of fact. The qualification of the child as competent does not imply she will be a model witness, nor does it imply that her testimony will be supported by the other evidence, nor does it imply she will be able to faithfully recall the events which occurred when she was four years old. None of those issues bears on her competency as a witness. An adult witness is not rendered incompetent because he makes inconsistent statements or has a suspected faulty memory. The statutory presumption of incompetence is overcome when the child demonstrates an understanding of “the nature and obligation of an oath” and there is no further test.
On the basis of the above voir dire examination the trial court ruled Wilma Jean Haley to be a competent witness. This ruling will not be reversed by this Court unless it is shown that the ruling is a manifest abuse of discretion. Martin v. State (1958), 239 Ind. 174, 154 N. E. 2d 714; Shipman v. State (1962), 243 Ind. 245, 183 N. E. 2d 823. If there is some evidence in the record of the voir dire examination from which the trial court could have inferred that Wilma Jean Haley understood “the nature and obligation of an oath” then this Court must affirm the ruling. There is a presumption in favor of the trial court’s ruling and the burden of overcoming that presumption rests on the appellant.
It has been argued that in order to show that the child understood “the nature and obligation of an oath” it must be shown that: (1) the child understood the difference between *594telling the truth and telling a lie; and, (2) the child had knowledge that she would be punished if she told a lie.
(1) There is some evidence that Wilma Jean understood the contrast between “telling the truth” and “telling a fib.” Consider the last three questions by appellant’s counsel:
“Q. Do you all the time tell the truth?
A. Yes.
Q. You never tell a fib?
A. No.
Q. Yes or no?
A. No.”
Note also that the court’s questions were all concerned with her telling the truth and counsel’s questions all emphasized lying.
(2) There is some evidence that Wilma Jean knew she was under some compulsion to tell the truth. Requiring that she have “knowledge she would be punished if she lied” is phrasing the test in too narrow a way. It is a fact she would be punished if she lied? By whom? Is a guilty conscience a punishment By whom? Consider the second and third question by the trial court:
“Q. ... Do you understand you have got to tell the truth?
A. Yes.
Q. You understand every word you give to the Court must be the truth.
A. Yes.”
The voir dire examination in Shipman v. State, supra, is very similar to the one in this case. This Court found the following voir dire examination sufficient to qualify the seven year old girl:
“ ‘Q. Do you tell lies?
A. No.
*595Q. Why don’t you tell lies? Don’t get scared. We are just talking to you. No one is going to hurt you. Do you know why you don’t tell lies?
A. No.
Q. Do you know you are supposed to tell the truth?
A. Yes.
Q. And you are not supposed to tell lies?
A. No.
Q. Would you ever tell a lie?
A. No.
Q. Do you know that when you are asked to tell something in court that you are asked to tell just the truth and not lie a bit, you know that?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you ever promise to do anything? Do you know what a promise is?
A. Yes.
Q. ... Do you know what it means to keep your promise? Don’t make a promise and not keep it, do you know that? Do you always keep your promises?
A. Uhuh.
Q. Would you promise me something?
A. Uhuh.
Q. Would you promise me to tell the truth today?
A. Yes.
Q. And you would not tell a lie?
A. No.
Q. And you would keep your promise to me?
A. Yes.’ ”
The fact that there are apparent inconsistencies in some of Wilma Jean’s answers is not decisive in this Court. Martin v. State, swpra. The bare transcript does not reveal to us that *596cluster of visual and aural clues collected under the general term “demeanor” which are discernible to the trial court, e.g., the different voice inflections and speech rhythms of question and answer, the nuances and emphasis in wording, the rapidity of the questions, the facial expressions, the firmness of the answers, the rapport between the questioner and Wilma Jean —in other words, the total context within which the questioning took place. Those considerations are decisive as to whether there were any real inconsistencies on the part of Wilma Jean. They are the reasons it is within the discretion of the trial court to resolve such inconsistencies and to determine on which part of the testimony he is to rely.
Looking at the complete voir dire examination, and only at it, there is some evidence from which the trial court could have inferred the statutory presumption was overcome. We cannot avoid the discipline imposed by our limited scope of review, by saying the statute specifically creates a presumption of incompetency that must be “clearly overborne” before a child under ten may be considered competent to testify. First, the statute says nothing at all, either specifically or otherwise, about the standard of proof required to overcome the statutory presumption. Second, even if the statute did specify a standard of proof, it is to be applied by the trial court, not this Court. The presumption we are to deal with is the one in favor of the trial court’s ruling. Admittedly this voir dire was far from what we would consider a model examination. But the proof required to overcome the presumption of validity of the trial court’s ruling is. that there was no evidence from which the trial court could have found Wilma Jean Haley competent as a witness. Only then can this Court reverse the trial court’s ruling as a manifest abuse of discretion. That proof is lacking in this case.
*597*596Appellant’s last argument is that there was insufficient evidence to sustain a finding of venue. In reviewing for sufficiency *597this Court must construe the evidence most favorably to the State, Fisher v. State (1966), 247 Ind. 529, 219 N. E. 2d 818, and will not reverse if there is some evidence in the record to support the finding of the trier of fact, Coach v. State (1968), 250 Ind. 226, 235 N. E. 2d 493. The evidence so construed shows this: The defendant left the Haley residence with Wilma Jean Haley sometime between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. While they were gone the appellant stopped to buy her a new dress, new panties, a soft drink and a hamburger. He returned her to her home around 7:00 p.m. and Wilma Jean was taken to the emergency room of the hospital at 7:30 p.m. The police learned from the witness, Wilma Jean Haley, shortly after the assault that it had taken place in a field by some water and a lot of trees, near a white house with blue trim. She also said there was a hill overlooking the water. The next day the police took the witness out to Wagner Lake and she identified the gravel road off of Road 37, leading to Wagner Lake. She identified the evergreen trees at the Ellis house, which is white with a blue trim, as the place where they stopped the car. Shé told the police she thought her missing panties were in those trees. The Ellis house is on a hill overlooking the lake. Wagner Lake is in Grant County, the county where the trial took place.
Construing the evidence in favor of the State, we find there was some evidence to support the trial court’s finding that the crime took place in Grant County.
Judgment affirmed.
Arterburn and Givan, JJ., concur; Hunter and Jackson, JJ., dissent with separate opinions.