Carmack v. State

200 N.E.3d 452

Amanda Dawn CARMACK, Appellant (Defendant below),

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below).

Supreme Court Case No. 21S-LW-00471

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Argued: September 22, 2022

Filed January 12, 2023

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: Jerry T. Drook, Marion, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: Theodore E. Rokita, Attorney General of Indiana, Evan M. Comer, Office of the Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana

Massa, Justice.

Amanda Carmack appeals her conviction after being sentenced to life without parole for the murder of her ten-year-old stepdaughter, S.C. On direct review, Carmack challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, arguing the State failed to satisfy its evidentiary burden in negating the mitigating factor of "sudden heat," a condition necessary to reduce her conviction to voluntary manslaughter. In reviewing the evidence supporting the judgment, we hold the State met its evidentiary burden to disprove the existence of sudden heat because of the lack of adequate provocation, accompanied by a sustained cooling-off period. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court's conviction and Life Without Parole sentence.

Facts and Procedural History

In October 2017, Carmack married her now-ex-husband, Kevin, blending their families with Carmack's three children, three nieces and nephews, and Kevin's daughter, S.C. Carmack homeschooled the seven children, while Kevin worked as an over-the-road truck driver. Carmack had a particularly strained relationship with S.C., often complaining she created the most trouble of all the children.

On August 22, 2019, Carmack penned a Facebook post complaining about one child in her home.¹ She stated: "I'm really at the end of my rope with this one...." Tr. Vol. I, p. 174. That day, too, Carmack wrote a journal entry, alleging she had been lied to by unspecified individuals, and that she "just want[ed] to feel at peace. To know that the people I care about are honest with me." Ex. 84, p. 135.

One week later, on August 31, Kevin—who was away for work—received a text message from Carmack informing him that S.C. had taken her stepsister's charm bracelet, disassembled it, and given the pieces to other children at home. Around 3:30 p.m., Carmack set up a video call with Kevin, S.C., and herself to discuss the situation and possible consequences. The conversation lasted about fifteen minutes, and S.C. admitted to taking the charm bracelet from her stepsister. Kevin, who noticed Carmack's irritation, told her to "leave it alone until" he arrived at home the following morning. Tr. Vol. I, p. 178. Carmack obliged, but appeared "frustrated." Tr. Vol. II, p. 179. Kevin left the conversation with the general impression she wanted to discipline S.C. for her actions.

Sometime around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m., Kevin received a sharp text message from Carmack, which read: "I think we have a problem." Tr. Vol. I, p. 210. Two minutes later, Carmack sent a follow-up message, raising further alarms for Kevin: "I can't find [S.C.] She was supposed to be cleaning her room after I went through looking to see if there was anything. Asking kids when the last time they saw her." Id. Carmack then claimed she was uncertain on what to do, which puzzled Kevin because Carmack had contacted the police immediately the last time S.C. ran away in 2017.² Kevin told Carmack to call the police. In response, Carmack contacted the Gas City Police Department to report a missing child.

Officer Colton Shipley was dispatched to the residence, where Carmack told him S.C. was last seen wearing a sweatshirt with video-game characters on it, and that a pillow, blanket, and backpack were missing from her room. The officers searched the property, and observed several outbuildings in the backyard. The officers did not locate S.C. at that time.

On September 1, Indiana State Police obtained a search warrant for Carmack's residence, where they searched a white shed on the property, observing several trash bags inside. The officers felt the bags, which appeared to contain soft clothing or other materials. Because the officers operated under the assumption they were looking for a child who was alive and breathing, the officers did not open the trash bags.

That same day, Carmack went to the Gas City Police station to talk with police.³ During her nearly four-hour long interview, Carmack managed to recall certain details from August 31 with a degree of precision. She remembered the time of her phone call with Kevin, and when she turned on the oven to fix dinner that evening. At the same time, when questioned about S.C. and her disappearance, Carmack had trouble remembering details. For example, Detective Michelle Jumper asked Carmack several times about whether it was a "mistake," but Carmack provided no audible responses to these questions. Tr. Vol. I, p. 225. Sergeant Robert Burgess also participated in the interview, and Carmack admitted to him that she had lost her temper with S.C., and struck S.C. on the side of her head before her disappearance. As the interview progressed, Carmack's answers became largely unresponsive. When asked about her involvement in S.C.’s disappearance, Carmack stated, "it doesn't matter." Tr. Vol. I, pp. 228–29. Carmack never denied killing her stepdaughter, but stared at Detective Jumper when asked the question.

On September 3, Carmack underwent a voluntary polygraph examination. Before the examination, Carmack had a chance to supply her own account of what happened to S.C. She told the examiner she was "tired of [S.C.] lying and stealing stuff" and that, after the incident involving the bracelet, she told S.C. she "didn't wanna see her anymore," and she "wish[ed] she would just go away." Tr. Vol. II, pp. 34–35. During the examination, Carmack was asked several questions, including three which were especially relevant:

(1) Did you cause that girl to go missing?

(2) Were you involved in that girl going missing in any way?

(3) Do you know where that girl is now?⁴Id. at 30 (emphasis added).

Carmack answered "no" to each of these questions. Id. at 31, 35–36. After reviewing the results of the examination, the polygraph examiner determined she exhibited signs of deception.

At some point on September 3, Kevin walked into the white shed and found candles burning inside. Because Kevin thought burning candles in a shed was careless, he blew them out. When he asked Carmack about the candles, she said she stepped in "dog mess in the yard and had lit them to cover up the smell." Id. at 197. Kevin also discovered a notebook that day with Carmack's handwriting, which stated, among other things, "I'm sorry. I'm broken.... What's wrong with me[?]," "Things are jumbled and don't make sense," and, "I don't like being mean." Id. at 63, 198. Concerned with this unsettling content, Kevin delivered the notebook to Detective Josh Rozzi, who also worked for the Gas City Police Department. Detective Rozzi spoke with Kevin and Carmack about the journal entries that evening, and Carmack confirmed she wrote the notes.

During the early morning hours of September 4, Carmack traveled to the Gas City Police Department and asked to speak to detectives. Carmack told them she "remembered what happened to [S.C.]." Id. at 135. Carmack explained S.C.’s body was located inside trash bags in the white shed at home. She suggested she had been "so mad" at S.C., but did not identify the reasons for her anger. Ex. 88 at 01:03.35–1:03.44. She said she remembered sitting on S.C.’s head, putting her hands around her neck, and then grabbing an object to fasten around her neck. On this statement, the police obtained a second search warrant for her home.

During the second search, the officers found S.C.’s body inside the garbage bags, along with dryer sheets, the backpack, pillow, and blanket Carmack reported S.C. taking when she allegedly left home. According to one officer who helped execute the search, "There was clothing and padding all the way around the body[;] so feeling the bag, you couldn't even tell it was a body.... [T]here was a lot of thought put into the way it was packaged for the purpose of disguising it." Tr. Vol. I, p. 176. Officers also found a candle inside the shed; one officer determined this evinced Carmack's intent to hide the smell from the body, which had reached an "advanced stage of decomposition[.]" Tr. Vol. II, pp. 121, 177. A DNA sample discovered from the bags revealed Carmack's DNA. And while the officers were at the home searching for the body, Carmack used a pad of paper to draft a series of letters addressed to Kevin, her children, and other individuals she knew. In the last of these letters addressed to S.C., she said:

I'm sorry that I hurt you. I never meant for any of this to happen. I remember when we used to hang out. I wish we could get back to those days. I've only ever wanted to love you. I just don't think you knew how to handle that kind of caring. You were already so used to being cast aside. Seems like every time we had a great day, you found a way to push me away. I wish there was a way to fix this, but I really messed up. I'll see you in my dreams for the rest of my life. Ex. 85, p. 146.

During an autopsy, Dr. Scott Wagner observed a "very tight" double-knot ligature made of clothing fastened firmly around S.C.’s neck. Tr. Vol. II, p. 148. Dr. Wagner discovered the ligature had been affixed so securely that he could not fit his finger under the knot. After Dr. Wagner cut the piece of clothing, he observed a groove in her neck where the ligature had been located. This type of injury, Dr. Wagner testified, severed circulation in S.C.’s jugular vein and carotid arteries, while also cutting off air through her trachea. He also detected contusions in her chest and near her chin. Dr. Wagner ruled the death a homicide, concluding the cause of death was asphyxia due to ligature strangulation. He clarified there were signs of manual strangulation based on the chin contusions, but the ligature strangulation had been fatal.

The...