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
Jul 01 2009, 9:17 am
of the supreme court, court of appeals and tax court

CLERK

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: DAVID A. HAPPE Lockwood Williams & Happe Anderson, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: GREGORY F. ZOELLER Attorney General of Indiana ANN L. GOODWIN Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

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

No. 49A04-0811-CR-673

APPEAL FROM THE MARION SUPERIOR COURT The Honorable Steven Eichholtz, Judge Cause No. 49G23-0804-FA-78995

July 1, 2009 MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATION FRIEDLANDER, Judge

Robert Tate appeals his conviction for Dealing in Cocaine,1 a class A felony. He presents the following restated issues for review: 1. Did the State present sufficient evidence to prove that he knowingly possessed the cocaine? Did the prosecutor commit prosecutorial misconduct rising to the level of fundamental error during his rebuttal closing argument?

2.

We affirm. On April 10, 2008, interdiction officer Luke Schmitt from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was summoned to a UPS hub regarding a suspicious package. The package was addressed to Diane Frank, 5115 Banbury Road, Apartment One, in Indianapolis. The phone number listed for the recipient, however, had an Oregon area code. Further, the package had been shipped through a third party shipper in Los Angeles, California. The seams of the package were sealed with heavy tape, consistent with attempts to conceal the odor of contraband when shipping illegal drugs. After Schmitts certified drug-sniffing canine alerted twice for the presence of drugs, Schmitt obtained a search warrant for the package. Schmitt found an air purifier inside the package that had been gutted and filled with five one-kilogram bricks of cocaine, with a street value of well over $500,000.00. Schmitt reassembled the package and prepared to make a controlled delivery later that day. Undercover officers surveilled the area around the delivery address, which was located within the Arlington Manor Apartments, for approximately forty-five minutes before

1

Ind. Code Ann.

Download Robert Tate v. State of Indiana.pdf

Indiana Law