Oct 30 2015, 9:33 am
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Paula M. Sauer Gregory F. Zoeller
Danville, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
Karl M. Scharnberg
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Brooks Berg, October 30, 2015
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
32A01-1504-CR-127
v. Appeal from the Hendricks
Superior Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable Mark A. Smith,
Appellee-Plaintiff Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
32D04-1406-FD-534
Najam, Judge.
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Statement of the Case
[1] Brooks Berg appeals his convictions for operating while intoxicated, as a Class
D felony, and reckless driving, as a Class B misdemeanor.1 Berg raises a single
issue for our review, namely, whether the State violated his double jeopardy
rights under Richardson v. State, 717 N.E.2d 32 (Ind. 1999), when it used the
evidence it had presented to the jury to support the reckless-driving charge to
demonstrate the endangerment element of the operating-while-intoxicated
charge. The State concedes on appeal that this use of the evidence resulted in a
violation of Berg’s rights under the Richardson actual evidence test.
[2] We reject Berg’s argument and the State’s concession, and we hold that the trial
court did not violate Berg’s double jeopardy rights when it entered its judgment
of conviction against him for both operating while intoxicated, as a Class D
felony, and reckless driving, as a Class B misdemeanor. Thus, we affirm Berg’s
convictions.
Facts and Procedural History
[3] In the early morning hours of June 21, 2014, Plainfield Police Department
Sergeant Mike Mason observed a vehicle—later determined to have been
operated by Berg—traveling at fifty-nine miles per hour in a forty-five miles per
hour zone. Sergeant Mason initiated a traffic stop, and Berg decelerated and
pulled the vehicle into a parking lot. But, as Sergeant Mason pulled up behind
1
Berg does not appeal his conviction for resisting law enforcement, as a Class D felony.
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him, Berg “accelerate[d] hard” and returned to the main road, fleeing from
Sergeant Mason. Tr. at 301.
[4] Two other officers joined the chase. Berg accelerated to 130 miles per hour, but
when he turned onto a “very bumpy county road” he decelerated to between
eighty and ninety miles per hour. Id. at 307. Conditions became “extremely
thick” with fog, it was “extremely hard to see” if anyone else might have been
on the roads, and Berg was “bouncing all over the roads,” “going from the left
side of the road to the right side of the road, speeding up [and] slowing down.”
Id. at 308-09. Eventually, Berg attempted to navigate a right turn but lost
control of the vehicle. Berg “crosse[d] the oncoming traffic,” went “down into
[a] ditch . . . on the left side of the road[,] c[a]me[] back up the other side of the
ditch[,] hit[] a very large tree[,] and then launche[d]” the vehicle such that it
became “inverted and land[ed] in the middle of the road . . . .” Id. at 309-10.
Officers then arrested Berg. A friend of Berg’s, Coty Bedwell, was in the
vehicle’s passenger seat. Neither occupant was seriously injured.
[5] On June 23, the State charged Berg with numerous offenses. It later amended
its charges to allege, in relevant part, as follows: resisting law enforcement, as a
Class D felony based on Berg’s use of a vehicle to commit the offense; operating
while intoxicated, as a Class D felony on the basis of a previous conviction for
operating while intoxicated; and reckless driving, as a Class B misdemeanor,
based specifically on Berg operating the vehicle at such an unreasonably high
rate of speed that he endangered another. The State also alleged Berg to be a
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habitual substance offender. Following a multi-phase jury trial, the jury found
Berg guilty on all counts and found him to be a habitual substance offender.
[6] Following the jury’s verdict, the trial court entered its judgment of conviction
against Berg for resisting law enforcement, as a Class D felony; operating while
intoxicated, as a Class D felony;2 and reckless driving, as a Class B
misdemeanor. The court also adjudicated Berg to be a habitual substance
offender. The court “vacated” the jury’s remaining findings against Berg.
Appellant’s App. at 206. The court then ordered Berg to serve an aggregate
term of eight years in the Department of Correction. This appeal ensued.
Discussion and Decision
[7] On appeal, Berg asserts that the trial court violated his right under Article 1,
Section 14 of the Indiana Constitution to be free from double jeopardy when
the court entered its judgment of conviction against him both on the jury’s
verdict that he had operated a vehicle while intoxicated and on its verdict that
he had committed reckless driving. We review alleged double jeopardy
violations de novo. Ellis v. State, 29 N.E.3d 792, 797 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015), trans.
denied.
2
Berg’s abstract of judgment erroneously states that this conviction was entered as a Level 6 felony.
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[8] Article 1, Section 14 of the Indiana Constitution prohibits double jeopardy,
providing that “[n]o person shall be put in jeopardy twice for the same offense.”
As the Indiana Supreme Court has explained:
In Richardson v. State, 717 N.E.2d 32 (Ind. 1999)[,] this Court
concluded that two or more offenses are the same offense in
violation of article 1, section 14 if, with respect to either the
statutory elements of the challenged crimes or the actual evidence
used to obtain convictions, the essential elements of one
challenged offense also establish the essential elements of another
challenged offense. Under the actual evidence test, we examine
the actual evidence presented at trial in order to determine
whether each challenged offense was established by separate and
distinct facts. Id. at 53. To find a double jeopardy violation
under this test, we must conclude that there is “a reasonable
possibility that the evidentiary facts used by the fact-finder to
establish the essential elements of one offense may also have
been used to establish the essential elements of a second
challenged offense.” Id. The actual evidence test is applied to all the
elements of both offenses. “In other words . . . the Indiana Double
Jeopardy Clause is not violated when the evidentiary facts establishing
the essential elements of one offense also establish only one or even
several, but not all, of the essential elements of a second offense.” Spivey
v. State, 761 N.E.2d 831, 833 (Ind. 2002).
Our precedents “instruct that a ‘reasonable possibility’ that the
jury used the same facts to reach two convictions requires
substantially more than a logical possibility.” Lee v. State, 892
N.E.2d 1231, 1236 (Ind. 2008) (citing cases). The reasonable
possibility standard “fairly implements the protections of the
Indiana Double Jeopardy Clause and also permits convictions for
multiple offenses committed in a protracted criminal episode
when the case is prosecuted in a manner that insures that
multiple guilty verdicts are not based on the same evidentiary
facts.” Richardson, 717 N.E.2d at 53 n.46. The existence of a
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“‘reasonable possibility’ turns on a practical assessment of whether the
[fact finder] may have latched on to exactly the same facts for both
convictions.” Lee, 892 N.E.2d at 1236. We evaluate the evidence
from the jury’s perspective and may consider the charging
information, jury instructions, and arguments of counsel. Id. at
1234.
Garrett v. State, 992 N.E.2d 710, 719-20 (Ind. 2013) (emphases added; last
alteration original).3 Thus, under Spivey, in order for there to be a double
jeopardy violation under the actual-evidence test the evidentiary footprint for all
the elements required to prove one offense must be the same evidentiary
footprint as that required to prove all the elements of another offense. See 761
N.E.2d at 833.
[9] Here, according to the State’s charging information, which tracked the relevant
statutes at issue, Berg committed operating while intoxicated, enhanced to a
Class A misdemeanor, when he “did operate a vehicle while intoxicated in a
manner that did endanger a person.” Appellant’s App. at 13; see Ind. Code § 9-
30-5-2(b) (2014). The State alleged that that offense should be further enhanced
to a Class D felony because Berg “had a previous conviction of operating while
intoxicated that occurred within the 5 years immediately preceding” the instant
offense. Appellant’s App. at 19; see I.C. § 9-30-5-3(a)(1). And the State alleged
that Berg had committed reckless driving, as a Class B misdemeanor, when he
“did operate a vehicle and did recklessly[] drive at such an unreasonably high
3
Berg does not challenge the validity of his convictions under either the Fifth Amendment to the United
States Constitution or under the statutory elements test of the Indiana Constitution.
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rate of speed under the circumstances as to endanger the safety or property of
others.” Appellant’s App. at 15; see I.C. § 9-21-8-52(a)(1).
[10] According to Berg, the State presented the same evidence of unsafe driving to
establish both “the endangerment element for . . . operating while intoxicated”
and the offense of reckless driving. Appellant’s Br. at 6. In its brief on appeal,
the State concedes that “the facts that constituted the entire offense of reckless
driving . . . is the same evidence that the State relied upon in proving that
[Berg’s] operation of the vehicle while intoxicated endangered others.”
Appellee’s Br. at 9; see Tr. at 512. The State then agrees that this case “should
be remanded.” Id. (emphasis removed).
[11] Both Berg’s argument on appeal and the State’s concession are premised on a
misunderstanding of Richardson. The Richardson test cannot be met where, as
here, one offense required evidence of intoxication and the other offense did
not. Applying the actual evidence test “to all the elements of both offenses,” at
least part of the evidentiary basis for the State’s charge that Berg had operated a
vehicle while intoxicated was wholly independent of the evidentiary basis
underlying its charge that Berg had committed an act of reckless driving.
Garrett, 992 N.E.2d at 719. In particular, the State’s evidentiary facts
establishing the offense of reckless driving established the element of
endangerment for the offense of operating while intoxicated, as a Class D
felony, but that evidence did not establish all of the essential elements of
operating while intoxicated. See Spivey, 761 N.E.2d at 833. In other words, the
evidentiary footprint underlying both of Berg’s offenses was not the same.
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Accordingly, there is no reasonable possibility that the jury “latched on to
exactly the same facts for both convictions.” Lee, 892 N.E.2d at 1236.
[12] “In addition to the instances covered by Richardson, ‘we have long adhered to a
series of rules of statutory construction and common law that are often
described as double jeopardy, but are not governed by the constitutional test set
forth in Richardson.’” Guyton v. State, 771 N.E.2d 1141, 1143 (Ind. 2002)
(quoting Pierce v. State, 761 N.E.2d 826, 830 (Ind. 2002)). One of these
categories prohibits “‘conviction and punishment for an enhancement of a
crime where the enhancement is imposed for the very same behavior or harm as
another crime for which the defendant has been convicted and punished.’” 4 Id.
(quoting Richardson, 717 N.E.2d at 56 (Sullivan, J., concurring)). But the
behavior underlying Berg’s conviction for reckless driving was not “the very
same behavior” underlying his conviction for operating while intoxicated, as a
Class D felony. Rather, Berg’s reckless-driving conviction was based on the
4
Neither party suggests on appeal that Berg’s conviction for reckless driving might have been a factually
lesser included offense to his conviction for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. See, e.g., Guyton, 771
N.E.2d at 1143 (noting that the simultaneous entry of convictions for both a greater offense and its lesser-
included offenses contravene Indiana double jeopardy law). However, on similar facts this court has rejected
such an argument. Slate v. State, 798 N.E.2d 510, 516-17 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003), superseded by statute on other
grounds, as stated in Outlaw v. State, 918 N.E.2d 379, 382 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009), adopted, 929 N.E.2d 196 (Ind.
2010).
Further, in Street v. State, 30 N.E.3d 41, 47-49 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015), trans. denied, we clarified that the State
cannot use the same bodily injury to enhance multiple offenses. However, Indiana double jeopardy law
“does not prohibit multiple enhancements based on a defendant’s use of the same weapon in the commission
of multiple offenses.” Id. at 48 n.3 (citing Miller v. State, 790 N.E.2d 437, 439 (Ind. 2003)); see also Sistrunk v.
State, 36 N.E.3d 1051, 1054 (Ind. 2015) (“committing two or more separate offenses while armed with a
deadly weapon . . . is not within the category of rules precluding enhancement of each offense based on ‘the
very same behavior.’”). Neither party suggests on appeal that this law applies to Berg. See Taylor v. State, 717
N.E.2d 90, 95 n.7 (Ind. 1999).
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speed with which he drove his vehicle. His operating-while-intoxicated
conviction, on the other hand, was enhanced to a Class D felony based on the
fact that he had a prior operating-while-intoxicated conviction within the
preceding five years. See Burp v. State, 672 N.E.2d 439, 440 (Ind. Ct. App.
1996). And that Class D felony, habitual offender enhancement applies when
the defendant has committed either a Class C misdemeanor or a Class A
misdemeanor offense of operating while intoxicated. I.C. § 9-30-5-3(a)(1).
Thus, there is no merit to the suggestion on appeal that Berg’s underlying Class
A misdemeanor enhancement should be reduced to a Class C misdemeanor
because the Class D felony enhancement applies regardless of the level of the
underlying offense. Accordingly, Berg’s conviction for a Class D felony, and
his right to be free from double jeopardy, is not implicated on these facts.
[13] In sum, the trial court’s entry of judgment did not violate Berg’s double
jeopardy rights, whether under Richardson or our common law, and we affirm
his convictions.
[14] Affirmed.
Kirsch, J., and Barnes, J., concur.
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