Eric J. Lairson v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.) ( 2020 )

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D),
this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED
regarded as precedent or cited before any Aug 31 2020, 11:08 am
court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK
the defense of res judicata, collateral Indiana Supreme Court
Court of Appeals
and Tax Court
estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Adam G. Forrest Curtis T. Hill, Jr.
BBFCS Attorneys Attorney General
Richmond, Indiana
Josiah Swinney
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Eric J. Lairson, August 31, 2020
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
20A-CR-28
v. Appeal from the
Wayne Superior Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable
Appellee-Plaintiff Charles K. Todd, Jr., Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
89D01-1804-MR-1
Vaidik, Judge.
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Case Summary
[1] Eric J. Lairson was convicted of murder for beating his girlfriend to death and
sentenced to sixty years in prison. He now appeals, arguing that the trial court
erred in refusing to instruct the jury on reckless homicide and that his sentence
is inappropriate. We affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] Around 2:00 p.m. on December 13, 2017, Lairson called 911 to report he had
just woken up and found his girlfriend of one year, Tylissa Isaacs, lying in a
bathtub with no water and not breathing. Lairson told the 911 operator he and
Tylissa “drank too much last night” and that she might have “alcohol
poisoning.” Tr. Vol. II pp. 215, 217. Lairson also said the two had argued and
he had gotten mad and “hit the walls.” Id. at 214. The 911 operator asked
Lairson if Tylissa was breathing, and he said no. The 911 operator then asked
Lairson if he could attempt CPR on Tylissa, but he said no because she had
been there “too long” and her body was “cold.” Id. at 214, 218. Lairson said
when he went to bed, Tylissa “went to take a shower” and he thought she was
coming to bed right after that. Id. at 216. Lairson added that at some point the
night before, he “fell forward, hit the wall and cut [his] hand”; however, he
“sw[ore] [he] didn’t do anything like that” and Tylissa was “still alive when [he]
went to sleep.” Id. Lairson said he and Tylissa had an “altercation” “two or
three, maybe four days ago” where he slapped her but that “nothing got
physical” the night before. Id. at 218.
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[3] Richmond Police Department Officer Paul Phillips arrived on the scene around
2:15 p.m. and found Tylissa’s naked body in the bathtub with bruises “from her
feet to her upper body, even to her neck.” Id. at 220; Ex. 4. He also saw a “tuft
of hair hanging on the corner of the bathroom sink.” Tr. Vol. II p. 220. Lairson
had a bandage on his left hand, and his blood had dripped throughout the
house. Lairson told Officer Phillips that “he hadn’t hurt [Tylissa], that he hadn’t
killed her, that they had been arguing and drinking the night before, [and] that
there had been some minor physical altercation.” Id. at 221-22. Lairson “kept
repeating over and over that [the police] needed to fix this” because “he had
done nothing.” Id. at 222.
[4] A detective interviewed Lairson later that day and photographed fresh injuries
to his left (dominant) hand. Exs. 28-32, 34. Lairson told the detective Tylissa
had “too much” to drink the night before and they had argued. Tr. Vol. III p.
80. He explained:
Sometimes you gotta put a woman in their place but do it legal.
If you can’t hold her down or whatever and she can’t slap you
and you slap her, (indiscernible) but we hadn’t been fighting like
that. I mean last week, you know, we got into something and I
slapped her. That’s the reason why her eye was black . . . .
Id. at 82. Lairson clarified that the earlier incident occurred “four or five days
ago” and that during that incident, he “grabbed” and “mugged” Tylissa, which
meant that he “push[ed] her up off me.” Id. at 99, 128, 135.
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[5] When the detective again asked Lairson what happened the night before,
Lairson said he and Tylissa “had words” but it didn’t get “physical.” Id. at 104.
He added that they both “mugged” or pushed each other before she hopped in
the shower, and he insisted that the injuries to his hand were not related to any
violence toward Tylissa. Rather, he claimed they were due to an old injury,
from “back in the day” when he boxed, and because he punched a door or wall
the night before. Id. at 105. As Lairson explained to the detective:
[When I get angry] I’ll hit a door, I’ll hit a wall, I ain’t gonna hit
my girl like that. I ain’t goin’ to knock my girl’s teeth out or bust
her upside the head. You know what I mean? I don’t – I don’t
rock like that.
Id. at 106.
[6] Later during the interview, Lairson said he “may have slapped” Tylissa but that
he “never punched her.” Id. at 126. Lairson then told the detective he would be
“completely one hundred percent honest” and told the following story:
I got drunk and fell. We had words, we pushed and shoved each
other last night, but that’s as bad as it got and then when I had
my words, I said listen, what the fu** did you do? Why did you
tear the shower curtain down and why the fu** is all this all over
the place. . . . And she was mumbling and still moving around
the shower, drunk. I said I ain’t dealin’ with this sh** and I
walked the fu** out of the bathroom, went and laid down and I
went to sleep, I woke up and my girl is dead. That’s what I’m
telling you.
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Id. at 127. When the detective told Lairson they needed to figure out what
happened to Tylissa, Lairson speculated that she “fell in the shower” or “drank
too much.” Id.
[7] The detective then asked Lairson about a scream heard around 2:00 a.m., and
Lairson responded that they “yell at each other from time to time” because:
We just an average young couple, we - we mug each other and
slap each other. She - she may punch me a couple times, but I’m
a man, I take that on the chin, but I slapped her, you know, that’s
the reason why her eyes black, I slapped her four or five days
ago.
Id. at 131. However, he claimed that Tylissa did not scream around 2:00 a.m.
Id. at 131-32. The detective continued asking Lairson what happened the night
before, but Lairson kept repeating he only “slapped” Tylissa and didn’t punch
her. Id. at 136. He characterized what happened between them as “small stuff”
and said they weren’t “for real” fighting. Id. at 139, 142. He said he “had a
wonderful time with [his] woman” and they were “drunk,” “having fun,” and
“partying.” Id. at 155. He again speculated that Tylissa was “too drunk and
fell,” had alcohol poisoning, or had “cancer.” Id. at 144, 148. He emphasized
that he didn’t push Tylissa down in the shower, that Tylissa was alive when he
last saw her in the shower, and that “[w]hat happened from there, [he didn’t]
know.” Id. at 160, 162. The interview ended shortly thereafter.
[8] An autopsy occurred the next day. According to the forensic pathologist,
Tylissa died from multiple blunt-force injuries to her head, neck, torso, and
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extremities. The forensic pathologist found that two of the injuries were “more
significant” than the others:
The locations that were deemed I think the most serious was the
head trauma, the bleeding that was present over the surface of
her brain and then there were various associated contusions or
bruises on her scalp. The other location was in the abdominal
cavity. There was a laceration or a tear of the mesentery, which is
the fatty tissue, which is present connecting the intestines and
there’s various blood vessels that run through this mesentery and
there was a - a tear in there which subsequently caused a
hemorrhage, which was identified within her abdominal cavity.
Id. at 228. The pathologist believed that “a significant amount of force” caused
the injuries:
[T]he force in order to cause a tearing of the mesentery of the
abdominal compartment and tearing of the serosal surface of the
intestine, bruising the diaphragm, . . . that would take a
significant amount of force to the abdomen in order to cause
those injuries. And clearly with the head, again, there’s multiple
contusions on the scalp and on the left side of the neck and on
the face and on the right eye and then coupled with the subdural
and subarachnoid hemorrhage of the brain, clearly it’s going to
take . . . a significant amount of force.
Id. at 240. The forensic pathologist believed that the injuries to Tylissa’s
abdominal area occurred “relatively close to the time of her death,” not days
before, and that the nature of her injuries was “inconsistent” with a single fall.
Id. at 239, 248.
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[9] The State charged Lairson with murder.1 At trial, a neighbor who lived next
door to Lairson and Tylissa testified that as she was leaving home around 2:00
a.m. to pick up her fiancé from work, she heard “the worst horror scream ever
in [her] life” coming from their house. Id. at 206. The scream, which came from
a female, lasted about twenty seconds and was followed by “dead silen[ce].” Id.
When the neighbor returned home shortly thereafter, she went to sleep but was
woken up around 4:30 a.m. by a “big loud thud” that sounded like a “50 pound
sack of potatoes being thrown around.” Id. at 207. In addition, Lairson’s 911
call and interview with the detective were played for the jury.
[10] After the close of the evidence, Lairson requested a jury instruction on reckless
homicide as a lesser-included offense of murder. Tr. Vol. IV pp. 88-90. The
parties argued about whether a serious evidentiary dispute existed as to whether
Lairson acted knowingly or intentionally or recklessly. The trial court said it
had “spent considerable time” thinking about this issue and was inclined not to
instruct the jury on reckless homicide because:
My recollection and pretty strong recollection [of Lairson’s
interview with the detective] is that when asked about well, could
you have done something, and then [she] fell in the shower, no,
she didn’t fall. Now, whether or not she fell when he went and
laid down, he didn’t know, but at that point, the Defendant
wouldn’t be doing anything or participating in any kind of
1
The State also charged Lairson with strangulation and aggravated battery but later dismissed those charges.
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reckless act, so I am also left with the fact that from the
pathologist, there are numerous blunt force trauma injuries.
*****
The Defendant never really talks about making any reckless
actions on - on the events in question. What he talks about is
basically not being involved in that, not causing this - this death.
Id. at 93, 95. The court took a short recess to consider the issue more and then
returned to the bench to announce that it would not instruct the jury on reckless
homicide. The jury found Lairson guilty of murder.
[11] At the sentencing hearing, evidence was presented that Lairson had five
misdemeanor convictions from Ohio, including a domestic-violence conviction,
and one felony conviction from Ohio for Level 1 felony aggravated burglary
with a firearm. Lairson was paroled for this felony in December 2016 and
committed this offense while he was on parole. In addition, Lairson had two
probation violations. The trial court found two aggravators, Lairson’s criminal
history and the fact that he committed this offense while on parole, and one
mitigator, Lairson’s expression of remorse. Finding that the aggravators
outweigh the mitigator, the trial court sentenced Lairson to sixty years, all
executed.
[12] Lairson now appeals.
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Discussion and Decision
I. Reckless-Homicide Instruction
[13] Lairson first contends that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on
reckless homicide as a lesser-included offense of murder. Trial courts use a
three-part test to determine whether to instruct the jury on a lesser-included
offense: whether the lesser-included offense is inherently included in the crime
charged; if not, whether the lesser-included offense is factually included in the
crime charged; and, if either, whether a serious evidentiary dispute exists where
the jury could conclude that the lesser offense was committed but not the
greater. Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563, 566-67 (Ind. 1995). When an
instruction is refused on grounds that a serious evidentiary dispute does not
exist, we review only for an abuse of discretion. Young v. State, 699 N.E.2d 252,
255 (Ind. 1998), reh’g denied. It is reversible error for a trial court not to give an
instruction, when requested, on an inherently or factually included lesser
offense if there is a serious evidentiary dispute. Webb v. State, 963 N.E.2d 1103,
1106 (Ind. 2012).
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[14] A person who knowingly2 or intentionally3 kills another human being commits
murder, Ind. Code § 35-42-1-1, while a person who recklessly4 kills another
human being commits reckless homicide, Ind. Code § 35-42-1-5. Reckless
homicide is an inherently included offense of murder, as the only element
distinguishing the two is the mens rea. Miller v. State, 720 N.E.2d 696, 702 (Ind.
1999); McDowell v. State, 102 N.E.3d 924, 931 (Ind. Ct. App. 2018), trans. denied.
[15] Lairson argues that a serious evidentiary dispute exists as to whether he acted
knowingly or intentionally or recklessly given the evidence he had acted
violently toward Tylissa in the past (including four or five days earlier) but she
didn’t die and he said he loved Tylissa and wanted a future with her. We,
however, agree with the trial court that no serious evidentiary dispute exists as
to Lairson’s mens rea because he consistently claimed during his interview with
the detective that any slap or push was minor—just “small stuff”—and couldn’t
have caused Tylissa’s death. Instead, he blamed Tylissa’s death on being too
drunk and falling, alcohol poisoning, or cancer—all of which the forensic
pathologist ruled out. Indeed, the autopsy showed that Tylissa died from force
far beyond what Lairson admitted. More specifically, Tylissa died from blunt-
2
“A person engages in conduct ‘knowingly’ if, when he engages in the conduct, he is aware of a high
probability that he is doing so.” Ind. Code § 35-41-2-2(b).
3
“A person engages in conduct ‘intentionally’ if, when he engages in the conduct, it is his conscious objective
to do so.” Id. at (a).
4
“A person engages in conduct ‘recklessly’ if he engages in the conduct in plain, conscious, and unjustifiable
disregard of harm that might result and the disregard involves a substantial deviation from acceptable
standards of conduct.” Id. at (c).
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force trauma to her abdominal cavity, which caused a “large” laceration to her
mesentery, and from blunt-force trauma to her head, which caused bleeding
over the surface of her brain. Tr. Vol. III p. 235. These brutal injuries entirely
contradict a reckless mens rea. See Atkinson v. State, --- N.E.3d ---, ---, 2020 WL
3865980 (Ind. Ct. App. July 9, 2020) (concluding that the trial court did not err
in refusing to instruct the jury on reckless homicide because the four-year-old
victim’s “injuries were so severe that no reasonable person could have found
the injuries to have been inflicted only recklessly”), trans. pending; McDowell, 102
N.E.3d at 932 (holding that a reckless-homicide instruction wasn’t required
because to “beat someone as severely as [the victim] was beaten goes well
beyond the realm of acting recklessly”). The trial court did not abuse its
discretion in refusing to instruct the jury on reckless homicide.
II. Inappropriate Sentence
[16] Lairson next contends that his sixty-year sentence is inappropriate and asks us
to revise it under Indiana Appellate Rule 7(B) to the advisory term of fifty-five
years. Appellate Rule 7(B) provides that an appellate court “may revise a
sentence authorized by statute if, after due consideration of the trial court’s
decision, the Court finds that the sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature
of the offense and the character of the offender.” “Whether a sentence is
inappropriate ultimately turns on the culpability of the defendant, the severity
of the crime, the damage done to others, and a myriad of other factors that
come to light in a given case.” Thompson v. State, 5 N.E.3d 383, 391 (Ind. Ct.
App. 2014) (citing Cardwell v. State, 895 N.E.2d 1219, 1224 (Ind. 2008)).
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Because we generally defer to the judgment of trial courts in sentencing matters,
defendants must persuade us that their sentences are inappropriate. Schaaf v.
State, 54 N.E.3d 1041, 1044-45 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016).
[17] A person who commits murder shall be imprisoned for a fixed term of between
forty-five and sixty-five years, with an advisory term of fifty-five years. Ind.
Code § 35-50-2-3. The trial court sentenced Lairson to an above-advisory term
of sixty years.
[18] Lairson concedes that the nature of the offense was “egregious.” Appellant’s Br.
p. 15. Indeed, Lairson, an ex-boxer, violently beat his girlfriend, causing her
brain and abdominal cavity to hemorrhage. Nevertheless, he argues that his
sentence is inappropriate in light of his character. Lairson acknowledges he was
on parole during this offense and has a criminal history, including a serious
felony and domestic battery. However, he claims that, given other
considerations, such as that he expressed remorse and behaved well during trial,
“it would not have been inappropriate for the Trial Court to conclude that an
advisory sentence of fifty-five (55) years was proper.” Id. at 16. But the question
is not whether another sentence is more appropriate; rather, the question is
whether the sentence imposed is inappropriate. King v. State, 894 N.E.2d 265,
268 (Ind. Ct. App. 2008). And given the egregious nature of this offense and
Lairson’s history of violent crimes, he has failed to persuade us that his sixty-
year sentence is inappropriate. We therefore affirm his sentence.
[19] Affirmed.
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Bailey, J., and Baker, Sr.J., concur.
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