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, Mar 26 2014, 9:35 am
collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:
JAMES A. SHOAF GREGORY F. ZOELLER
Columbus, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
MICHAEL GENE WORDEN
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
ROBBIE L. HUBBARD, )
)
Appellant-Defendant, )
)
vs. ) No. 03A05-1310-CR-512
)
STATE OF INDIANA, )
)
Appellee-Plaintiff. )
APPEAL FROM THE BARTHOLOMEW SUPERIOR COURT
The Honorable Kathleen T. Coriden, Judge
Cause No. 03D02-1302-CM-1014
March 26, 2014
MEMORANDUM DECISION – NOT FOR PUBLICATION
MATHIAS, Judge
Following a bench trial, Robbie L. Hubbard (“Hubbard”) was convicted in
Bartholomew Superior Court of Class A misdemeanor conversion. Hubbard appeals and
claims that the State failed to present evidence sufficient to support her conviction.
Concluding that Hubbard’s claim is simply a request that we reweigh the evidence and
judge witness credibility, we affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
The facts favorable to the trial court’s judgment reveal that, on January 10, 2012,
Hubbard was shopping at a Walmart store in Columbus, Indiana, where she came to be
observed by Walmart loss-prevention employee Andrew Brewer (“Brewer”). Hubbard
first put some cosmetics in her shopping cart and then went to the men’s clothing section.
There, she tried on a large, black hooded sweatshirt, then placed it in the front of
shopping cart next to her large purse. Hubbard next went to the lawn and garden area of
the store, walked near a back wall, and turned her cart around. There, she folded the
sweatshirt so that the price tag was not visible and placed the sweatshirt underneath her
purse. Hubbard then went to the checkout station. Although Hubbard paid for her other
items, she did not pay for the sweatshirt, which remained mostly hidden underneath her
purse.
When Hubbard failed to pay for the sweatshirt, Brewer confronted her. Hubbard
claimed that she had simply forgotten about the sweatshirt and even told the police who
arrived on the scene that if she were going to steal something, it would have been of a
higher value than the sweatshirt. However, Hubbard would have been unable to pay for
the sweatshirt and everything else in her cart.
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On February 13, 2013, the State charged Hubbard with Class A misdemeanor
conversion. A bench trial was held on September 23, 2013. Hubbard testified that she
simply forgot to pay for the sweatshirt. Hubbard also testified, “I used to shoplift and I
quit shoplifting when I got arrested in July 17th of 2011. People do change. It was an
honest mistake.” Tr. p. 18. The State impeached Hubbard’s credibility during cross-
examination by confronting Hubbard with evidence of her past convictions for
shoplifting, which included three Class A misdemeanors and one Class D felony. At the
conclusion of which the trial court found Hubbard guilty, stating from the bench:
As both counsel pointed out, Miss Hubbard, credibility is . . . at the crux of
this and notwithstanding your prior convictions because that doesn’t
necessarily mean that you are still predisposed to steal. But if you had
taken that [sweatshirt] off the rack, folded it up, put it in your cart in the
men’s department, I might look at that differently. But you go to the Lawn
and Garden section, you fold it up over there and put it under your purse.
That makes no sense other than that your intention is to fold it up into a
small enough little package and toss it under your purse so that you’re
going to steal it. That’s the only thing that makes sense from a credibility
standpoint. It just, it just defies the imagination to think otherwise in my
mind. . . .
Tr. pp. 23-24 (emphasis added). The trial court sentenced Hubbard to six months
executed. Hubbard now appeals.
Discussion and Decision
Hubbard claims that the State failed to present sufficient evidence to support her
conviction for Class A misdemeanor conversion. Upon a challenge to the sufficiency of
evidence to support a conviction, we neither reweigh the evidence nor judge the
credibility of the witnesses; instead, we respect the exclusive province of the trier of fact
to weigh any conflicting evidence. McHenry v. State, 820 N.E.2d 124, 126 (Ind. 2005).
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We consider only the probative evidence and reasonable inferences supporting the
verdict, and we will affirm if the probative evidence and reasonable inferences drawn
from the evidence could have allowed a reasonable trier of fact to find the defendant
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. To convict Hubbard of Class A misdemeanor
conversion, the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she knowingly or
intentionally exerted unauthorized control over the property of another person. Ind. Code
§ 35-43-4-3(a).
Hubbard claims that there was insufficient evidence to prove that she exerted
unauthorized control over the sweatshirt. Hubbard argues that Brewer’s testimony was
inconsistent and should be given less credit because he had only been trained a few
weeks prior to the current incident. This, however, is simply a request that we judge
Brewer’s credibility and reweigh the evidence, which we may not do. See McHenry, 820
N.E.2d at 126.
The facts most favorable to the trial court’s judgment show that Hubbard took the
sweatshirt to another department of the store, went to a back wall, and folded the
sweatshirt in such a manner that it was difficult to see under her purse. She then failed to
pay for the sweatshirt at checkout. The trial court specifically found Hubbard’s claim to
have forgotten about the sweatshirt to be not credible. This evidence is sufficient to
establish that Hubbard knowingly or intentionally exerted unauthorized control over the
sweatshirt. See Hartman v. State, 164 Ind. App. 356, 359, 328 N.E.2d 445, 447 (1975)
(evidence that defendant was found near the door of the store with a shirt he did not pay
for hidden under his jacket was sufficient to support conviction for theft). The trial court,
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acting as the trier of fact, was well within its prerogative to disbelieve Hubbard’s
testimony that she simply forgot to pay for the sweatshirt, especially in light of the fact
that she would have been unable to pay for the sweatshirt in addition to the other items
she did in fact pay for.
Conclusion
The State presented evidence from which the trial court, acting as the trier of fact,
could reasonably conclude that Hubbard knowingly exerted unauthorized control over the
property of Walmart. Accordingly, we affirm her conviction for Class A misdemeanor
conversion.
Affirmed.
BRADFORD, J., and PYLE, J., concur.
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