Preview:

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
Dec 29 2011, 9:27 am
of the supreme court, court of appeals and tax court

CLERK

APPELLANT PRO SE: FRED E. GORDON Carlisle, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: GREGORY F. ZOELLER Attorney General of Indiana MICHAEL GENE WORDEN Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
FRED E. GORDON, Appellant-Petitioner, vs. STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee-Respondent. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 45A05-1106-PC-281

APPEAL FROM THE LAKE SUPERIOR COURT The Honorable Thomas P. Stefaniak, Jr., Judge The Honorable Natalie Bokota, Magistrate Cause No. 45G04-1006-PC-11

December 29, 2011 MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATION BAILEY, Judge

Case Summary Fred E. Gordon ("Gordon") appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief, wherein he challenged his conviction for Murder. We affirm. Issue Gordon presents a single issue for review: whether he was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel. Facts and Procedural History On direct appeal, a panel of this Court recited the relevant facts as follows: Sometime before September 24, 1982, Gordon purchased a truck from Roger Hilton (Hilton), who owned a car dealership. During the week preceding September 24, Gordon, who still owed money on the truck, arrived at Hilton's trailer, located in the Black Oak neighborhood, in Gary, Indiana, and offered to pay Hilton with a gun. Hilton rejected the offer because the weapon was "a piece of junk." (Transcript p. 360). At approximately 8 p.m. on September 24, 1982, Gordon met Hilton at the home of a mutual friend. Hilton became angry when Gordon offered him a small amount of money as payment for the truck. Hilton told Gordon to "[b]ring the truck back and we'll call it even, we'll be even and we can start over." (Tr. p. 357). After Hilton left, Gordon consumed an alcoholic beverage and became "lightly inebriated." (Tr. p. 353). He became upset about his encounter with Hilton and announced that Hilton could not speak to him like he had and that he was going to dump the truck at Hilton's home that night. Gordon returned to his home that night at around 9:30 p.m. He went about his usual routine and did not tell his wife about his encounter with Hilton. At approximately 1 a.m. on September 25, 1982, Hilton's girlfriend, Kathryn Weller (Weller), returned to Hilton's trailer where she lived with Hilton. She noticed that a glass syrup bottle in the kitchen had shattered and observed, near the shattered bottle, a bullet hole in the wall. Weller also smelled an odor similar to that of exploded firecrackers in the trailer. Eventually, Hilton was found dead in his yard. Although he never left his house without his shoes on, Hilton was wearing only his socks. A 2

coroner's report determined that he had died as a result of a hemorrhage from a gunshot wound to the hip that had severed his iliac artery. There were no injuries consistent with a struggle and no marks on his skin that would indicate that he was shot at close range. A .45 caliber, semi-automatic carbine Volunteer Enterprises gun was located at approximately fifty feet from Hilton's body. On the kitchen floor of Hilton's trailer, detectives found two unfired .45 caliber rounds, as well as a spent .45 shell casing that had been fired from the gun. Although detectives with the Lake County Sheriff's Department found numerous weapons in Hilton's trailer, they found no other .45 caliber weapon. Because detectives found a second spent .45 caliber shell casing nearby Hilton's body, they determined that Hilton had been shot outside. This spent shell had also been fired from the suspected murder weapon. After further investigation, law enforcement identified Gordon as a suspect in Hilton's killing but, at that time, the State declined to file charges against him. In June of 2008, a cold case investigator with the Lake County Sheriff's Department reviewed Hilton's case and determined that one witness, Jack Burkholder (Burkholder), had never been interviewed. In August of 2008, detectives interviewed Burkholder. Burkholder told the detectives that several months after Hilton's killing, Gordon had told him that he had "shot and killed somebody" over a "car and money." (Tr. p. 648). On September 15, 2008, the State filed an Information charging Gordon with murder, a felony, I.C.

Download Fred E. Gordon v. State of Indiana.pdf

Indiana Law