Ingalls v. State

187 N.E.3d 233

Steven E. INGALLS, Jr., Appellant-Defendant,

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.

Court of Appeals Case No. 21A-PC-2050

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

FILED April 11, 2022

Publication Ordered April 29, 2022

Appellant Pro Se: Steven E. Ingalls, Jr., Carlisle, Indiana

Attorneys for Appellee: Theodore E. Rokita, Attorney General of Indiana, Caroline G. Templeton, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana

Brown, Judge.

[1] Steven E. Ingalls, Jr., appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief and asserts that the post-conviction court erred in denying his motion for change of judge and that he was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel and appellate counsel. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[2] The relevant facts as discussed in Ingalls's direct appeal follow:

B.P. was born in June 2011 and suffered from a number of medical issues including a genetic condition called Fragile X chromosome syndrome, autism, impulse control disorder, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He experienced developmental delays, had limited vocabulary for a child his age, and sometimes exhibited self-harming behavior. B.P. also suffered from pulmonary aspirations, reflux, pediatric pulmonology, and gastrointestinal issues. B.P. was prescribed several psychotropic medications, which [Meghan] Price administered to him, including Sertraline, Clonidine, and Risperidone.

Ingalls and Price had been in a relationship since at least 2013, and Ingalls often stayed at Price's apartment with her and B.P. Ingalls and Price have one child together, S.I., who was born in 2014. The record reflects that Ingalls had great disdain for B.P., viewing him as a burden and an annoyance. He also felt that B.P. interfered with his relationship with Price. On different occasions during B.P.’s life, he had injuries to his body including bumps, bruises, abrasions, a broken arm, and a broken leg. On several occasions, the principal where B.P. attended preschool reported the injuries to the Indiana Department of Child Services, who investigated but did not substantiate abuse. In November 2015, B.P was admitted to the hospital with headaches, congestion, extreme drowsiness, and a slow heart rate. About a year later, in November 2016, B.P. underwent a surgical procedure for an upper lip laceration, and that same month he went to the emergency room with breathing issues and was diagnosed with croup and possibly asthma.

Sometime after B.P. went to bed on November 22, 2016, he suffered trauma at the hands of one or more other individuals and died in his bedroom. On the morning of November 23, B.P. had blood and other bodily fluid around his mouth, and his upper lip, for which he had undergone surgery, was split open. At 10:13 a.m., Ingalls called 911 from Price's apartment reporting an unconscious and unresponsive child that was not breathing. Emergency personnel arrived in less than two minutes. They found B.P. and Price on the stairs in the entryway to the apartment building. B.P. had no pulse and was not breathing. His skin was mottled, and his body was cold and already in a state of rigor mortis, indicating he had been deceased for some time.

Ingalls was present at the scene when the first responders arrived. He was standing outside of the apartment building holding two-year-old S.I. As described by one emergency responder, Ingalls was "just kind of walking around, or standing there" and appeared as though "he might have been one of the neighborhood people." Transcript Vol. IV at 228. Ingalls "didn't really seem upset ... he was just kind of there." Id.

B.P. was transported by ambulance to the hospital as paramedics attempted to resuscitate him. Mooresville Police Department (MPD) Captain Brad Yarnell was going to transport Price to the hospital, but Price asked to return to her apartment first to get some shoes. MPD Detective Chad Richhart and Price's neighbor, Tiffany Hall, accompanied Price back to the apartment. Detective Richhart stood in the doorway to her apartment and saw Price "running around the apartment" and heard "a lot of movement" in the back of the apartment. Transcript Vol. VII at 151-52. Hall went with Price to B.P.’s bedroom, where she saw Price climb up onto the top bunk of B.P.’s bed and "mov[e] things around." Transcript Vol. VIII at 76. Hall saw a green pillow on top of the bunk bed and a wall-mounted camera above the bed. With regard to the camera, Hall saw Price "jostle it around, like she was getting something." Id.

Once Price got her shoes, Captain Yarnell transported Price to the hospital and accompanied her inside. Detective Richhart transported Ingalls and S.I. to the hospital, but just dropped them off and returned to the apartment, where Detective Richhart conducted a "quick walkthrough" because, he explained, police did not know at that point "if there's any other children in the home, any other people in the home" or "if this is a result of an injury, an illness" and had "no idea" what the situation was in the apartment. Transcript Vol. VII at 153-54. Inside B.P.’s bedroom, Detective Richhart observed an area on the floor saturated with blood, some blood along the top bedrail and on bedding, and blood on a floor rug. Captain Yarnell, still at the hospital, contacted Detective Richhart to confirm that B.P. was in fact deceased, and the two decided to open an investigation into B.P.’s death.

At Ingalls's request, Detective Yarnell drove Ingalls from the hospital back to the apartment, where police were executing a search warrant on the residence. When Ingalls arrived back at the apartment, Detective Richhart asked Ingalls if he would agree to accompany him to the police station for an interview.

Ingalls consented, and, in the interview, Ingalls described being in the apartment the night before, saying that B.P. went to bed as normal, but was found dead in the morning by Price. He indicated that he had no knowledge as to how B.P. died.

Meanwhile, during their search of the apartment, police found medications prescribed to B.P. In B.P.’s bedroom, they found red liquid stains that appeared to be blood spatter on the railing of the bunk bed and on some of the stuffed animals inside of a bin next to the bed. The presence and patterns of the blood spatter indicated to officers that the bleeding had been caused by some kind of trauma. Police saw what appeared to be blood stains on a blue rug and on the carpet. Police also found a green pillow, shaped as a character from the children's television show Yo Gabba Gabba, on the ground in B.P.’s closet, propped up against a toy bin. The pillow had a red stain, which appeared to be blood, as well as a white stain. Police saw the wall-mounted video camera in B.P.’s bedroom and, at some point that day, Detective Richhart learned that the camera may have recorded video or sent information to an app on Price's phone.

Price arrived back at the apartment about the same time as police were finishing their search. Detective Richhart approached Price in the parking lot and told her that police had found the video camera by B.P.’s bed and understood that it may have recorded information to an app on Price's phone. He asked if he could have her permission to search her phone in order to view the footage from B.P.’s room. Price told him that she did not have her phone nor did she know where it was. Detective Richhart and another officer found it in her bedroom between the bed and the wall, although the phone's battery was dead.

Detective Richhart took the phone to Price, who identified it as hers. The phone was charged in a car in which Price was sitting, and once it powered up, text messages and notifications began arriving. Richhart asked Price to give the phone to him, but Price told Richhart that she needed to check her text messages. Detective Richhart had "a great deal of difficulty getting the phone from [Price]" and she "was frantically doing stuff on her phone" for approximately twenty seconds, as he asked for her phone. Transcript Vol. VIII at 88. Believing that Price may have been destroying evidence, Detective Richhart leaned in through the open passenger window and took Price's phone from her.

Shortly thereafter, police obtained a search warrant for Price's phone. Data showed that on November 16, 2016, Price had conducted several internet searches for "risperidone overdose." State's Exhibit 155. Data analysis also revealed that at 2:10 p.m. on November 23, which was about the same time that Detective Richhart watched Price pressing the screen of her phone before handing it over to police, she had opened the app on her phone that was used to access surveillance video for the camera over B.P.’s bed.

An initial autopsy was conducted on November 23. The forensic pathologist observed that B.P. was "very thin and frail" and there were areas of blunt force trauma, including contusions to his face, mouth, and oral cavity. Transcript Vol. V at 148. B.P. had two black eyes, a hemorrhage near his nose, and injury to his lips. The presence of injuries to B.P.’s nostrils, the septum of his nose, and injuries to his upper and lower lip areas indicated that B.P. had been smothered by another individual and had died of asphyxiation. The forensic pathologist also found a secondary cause of death: "acute Sertraline, Clonidine, and Risperidone intoxication." Id. at 173. Testing showed that the drugs Sertraline and Clonidine were present in B.P.’s blood at levels higher than the normal therapeutic level. The drug Risperidone was also found in B.P.’s blood, though at levels lower than the therapeutic level, but which could have been near the therapeutic range prior to his death.

Detective Richhart conducted a second interview with Ingalls on November 23. Ingalls confirmed that Price had given B.P. his medications on the night he died. Detective Richhart informed Ingalls that the preliminary results of B.P.’s autopsy indicated that B.P. had died as a result of being

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