Partial reversal granted on ineffective assistance claim in molestation case

The Court of Appeals of Indiana has partially reversed a child molester’s convictions after concluding he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial.

In Adam Kristopher Baumholser v. State of Indiana, 21A-PC-2138, Adam Baumholser was convicted of Class A felony child molesting and two counts of Class C felony child molesting. He petitioned for post-conviction relief, but was denied his request.

On appeal, Baumholser argued the post-conviction court erred in determining that he had not met his burden to establish that he was denied effective assistance of trial counsel. He specifically claimed that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to move to dismiss the two Class C felony charges, failing to move for a mistrial and failing to object to the prosecutor’s allegedly improper questions during jury selection.

In a Friday decision, the Court of Appeals concluded that Baumholser met his burden to show that the trial counsel provided ineffective assistance on his Class C felony claim and was therefore entitled to PCR.

The COA pointed out the PCR court’s conclusion said “It is reasonable to believe that the information available to trial counsel at the end of the State’s case or the presentation of all the evidence would have led him to believe that a challenge to [the Class C felony charges] would not have been successful,” was “plainly inconsistent” with the court’s conclusion that “it was clear that the allegations in [the Class C felony charges] occurred more than five years prior to the date the charges were filed.”

It also found the post-conviction court’s reliance on the probable cause affidavit to be unjustified “because the probable cause affidavit was not evidence of any matter for the jury’s determination and contained hearsay.”

“We conclude that K.C.’s testimony that she was afraid of Baumholser is not evidence that Baumholser took a positive act calculated to conceal the fact that a crime had been committed and thus does not support the application of fraudulent concealment to toll the statute of limitations, ” Judge Terry Crone wrote for the appellate court. “Accordingly, given that ‘it was clear’ when the State rested its case that the acts of molestation alleged in the Class C felony charges occurred more than five years before the charges were filed and there was no evidence of fraudulent concealment, a motion to dismiss the charges would have been granted.

“As such, Baumholser has carried his burden to show that his trial counsel provided deficient performance in failing to move to dismiss the Class C felony charges,” Crone continued. “Because the charges would have been dismissed, Baumholser was prejudiced by trial counsel’s deficient performance because he was convicted of the two charges. Accordingly, he is entitled to post-conviction relief on this claim.”

The COA rejected Baumholser’s remaining ineffectiveness claims, concluding there was no clear error regarding the post-conviction court’s findings on the  Class A felony claim. It also denied his claim that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to object to the prosecutor’s allegedly improper questions during jury selection.

Therefore, the court affirmed in part and reversed in part, finding Baumholser entitled to relief on the Class C felony claim alone.