FOR PUBLICATION
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:
P. STEPHEN MILLER STEVE CARTER
Fort Wayne, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
ELLEN H. MEILAENDER
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
EDWARD D. PERREY, )
)
Appellant-Defendant, )
)
vs. ) No. 02A03-0409-CR-433
)
STATE OF INDIANA, )
)
Appellee-Plaintiff. )
March 16, 2005
OPINION FOR PUBLICATION
Appellants App. p. 17. A jury trial commenced on April 6, 2004.
During trial, the trial court granted the States motion to amend the
charging information to allege that the confinement was without consent. Tr. pp.
320-21.
The jury found Perrey guilty of Class C felony criminal confinement and Class
D felony auto theft. A sentencing hearing was held on May 7,
2004. Perrey was ordered to serve consecutive terms of eight years for
the criminal confinement conviction and two years for the auto theft conviction.
Perrey now appeals. Additional facts will be provided as necessary.
The offense is classified as a Class C felony if the person confined
or removed is less than fourteen years old. Ind. Code § 35-42-3-3
(2004). The term confines means to substantially interfere with the liberty of
a person. See Ind. Code § 35-42-3-1 (2004).
In Kelly v. State, 535 N.E.2d 140 (Ind. 1989), our supreme court observed
that the confinement statute framed in the disjunctive, includes two distinct types of
criminal confinement by encompassing both confinement by non-consensual restraint in place and confinement
by removal. Id. at 140 (citing Addis v. State, 404 N.E.2d 59,
60 (Ind. Ct. App. 1980)).
Under section one of the statute, the act of nonconsensual confinement is prohibited,
irrespective of any intent to remove the individual to another location[.] . .
. But lack of consent is not an element of confinement under section
two. . . . Clearly different acts and elements are required to
be proven in each section, and the defensive posture would not be the
same under the respective sections since the prosecution would necessarily proceed under different
theories and proof.
Id. at 141 (quoting Addis, 404 N.E.2d at 61).
In this case, the charging information filed against Perrey simply alleged that Perrey
confined A.B. At trial, the trial court granted the States motion to
amend the charging information to read in pertinent part:
On or about the 31st day of January, 2003, . . . Edward
D. Perrey, did knowingly or intentionally confine another person without the other persons
consent, to wit: [A.B.], a person who was then under fourteen (14) years
of age, to wit: one (1) year of age, with a date of
birth of December 21st, 2001, not being the child of said Edward D.
Perrey[.]
Appellants App. p. 65 (emphasis added).
In addition, the following confinement instruction was submitted to the jury:
A person who knowingly or intentionally confines another person without the other persons
consent commits Criminal Confinement. The offense is a Class C felony if
the other person is less than fourteen (14) years of age and is
not the persons child.
To convict the Defendant, the State must prove each of the following elements:
The Defendant, Edward D. Perrey,
knowingly or intentionally
confined another person without the other persons consent, and
the other person was less than fourteen (14) years of age and not
the defendants child.
Appellants App. p. 66. Accordingly, we conclude that the State was required
to prove that Perrey committed the offense of criminal confinement as it is
defined in Indiana Code section 35-42-3-3(a)(1), which Perrey contends the State failed to
do.
In support of his argument, Perrey cites to Addis v. State. In
that case, Addis failed to return her two children to the custody of
their father when Addis visitation period with the children expired. Addis, 404
N.E.2d at 60. Addis took the children, who resided in Indiana with
their father, to Florida, but failed to return them on the required date,
instead moving them to South Carolina and then to Ohio. Id.
Addis was charged and convicted of confining the children without their consent or
the consent of their father. Id. at 62.
On appeal, our court concluded that Addis was convicted for violating section two
of the criminal confinement statute rather than section one. Id. We
observed that the evidence presented at trial was directed almost exclusively to proving
confinement by fraudulently removing the children from Indiana. The States position was
that Mrs. Addis had picked her children up ostensibly for their summer vacation,
when, in fact she was intending at that time to have them remain
with her beyond the designated return day. Id. at 64. While
we observed that such evidence might support a conviction under subsection two of
the statute, such evidence lends no support to a conviction for nonconsensual confinement.
Id.
However, our court has also held that a child is incapable of consenting
to criminal confinement when taken from his or her legal guardian, and therefore
is deemed to have been taken without the childs consent as a matter
of law. In Matter of Bridges, 474 N.E.2d 529 (Ind. Ct. App.
1985), Lisa Bridges gave birth to R.B., and shortly thereafter, agreed to give
legal custody of R.B. to her step-sister, Betty Shattuck. When R.B. was
approximately ten months old, Betty left R.B. in the care of Bridges mother
for a few hours. Id. at 529. Bridges mother then left
R.B. with Bridges and her aunt for a brief period of time during
which Bridges took R.B. and left the house. As a result, a
delinquency petition was filed against Bridges which alleged that she had committed criminal
confinement. Id. at 530.
The juvenile court found that Bridges had confined R.B. without his consent, and
therefore, entered a finding of delinquency against Bridges. Id. On appeal,
Bridges asserted that there was no evidence proving that she acted without R.B.s
consent. Our court disagreed and observed, [a] child of tender years is
ordinarily regarded as incapable of consenting to its seizure and abduction and, when
taken from its rightful guardian, is deemed to have been taken without its
consent as a matter of law. Id. at 530-31 (citation omitted).
In Richards v. State, 816 N.E.2d 72 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004), Richards and
Kim OConner had a child, C.R. Id. at 73. Although Richards
paternity to C.R. was never established, the parties agreed that Richards was C.R.s
biological father. Richards and OConner lived apart from each other on numerous
occasions and during a period of separation, Richards asked OConner to marry him.
Id. When OConner refused, Richards took C.R. and disappeared for four
months. Id. at 74. Richards was convicted of criminal confinement and
on appeal he argued that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction.
Citing Matter of Bridges, our court held that under subsection one of
the statute, whether C.R. consented to the confinement was irrelevant because she was
taken without her mothers consent and concluded that the evidence was sufficient to
convict Richards of nonconsensual criminal confinement.
See footnote
Id.
In this case, it is undisputed that Perrey took A.B. from Christina without
Christinas consent. This case is therefore distinguishable from Addis because the defendant
in Addis took the children with their fathers consent, but failed to return
the children when required under the courts visitation order. The facts of
this case are more closely analogous to those in Bridges and Richards because
in those cases, the defendants took the children without the consent of their
legal guardians, and therefore without the childrens consent as a matter of law.
Under these facts and circumstances, where the State presented evidence that Perrey
knew A.B. was in the car
See footnote
and that Perrey took A.B. without Christinas
consent, we hold that the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction for
Class C felony nonconsensual criminal confinement.
Affirmed.
BAILEY, J., concurs.
SULLIVAN, J., concurs in result with opinion.
SULLIVAN, Judge, concurring in result
The majority opinion here relies upon Richards v. State, 816 N.E.2d 72 (Ind.
Ct. App. 2004) and In Re Bridges, 474 N.E.2d 529 (Ind. Ct. App.
1985). Richards correctly says that under subsection one of the statute the
State had to prove the absence of consent on the part of C.R.,
the five-year-old child. This is because that subsection defines confinement as being
without the other persons consent. The Richards court went on to say,
however, that whether or not C.R. consented was irrelevant because subsection two of
the statute permits conviction without regard to the other persons consent, and in
Richards, the defendant removed C.R. by force from one place to another.
Thus Richards conviction was appropriate under subsection two of the statute. This
conclusion would be correct only if Richards had been charged under subsection two
rather than subsection one. In this regard, unfortunately, the Richards opinion does
not indicate whether the charge was brought under subsection one or subsection two.
Nevertheless, in my view, Richards confused the issue by citing to Bridges for
the proposition that a child is incapable of consenting and that therefore it
may be said that the child was confined without the childs consent.
If the charge was framed under subsection two, reference to Bridges was unnecessary.
If, on the other hand, the charge was under subsection one, any
discussion of the validity of a subsection two conviction would be extraneous.
Be that as it may, Richards held that the conviction was valid under
either of the two subsections.
The majority opinion here, however, focuses upon what I perceive to be an
irrelevant and therefore confusing factor. In my view, the fact that the
maternal grandmother in Richards and that Christina, the childs mother in the case
before us, did not consent is irrelevant and was not a basis of
the conviction in either case. Accordingly, Christinas lack of consent in this
case is of no moment.
Here, Perreys conviction was based upon the charge that A.B. was confined without
the person's consent. Tr. at 321. [T]he person necessarily referred to
A.B., i.e. the person confined, and had nothing to do with whether or
not Christina, the childs mother, consented. Accordingly, pursuant to the case law holding
that a child of tender years is incapable of consent, the conviction is
sustainable under subsection one of the statute. It is upon this basis
that I concur in result.