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The Court of Appeals of Indiana declined to reverse a man’s firearm-related convictions, determining that his challenges to the admission of evidence failed.
In August 2022, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s Violence Reduction Team was surveilling an apartment complex near 37th and Central Streets in Indianapolis. Officers saw a man driving a white Toyota Tundra pickup truck stop briefly at the complex, meet with someone, then drive away.
The truck then ran a stop sign, so Officer Mollie Johanningsmeier initiated a traffic stop.
Deshawn Luckett got out of the truck and stood in the truck’s open doorway while Johanningsmeier was parked in her cruiser behind the truck. She yelled for Luckett to get back into his truck, but he ran away through the yard of a nearby home.
Johanningsmeier and Officer Frank Gunn, who arrived when she was giving her commands, chased after Luckett but lost sight of him. While Johanningmeier continued her search, Gunn returned to the truck and saw a handgun on the driver’s side seat, a Draco “banana clip” firearm on the rear passenger side floorboard, and a baggie containing a controlled substance analog in the doorhandle of the driver’s side door.
Officer Robert Camphor discovered the truck was a rental and learned from the rental company that it had been rented by Candyce Breedlove, who was associated with Luckett. Camphor procured a photo of Luckett and confirmed with Johanningsmeier that he was the man who ran away from the truck.
In October 2022, the state charged Luckett with two counts of Level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, Level 6 felony possession of a controlled substance and Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement.
A jury trial was set and later continued to February 2023.
In January, investigators obtained a search warrant for the truck, which uncovered two cellphones from the middle console area. The investigators did not submit the cellphones for digital forensics due to there being a six-month delay in results.
At Luckett’s trial, mages from Luckett’s Facebook page showing him and Breedlove hugging were admitted, and Johanningsmeier testified that she recognized Breedlove.
Luckett moved to excluded certain photographs and text messages that were recovered from the two cellphones found in the truck. The photos were of the screens of the cellphones showing Luckett’s CashApp, Facebook and Instagram accounts. The text messages were between him and Breedlove arranging to rent the truck.
Luckett argued that Breedlove was not a witness, so the admission of her hearsay statements violated his right to confrontation. He also objected to the admission of both the photographs and texts on the basis that the photographs had only been discovered to the defense the day before trial, and that the texts had been discovered to the defense on the first day of trial after lunch.
The trial court ruled the photographs were admissible over Luckett’s objections. It found that although they were disclosed late, he had requested a speedy trial, and exclusion was an extreme remedy.
The jury found Luckett guilty, and he subsequently admitted to being a serious violent offender. The trial court imposed an aggregate nine-year sentence, with two years suspended.
Luckett brought two issues to the appellate court for review, the first being whether the trial court properly admitted text messages sent to him by a person who did not appear at trial.
Finding no error in the admission of the texts, the COA held, “In the text stream, Luckett guides the rental of the truck through Breedlove, and therefore, his statements truly ‘constituted the evidentiary weight of the conversation.’ … Breedlove’s responses merely showed the context of Luckett’s own statements arranging for the rental of the truck, and, therefore, we conclude that her statements were admissible for a reason other than for the truth of the matter asserted.
“… We have concluded that Breedlove’s texts were nonhearsay and so were not inadmissible under the Indiana Rules of Evidence, and Luckett provides no authority for his proposition that the concept of res gestae applies to hearsay which does not involve uncharged bad acts.,” Judge Patricia Riley wrote.
Further, any claimed error was harmless due to the substantial independent evidence in the record pointing to Luckett’s identity and his failure to demonstrate any prejudice to him as the result of the admission of Breedlove’s texts, Riley wrote.
The second issue Luckett raised was whether the trial court abused its discretion when it denied his motion to exclude texts and photographs that were late in being disclosed to the defense.
“We are not persuaded by this argument, as Luckett was in possession of all the challenged evidence as of his trial date, February 22, 2023, and his speedy trial deadline was April 25, 2023,” Riley wrote. “Due to Luckett’s failure to seek a continuance, although the trial court referenced the fact that Luckett had made a speedy trial request in denying his motion to exclude, there is nothing before us in the record indicating that Luckett could not have had an adequate continuance to address the late disclosed evidence and still be brought to trial before his speedy trial deadline expired.”
Judges Terry Crone and Paul Mathias concurred in Deshawn Luckett v. State of Indiana, 23A-CR-1166.
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