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Williams v. State2/7/2003
FOR PUBLICATION
OPINION - FOR PUBLICATION
Jerome Williams ("Williams") was convicted of murder, a felony, attempted robbery, as a Class A felony, and carrying a handgun without a license, as a Class A misdemeanor, after a jury trial in Marion Superior Court. Williams appeals raising five issues, which we restate as:
I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed two witnesses to testify to what the victim told them in the emergency room after the shooting;
II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed the medical examiner to testify as to why some of the victim's organs were not harvested;
III. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by reading the jury Final Instruction 10D, which referred to accomplice liability;
IV. Whether there was sufficient evidence to support Williams's conviction for murder; and,
V. Whether Williams's sentence was inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender.
We affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
On December 17, 1999, Frank Townsend ("Townsend") was using his car to provide taxi services to earn extra money for the holidays. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Williams and his cousin, Cleve Williams ("Cleve"), left a friend's house and walked to a gas station. At the gas station, Williams used a payphone to call a cab. Both Williams and Cleve had handguns; Cleve had received one earlier that day from Williams. When Townsend arrived at the gas station, Williams sat in the front seat and Cleve sat in the back seat. Williams told Townsend to keep his hands on the steering wheel and drive. Tr. p. 278.
A few minutes later, the car stopped near the intersection of North Beville and Coyner. Williams's and Cleve's aunt lived across the street from that location. Almost immediately after the car stopped, shooting started from the front seat area of the car. Cleve then pulled out his gun and started shooting. When Cleve stopped shooting, he got out of the car through the back passenger's window and ran to his aunt's house. A few minutes after Cleve reached his aunt's house, Williams also entered his aunt's house and was bleeding. Cleve then left and went to his uncle's house.
Indianapolis Police Officer Brian Bethel ("Officer Bethel") was patrolling the area of Brookside Parkway in Indianapolis at around 11:00 p.m. Initially, when Officer Bethel drove through the intersection of Beville and Coyner, he did not observe anything unusual. When he drove though a few minutes later at 11:36 p.m., Officer Bethel saw a car sitting in the road facing northeast on Coyner. The headlights of the vehicle were on, the car was running, and there was glass broken out of the driver's side window. Officer Bethel stopped to investigate and observed a person slumped in the driver's seat. As he approached the car, Officer Bethel saw that several of the windows had been broken out, all of the car's doors were closed, and that the man, who was later identified as Townsend, in the driver's seat appeared to be unconscious. Townsend had blood on him, and a handgun was lying a few inches from his hand.
Officer Bethel moved the handgun for safety reasons and called in for backup. At that time, a woman came from 2214 Coyner and told Officer Bethel that there was another person shot inside the house. Tr. pp. 79-80. Another officer arrived at the scene and went with the woman to check on the person inside the house. Officer Bethel then returned to Townsend and noticed that he had stopped breathing. Officer Bethel pulled Townsend out of the car to assist him. The car beg
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