Parrish v. State

166 N.E.3d 953

James PARRISH, Appellant-Defendant,

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff

Court of Appeals Case No. 20A-CR-1487

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

FILED March 30, 2021

Attorney for Appellant: John (Jack) F. Crawford, Indianapolis, Indiana

Attorneys for Appellee: Theodore E. Rokita, Attorney General of Indiana, Courtney Staton, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana

Mathias, Judge.

[1] Following a jury trial, James Parrish was convicted of one count of Level 2 felony robbery and three counts of Level 3 felony criminal confinement. He subsequently admitted to being a habitual offender and, after a bench trial, the court found him guilty of committing a felony while a member of a criminal organization. Parrish presents several issues for our review on appeal, which we restate as the following three:

I. Whether the State presented sufficient evidence to support his convictions and the criminal-organization enhancement;

II. Whether the criminal-organization enhancement violates the prohibition against double jeopardy; and

III. Whether his fifty-two-year sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his character.

[2] We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[3] At 12:56 a.m. on October 5, 2019, two armed men entered a twenty-four-hour CVS located in Avon, Indiana. One man¹ wore an orange hooded sweatshirt and black pants, carried a gray backpack, and concealed his face with a Halloween mask. The second man, who police later identified as David Melvin,² wore a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants, and concealed his face with a surgical mask. A pharmacist and a cashier were working at the time, and there were three customers inside the store. The man in the orange sweatshirt headed straight to the pharmacy while Melvin stayed near the front of the store.

[4] Melvin ordered the cashier to open the cash register and gathered the customers, ordering them to lay face down on the ground. He then took the money from the register and put it in his pocket. Meanwhile, the man in the orange sweatshirt jumped over the pharmacy counter and demanded the pharmacist enter the codes for two time-delayed safes that contained medications. He also ordered the pharmacist to open the pharmacy's drive-thru cash-register drawer. While waiting for the safes to open, the man in the orange sweatshirt took bills from the register and two bottles of codeine from a shelf, placing the items in his backpack; he also opened the drive-thru window. According to the pharmacist, the man in the orange sweatshirt did not hesitate and it did not seem like this was his first time robbing a pharmacy. See Tr. Vol. II, p. 213.

[5] Melvin subsequently led the cashier and the customers³ to the pharmacy area where he again had them lay face down. The man in the orange sweatshirt ordered the pharmacist to join the others on the ground. He remained behind the pharmacy counter, watching the time-delayed safes and letting Melvin "know how much time is left." Id. at 198. The man in the orange sweatshirt then "jiggl[ed] the handle" of both safes, causing the time-delay on each to reset; so he had the pharmacist get off the ground and enter the codes a second time. Id. at 199; State's Ex. 2. Melvin "kept asking" the man in the orange sweatshirt how long they had been in there and saying they needed to leave. Tr. Vol. II, p. 229. The man in the orange sweatshirt made the pharmacist open two other cash-register drawers and removed the money, placing it in his backpack. Then, rather than again wait for the safes’ time delays to elapse, both men fled through the pharmacy's drive-thru window.⁴

[6] The pharmacist immediately called 911 and looked through the window "for a minute – minute and a half" to report what she saw. Id. at 205–06. She noticed "a couple of figures" about fifty yards away standing by a dark-grey Chevrolet Sonic that was parked—facing outward—in a strip-mall parking lot located northwest of the CVS. Id. at 201–02, 206; Ex. Vol. at 11–14. At the same time, Officer Jacob Boggess was in his patrol vehicle at a Burger King drive-thru "[p]robably a hundred yards or so" directly east of the CVS. Tr. Vol. III, p. 6. Just after getting his food, Officer Boggess received a dispatch for an armed robbery in progress. He "immediately looked across the street ... to look for suspects leaving the store[.]" Id. at 5. Officer Boggess saw two people jogging through the strip-mall parking lot where the Chevrolet Sonic was parked. He drove his vehicle over to where he had seen the individuals, located two men in an alley behind the strip mall, "and attempted to stop them." Id. at 6. Melvin took off running, but the other man—James Parrish—stopped and complied. In complying with the officer's commands, Parrish dropped his iPhone and a lanyard with a key for a Chevrolet.

[7] Officer Jacob Elder arrived to assist Officer Boggess soon after Parrish was apprehended. Officer Elder stayed with Parrish while Officer Boggess left the scene upon learning that Melvin had been found hiding "in a high vegetated area" just northwest of the alley. Id. at 61. When Melvin was apprehended, he was breathing heavy, drenched in sweat, and lying on top of a pair of black pants and an iPhone. Meanwhile, Parrish told Officer Elder that the Chevrolet key he had dropped was for "a red car" that was located "down the street." Id. at 41–42. Parrish said he was homeless and intended to sleep in the car that night. Officers soon learned, however, that Parrish was lying and the key was for the Chevrolet Sonic.⁵

[8] In the immediate aftermath of the robbery, law enforcement believed that only two men—Parrish and Melvin—were involved. However, two days after the crime, Detective Aaron Stobaugh "received information about a third suspect being involved and him getting away that night." Id. at 127. When Officer Boggess reviewed the dash-camera video from his vehicle, he noticed a "third person take off running ... through the parking lot and then out of [his] view." Id. at 18. Detective Stobaugh reviewed the same footage and he too saw three subjects fleeing the Avon CVS. While the "first individual ... [was] definitely running," the second two men, Melvin and Parrish, appeared to be "jogging away." Id. at 158–59.

[9] The ensuing investigation uncovered additional details. Law enforcement learned that the Chevrolet Sonic was registered to Melvin's mother, and officers obtained a search warrant for the car. Officers recovered several items from inside the vehicle, including a box of surgical masks in the backseat. Only one surgical mask remained from the box of ten, and it matched the mask worn by the robber who officers believed to be Melvin. In the cupholder of the Sonic, officers found a set of keys which were attached to a lanyard embroidered with the name "James." See Ex. Vol. at 45–46, 56–57. Detective Stobaugh discovered those keys belonged to Parrish, as one of them operated his Chevrolet Malibu. The detective found Parrish's Malibu in a local tow yard, and he learned that the car had been towed from Melvin's mother's home.

[10] Officers also learned—from store surveillance footage and analysis of Parrish's and Melvin's cellphones—that the two men knew each other and were together during the hours leading up to the robbery. Inside the Chevrolet Sonic, law enforcement found a receipt from a Kokomo, Indiana Walgreens that was timestamped a few hours before the robbery. Detective Stobaugh obtained surveillance footage from the Walgreens which shows, around 9:30 p.m., Parrish park the Chevrolet Sonic, exit the front driver-side door, and enter the store. Tr. Vol. III, pp. 102–05; Ex. Vol. at 69–70; State's Ex. 61. Analysis of Parrish's iPhone and two of Melvin's cellphones indicated that the men were in Kokomo during the same time period. Tr. Vol. III, pp. 115, 118, 122; Ex. Vol. at 88, 114–15. Analysis of Melvin's iPhone in particular further revealed that he downloaded a police-scanner application prior to arriving at the Kokomo Walgreens. Tr. Vol. III, p. 120; Ex. Vol. at 103.

[11] Detective Stobaugh also reviewed surveillance footage from an Avon Walgreens located directly south of the CVS. That footage shows Parrish park the Chevrolet Sonic just before 11:30 p.m., exit the front driver-side door, and enter the store. Tr. Vol. III, pp. 107–08; State's Ex. 64. Inside, Parrish walks toward the pharmacy—the only other twenty-four-hour pharmacy in the area—where he stops near a shelf containing over-the-counter pain medications. Tr. Vol. II, p. 210; Vol. III, pp. 108–09; State's Ex. 64. He remains inside the store for about two minutes and does not purchase anything before leaving. Tr. Vol. III, pp. 183–84; State's Ex. 64. Analysis of Melvin's cellphones indicated that he too was in Avon at the time. Tr. Vol. III, pp. 116, 118; Ex. Vol. at 88, 99. And less than ninety minutes after Parrish was spotted inside the Avon Walgreens, the CVS "right across the street" was robbed and Parrish was apprehended after fleeing the scene. Tr. Vol. II, p. 210.

[12] Based on this investigation, law enforcement believed Parrish was an accomplice to the robbery. The State charged him with one count of Level 2 felony robbery and three counts of Level 3 felony confinement.⁶ The State later amended Parrish's charging information by alleging two enhancements applied: he committed the offenses as a member of a criminal organization; and he was a habitual offender. The enhancements were set to be tried in separate phases.

[13] Parrish's bifurcated three-day jury trial began on December 16, 2019. After phase one of the trial, the jury found Parrish guilty as charged. The court then proceeded to phase two, which dealt with the criminal-organization enhancement. While the jury deliberated that charge, the parties notified the court that Parrish agreed to waive the third phase by pleading guilty to the habitual-offender enhancement in exchange for a six-year minimum sentence. The court accepted the...