MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D),
this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED
regarded as precedent or cited before any Dec 15 2016, 6:14 am
court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK
Indiana Supreme Court
the defense of res judicata, collateral Court of Appeals
and Tax Court
estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Michael G. Moore Gregory F. Zoeller
Indianapolis, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
Christina D. Pace
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Trevis Stokes, December 15, 2016
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
49A04-1604-CR-852
v. Appeal from the Marion Superior
Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable Jose D. Salinas,
Appellee-Plaintiff Judge
The Honorable John M. Christ,
Commissioner
Trial Court Cause No.
49G14-1407-F6-36165
Mathias, Judge.
Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 49A04-1604-CR-852 | December 15, 2016 Page 1 of 6
[1] Trevis Stokes (“Stokes”) was convicted in Marion Superior Court of Level 6
felony resisting law enforcement with a vehicle and of being a habitual offender.
Stokes appeals his resisting law enforcement conviction and argues that the
evidence is insufficient to prove that he fled from the officer.
[2] We affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
[3] On July 17, 2014, at approximately 1:00 p.m., Indiana State Trooper Gregory
Magee observed a pickup truck in the left, northbound lane of Arlington
Avenue in Indianapolis approaching the intersection with 56 th Street. The
pickup truck was in the left-turn lane, but without signaling, proceeded to cross
the northbound lane of traffic on Arlington Avenue and turn right onto 56th
Street. Because the pickup truck made an illegal turn, Trooper Magee turned
right onto 56th Street to follow the pickup truck.
[4] The trooper turned on his lights immediately and followed the pickup truck on
56th Street. No other vehicles were between the two cars. The trooper saw two
males in the vehicle. Both males started looking at the mirrors of the pickup
truck, and the truck started to move onto the right of the roadway toward the
curb. However, the truck failed to stop and returned to the center of the right
lane. As the pickup truck continued eastbound on 56 th Street, it would slow and
drift toward the curb of the roadway but would then resume a normal rate of
speed.
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[5] As Trooper Magee continued to follow the vehicle with his emergency lights
and sirens activated, he saw a plastic bag thrown from the passenger side
window that appeared to contain a white rock-like substance. The vehicle
continued eastbound on 56th Street approaching the entrance to Interstate 465.
Magee was concerned that the driver would continue onto the interstate and a
high-speed pursuit would ensue. Tr. p. 44. Therefore, the trooper sped up,
passed the pickup truck in the left lane, and parked his vehicle on the roadway
in front of the pickup truck. In total, the pickup truck continued eastbound on
56th Street for nearly one minute over a distance of eight blocks before Trooper
Magee forced the vehicle to come to a stop. Tr. p. 51.
[6] The trooper exited his vehicle, ordered the two occupants of the pickup truck to
put their hands up, and drew his weapon for officer safety. He then opened the
driver’s side door of the pickup truck, removed the driver, later identified as
Stokes, and handcuffed him. An assisting officer arrived at that point,
approached the passenger side of the vehicle, removed the passenger from the
pickup truck, and placed him in handcuffs as well. Both Stokes and his
passenger were placed under arrest.
[7] The assisting officer proceeded to the area where the plastic bag had been
thrown from the pickup truck. The bag contained a substance that was later
identified as 1.22 grams of cocaine. Tr. p. 85. The passenger admitted that the
cocaine belonged to him. Tr. p. 118.
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[8] On July 21, 2014, the State charged Stokes with Level 6 felony possession of
cocaine and Level 6 felony resisting law enforcement with a vehicle. The State
also alleged that Stokes was a habitual offender. A jury trial was held on
September 28, 2015. Stokes was acquitted of the possession charge but was
found guilty of Level 6 felony resisting law enforcement. He then stipulated that
he was a habitual offender. He was ordered to serve 730 days in the
Department of Correction with 724 days suspended to probation. The trial
court ordered him to serve an additional two years on home detention through
Marion County Community Corrections for the habitual offender adjudication.
[9] Stokes now appeals his resisting law enforcement conviction.
Discussion and Decision
[10] Stokes argues that the State failed to present sufficient evidence that he resisted
law enforcement with a vehicle.
When we review a claim challenging the sufficiency of the
evidence we neither reweigh the evidence nor assess the
credibility of the witnesses. Instead, we consider only the
evidence and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom that support
the verdict. And we will affirm the conviction if there is probative
evidence from which a reasonable jury could have found the
defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Suggs v. State, 51 N.E.3d 1190, 1193 (Ind. 2016) (citing Treadway v. State, 924
N.E.2d 621, 639 (Ind. 2010)).
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[11] To convict Stokes of Level 6 felony resisting law enforcement with a vehicle,
the State was required to prove that Stokes “did knowingly flee from Gregory
Magee, a law enforcement officer with the Indiana State Police, after said
officer identified himself by visible or audible means and visibly or audibly
ordered said defendant to stop and in committing said act the defendant used a
vehicle.” Appellant’s App. p. 19; see also Ind. Code § 35-44.1-3-1(a)(3). Stokes
argues that the State failed to prove that he fled from the officer after the officer
ordered him to stop.
[12] Our court recently stated that the determination of whether a person knowingly
fled from an officer is a factual determination best left to a jury after considering
a myriad of facts, specifically:
how long the driver continued, the speed, the use of hazard
lights, the location, the weather, the surroundings, the presence
of bystanders, the availability of places to stop, the credibility of
witnesses, etc. Juries are uniquely positioned to decide whether a driver
was unnecessarily increasing the burden on police officers, or whether a
driver was taking reasonable steps that common sense would dictate.
Cowans v. State, 53 N.E.3d 540, 546 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016) (emphasis added).
Moreover, our court proposed that a jury instruction defining the word “flee” in
a resisting law enforcement prosecution “would explain that a person who is
attempting to escape police, or attempting to unnecessarily prolong the time
before he stopped, would be fleeing.” Id.
[13] In this case, on a sunny July afternoon, on a roadway with minimal traffic,
Trooper Magee pulled his vehicle behind Stokes’s vehicle and activated his
Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 49A04-1604-CR-852 | December 15, 2016 Page 5 of 6
emergency lights after witnessing Stokes make an illegal turn. The trooper
observed that the two occupants in the pickup truck were looking into the
truck’s mirrors, and it is reasonable to conclude that they saw the trooper’s
flashing lights. Yet, Stokes continued to drive even after the trooper activated
his siren as well. Stokes’s passenger threw a bag containing cocaine out of the
passenger window, and Stokes continued to drive toward the entrance ramp to
Interstate 465.
[14] Stokes did not give any indication that he intended to stop his vehicle. After
following Stokes’s pickup truck for nearly a minute over a distance of
approximately eight blocks, Trooper Magee believed that Stokes intended to
continue onto Interstate 465. Therefore, he sped his vehicle past Stokes’s pickup
truck and parked his vehicle in the roadway, blocking Stokes’s path. As a result,
Stokes either had to stop his pickup truck or hit the passenger side of the trooper’s
marked police vehicle. Trooper Magee testified that his attempt to stop Stokes
using his emergency lights and sirens continued for an abnormally long period of
time compared to a normal traffic stop in similar conditions. Tr. p. 52.
[15] From this evidence, the jury could reasonably conclude that Stokes fled from
Trooper Magee. We therefore affirm his conviction for Level 6 felony resisting
law enforcement with a vehicle.
[16] Affirmed.
Robb, J., and Brown, J., concur.
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