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Pursuant to Ind.Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited before any court except for the purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.

FILED
Sep 11 2008, 8:41 am
of the supreme court, court of appeals and tax court

CLERK

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: CYNTHIA CARTER Indianapolis, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: STEVE CARTER Attorney General of Indiana ELLEN H. MEILAENDER Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
ADELL LYLES, Appellant-Defendant, vs. STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee-Plaintiff. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 49A02-0712-CR-1076

APPEAL FROM THE MARION SUPERIOR COURT The Honorable Tanya Walton-Pratt, Judge Cause No. 49G01-0609-FA-166924

September 11, 2008 MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATION

VAIDIK, Judge

Case Summary Adell Lyles appeals his twelve convictions for rape, deviate sexual conduct, attempted deviate sexual conduct, burglary, three counts of criminal confinement, three counts of robbery, and two counts of theft. Specifically, he argues that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions, that his convictions violate Indiana's prohibition against double jeopardy, and that his aggregate sentence of ninety years is inappropriate. We affirm. Facts and Procedural History The facts most favorable to the verdict reveal that on the evening of June 22, 2002, former Lawrence North High School students Justin Jackson, Drew Black, and S.T., all of whom were nineteen years old, were watching the movie Traffic in Jackson's apartment at Lake Castleton Apartments on the north side of Indianapolis when they heard the blinds on the sliding glass door start to rustle. The group of friends looked over to see an African-American male enter the apartment with a rifle. The intruder yelled, "Get the f*** on the ground. Don't look at me," and the group of friends complied with his order. Tr. p. 75. Several other males then entered the apartment.1 The intruders took various cords from throughout the apartment and tied up Jackson's, Black's, and S.T.'s hands and feet. The intruders also gagged and blindfolded them, which hindered their ability to see what was going on and to identify what intruder was doing what. The intruders asked for money, "weed," and "anything" they could get their hands on. Id. at 78. They searched Jackson's, Black's, and S.T.'s belongings and

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The victims were uncertain whether there were three or four intruders in total.

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pockets and took their wallets, keys, cash, bank cards, cell phones, and jewelry. Once the intruders located Jackson's safe, they pointed the gun at him and demanded the combination. Upon discovering the good quality of marijuana inside the safe, they were excited "like [it was] Christmas." Id. at 116. While the intruders ransacked the

apartment, one of them stopped to comment about S.T.'s good looks, "Damn. Look at this white bit**." Id. at 81. At this point, the group of friends was separated; Black was taken to the bathroom, and S.T., whose hands and feet were still bound, was taken to the bedroom. Once in the bedroom, one of the intruders pulled down S.T.'s pants and underwear and lifted up her shirt. He then proceeded to have vaginal intercourse with S.T. and ejaculated on her buttocks. Afterwards, he wiped himself and S.T. off with the comforter from the bed. Another intruder yelled, "[A]re you done yet?" and then

proceeded to have anal intercourse with S.T. Id. at 294. When he removed his erect penis and tried to reinsert it, S.T. squeezed her rectum to prevent re-penetration. As a result, he hit her and called her a "white bit**." Id. at 295. When S.T. still would not stop squeezing, someone placed a gun between her legs and told her "to open up or else they would open [her] up." Id. at 296. Another intruder then tried to have oral sex with S.T. When he tried to insert his penis into S.T.'s mouth, she refused to open it. He then hit her on the head and took the gag that was around her mouth and pulled it back and forth across her gums in an attempt to get her to open her mouth, but she did not. The intruders also sprayed shaving cream in S.T.'s eyes and hair, and S.T. felt something "oozing" down her back. Id. at 298.

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Just then there was a knock on the apartment door. Ralph Bridgeforth, a private security officer for the apartment complex, received a loud noise complaint regarding Jackson's apartment and was there to investigate. Bridgeforth heard people inside the apartment moving around "frantically" and items being thrown. Id. at 22. He then saw several males running south of Jackson's apartment. Bridgeforth returned to this vehicle, which was parked on the north side of the apartment, and drove to the area where he believed the suspects were running. He saw an African-American male pacing around the area. Bridgeforth asked the male for his identification card, which provided the name of "Adell Lyles." Bridgeforth copied Lyles' information and, after confirming that Lyles was not on the apartment complex's no-trespass list, let him go. returned to Jackson's apartment. In the meantime, after the intruders ran out of Jackson's apartment, Black was able to untie himself and then Jackson. They proceeded to the bedroom, where they found S.T. partially naked and hysterical. She had shaving cream and eggs on her body. Her hands were bound so tightly that they had to use a knife to free her. By this point, Bridgeforth arrived at the apartment and called the police. When the police arrived, they observed that Jackson's apartment had been ransacked and was in disarray. There was a rifle on a chair by the sliding glass door. There were various cords in the living room, bathroom, and bedroom. They found items bagged up in pillowcases and trash bags, and there was a drawstring bag containing CDs, videos, batteries, and beer on the lawn. S.T. was taken to Methodist Hospital and underwent a rape exam, including administering a rape kit that tested for the presence of sperm. During the exam, the nurse 4 Bridgeforth then

practitioner discovered multiple abrasions to S.T.'s labia, two lacerations to her rectum, and swelling in her anal area. Because Jackson, Black, and S.T. were not able to identify any of the intruders, no immediate arrests in the case were made. In early 2003, Christopher Fisher was incarcerated in the Marion County Jail for an auto theft conviction when he met Lyles, who was being held on a matter unrelated to this case. They were housed in the same area and got to know each other. One day, Lyles told Fisher that he, his brother, and a friend had robbed some people at Lake Castleton Apartments. Lyles said that they tied up the occupants of the apartment. Next, all three of them raped a girl and ate some food but then panicked when there was a knock at the door, and they left behind some items, including a rifle, in the apartment. Lyles also said he stuck the barrel of a rifle "up [the girl's] a**," but he was not worried about the rifle because his fingerprints were not on it. Id. at 164. Fisher reported this conversation to a guard and was contacted by a detective in April 2003, after he had been released from jail. Detective Rebecca Buttram, the detective in charge of this case, learned in her investigation that the security guard at Lake Castleton Apartments had stopped someone in the vicinity of Jackson's apartment named "Adell Lyles" and that Lyles had told a fellow inmate that he had committed a rape and robbery at Lake Castleton Apartments. Based on this information, Detective Buttram obtained a search warrant for Lyles' blood. The warrant was executed at the jail in April 2004. Based on the results from the rape kit, spermatozoa were detected from S.T.'s vaginal/cervical swab and rectal swab, and seminal material was detected from S.T.'s 5

vaginal/cervical swab, external genital swab, and left buttock swab. Seminal material was also detected on S.T.'s underwear, her blue jeans, and the comforter. In June 2005, DNA testing confirmed that Lyles' DNA was in the sperm cells recovered from S.T.'s left buttock. Lyles was also a major contributor to the DNA found in the regular cells recovered from S.T.'s left buttock. On September 6, 2006, the State charged Lyles with the following sixteen counts, many of which were enhanced because of the presence of a deadly weapon: Count I: Class A felony rape; Count II: Class A felony deviate sexual conduct (penis/anus); Count III: Class A felony deviate sexual conduct (firearm/anus); Count IV: Class A felony attempted deviate sexual conduct (mouth/penis); Count V: Class A felony burglary of Jackson's apartment; Count VI: Class B felony criminal confinement (Jackson); Count VII: Class B felony criminal confinement (Black); Count VIII: Class B felony criminal confinement (S.T.); Count IX: Class B felony robbery (Jackson); Count X: Class B felony robbery (Black); Count XI: Class B felony robbery (S.T.); Count XII: Class C felony battery (S.T.); Count XIII: Class D felony theft (Jackson); Count XIV: Class D felony theft (Black); Count XV: Class D felony theft (S.T.); and Count XVI: Class A misdemeanor battery (S.T.). Following a bench trial, Lyles was convicted of all counts except Count III (the count involving penetration of S.T.'s anus with the rifle). At the sentencing hearing, the trial court identified as an aggravator that Lyles, who was eighteen years old at the time he committed the offenses but was twenty-three years old at the time of sentencing, had a history of criminal activity. Specifically, the court noted that in 2003, Lyles was convicted of theft, theft and receiving stolen property, 6

and felony auto theft, in 2004, he was convicted of public intoxication, and in 2006, he was convicted of felony possession of cocaine. The court also identified as an aggravator the nature and circumstances of the offenses: This was a particularly heinous and violent crime. In the sanctity of Mr. Jackson's home, you . . . broke into that home, bound, gag[g]ed, and blindfolded [S.T.]. [S.T.] was bound so tightly that she had nerve damage which took two years for her to begin having feelings in her . . . hands. She suffered lacerations and tears to her rectum, she suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder. The Prosecutor has just stated that [S.T.'s] been in counseling for the five years since this incident occurred. [S.T.] was not only raped by numerous men that night, but she was also humiliated by you and your cohorts. A shotgun was placed between her legs. There's no evidence that it was

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