Cox v. State

BOEHM, Justice.

In this direct appeal from a conviction for murder, Patrick E. Cox contends that . . . the trial court erred by admitting certain testimony, the relevance of which depended upon Cox's knowledge of the content of the testimony . . .
We affirm.

Factual Background

In the early morning hours of September 22, 1995 James and Patricia Leonard were asleep in the ground floor bedroom of their home. At about 3:00 a.m. Patricia . . . was awakened by a single “loud pop sound,” and quickly realized that James had been shot in the eye. James was rushed to the hospital but died three days later.

Bullet holes were found in the bedroom window and its screen, and a bullet casing was outside beneath the window. An officer who was called to the scene that night had a clear view of the inside of the bedroom from immediately outside the window. A firearms expert testified that the pattern of discoloration on the screen could have been produced only by a shot fired within six inches of the screen.

Police questioned Cox on the morning of the shooting. Cox denied any involvement in the crime and said he returned home from a nearby friend's house at about 1:00 a.m. However, later that morning one of Cox's friends told police that Cox had said that he had looked into the Leonards' window, fired a shot, and fled. Cox also told him that “Leonards probably ain't gonna have a dad after last night.”

Police concluded they had probable cause to arrest Cox. That afternoon, without obtaining an arrest warrant, two officers went to Cox's home. The front door to Cox's home also had a screen door. Cox answered the police knock by opening the front door but not the screen. When the officers asked him to come with them he attempted to shut the front door but an officer opened the screen door, blocked the front door, reached inside the house, and pulled Cox out by the arm. The officers then placed Cox under arrest and took him to the police station. Shortly afterward, Cox signed a waiver of rights form and told police that he fired once into the Leonards' bedroom window. He described the gun in detail and said he had thrown it into a nearby gravel pit. Meanwhile, pursuant to a search warrant, police had searched Cox's home and found a gun hidden in his bedroom. When Cox finished giving his statement, the police showed Cox a picture of the gun and Cox identified it as the one he said he threw into the gravel pit. At trial, the firearms expert testified that this gun fired the deadly shot. In addition, Angela Bowling, a friend of Cox's, testified that she bought bullets for Cox at his request the night of the shooting and that she and a few other friends were with him at the home of Helen Johnson until Cox left between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m. Johnson was the mother of Cox's close friend, Jamie Hammer. Bowling said that Cox showed the bullets to the group and had a large object tucked into his trousers.

The State contended that Cox killed Leonard as an act of retaliation because Hammer was in prison pending the resolution of charges filed against him by the Leonards for molesting their young daughter. The jury convicted Cox of murder but in a separate sentencing phase was unable to agree whether he should serve life in prison without parole. The trial court imposed life imprisonment and Cox appeals.

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III. Relevance of Evidence Conditioned on a Fact

At trial, Cox objected to testimony by David Puckett, a deputy prosecutor in Madison County. Puckett testified that four days before the murder he had represented the State of Indiana at a bond reduction hearing for Cox's close friend Jamie Hammer. He testified that: (1) he had informed the court at the hearing that three class B felony charges were to be filed against Hammer, in addition to a single pending charge, for alleged acts of child molestation of Leonard's daughter; (2) Helen Johnson, Hammer's mother, testified at the hearing; and (3) Hammer's bond was not reduced as a result of the hearing. Cox contends that this testimony was inadmissible because it could be relevant only if Cox knew what happened at the hearing and the State was unable to prove conclusively that Cox had that knowledge. The trial court admitted the evidence, concluding that because Hammer's mother knew about the denial of Hammer's bond reduction and the additional charges to be filed, “other persons in [Hammer's] circle reasonably are likely to know about it.”

The admissibility of Puckett's testimony is governed by Indiana Evidence Rule 104(b), “Relevancy Conditioned on Fact,” although neither party cites this rule. The Indiana Rule is identical to Federal Rule of Evidence 104(b). It provides: “When the relevancy of evidence depends upon the fulfillment of a condition of fact, the Court shall admit it upon, or subject to, the introduction of evidence sufficient to support a finding of the fulfillment of the condition.” Here, the relevance of Puckett's testimony depends upon a condition of fact-whether Cox knew about what happened at the bond reduction hearing. If Cox knew of the latest developments in Hammer's case, then the information was relevant and extremely probative of the State's theory that Cox killed Leonard-the father of Hammer's victim-because of Hammer's plight. If Cox was ignorant of these developments, then Puckett's testimony would be irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial.

We have not yet had occasion to set out the standard for questions under Rule 104(b). Under its terms, the court may admit the evidence only after it makes a preliminary determination that there is sufficient evidence to support a finding that the conditional fact exists. As Weinstein commented, “[t]hese issues are, for the most part, simple factual questions to be decided on the basis of common sense, and the Rules [of Evidence] assume that the jury is as competent to decide them as the judge.” . . . We adopt the prevailing federal standard that “the judge must determine only that a reasonable jury could make the requisite factual determination based on the evidence before it.” . . . The trial court is not required to weigh the credibility of the evidence or to make a finding. . . . We will review the sufficiency of the evidence under 104(b) for an abuse of discretion. . . . Here, the State introduced evidence that Cox spent almost every day at the Hammer house where Hammer's mother lived both before and after the bond reduction hearing and up to the time of the shooting. Hammer and Cox were close friends and Hammer's mother attended the hearing. This evidence is sufficient to support the inference that Cox had learned what transpired at the hearing. Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the evidence.

Cox also contends that Puckett's testimony should have been excluded because its probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. . . . The thrust of Cox's contention is that the probative value of the evidence was diminished considerably because it was conditioned on Cox's knowledge of the events of the hearing. We disagree. If the fact upon which the evidence depends is too speculative, then the evidence will not be admitted under Rule 104(b). Once evidence passes the 104(b) hurdle, the court then separately determines admissibility under the other rules of evidence. The speculative component of evidence conditioned on the existence of a fact may then become part of the trial court's relevance inquiry. The trial court must determine whether the evidence is of no probative value or whether its probative value is substantially decreased by its speculative component and inadmissible under Rule 402 (relevance) or Rule 403 (balancing). This is a highly fact sensitive inquiry and accordingly is reviewed for abuse of discretion. . . . Here, the court was well within its discretion in concluding that the evidence was both relevant and did not outweigh the danger of unfair prejudice.

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Conclusion

We affirm the trial court.