WELLS v. STATE (2024)

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Case Summary

[1] Following a jury trial, Jamie W. Wells was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to 122 years in the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC). He presents the following restated issues for review:

1. Did the State present sufficient evidence to support the convictions?

2. Is his 122-year sentence inappropriate given the nature of the offenses and Wells's character?

[2] We affirm.

Facts & Procedural History

[3] Best friends Dominic Patton and Jamel Perry lived together in a three-bedroom home on North Adams Street in Indianapolis for about two years. Wells began staying in their third bedroom around November 20, 2021. Patton and Wells were close during this time, and Patton made comments to friends suggesting that their relationship might have become intimate. Wells was also dating multiple women in Indianapolis, including Paris Henderson and Rossemary Ortega, and he had a child with Taiyona Matthews.

[4] In the early morning hours of December 14, 2021, Patton and Perry were murdered in their respective bedrooms. Patton suffered over 100 knife wounds with multiple stab wounds to his back, head, face, jaw, neck, chest, and left shoulder/arm and defensive wounds to both hands. The evidence showed that Patton tried to fight back, grabbing the knife blade, losing a fingernail during the attack, and pulling out dreadlocks from his attacker. But he suffered multiple lethal wounds – two deep stabs to his neck that severed his left jugular vein and one that penetrated his chest wall and entered his right lung. Patton died on his bedroom floor, naked from the waist down, and at some point a thick blue liquid was poured over his body.

[5] Perry likely came home shortly after Patton was murdered, as he worked late the previous night and was still dressed and wearing a face mask when attacked in his bedroom. Perry was stabbed at least nine times generally along the left side of his body from his thigh to his head. He suffered a fatal wound to his neck that entered his throat and struck his left carotid artery, voice box, and left and right jugular veins, resulting in “a massive amount of blood loss.” Transcript Vol. 3 at 3. Perry suffered another fatal wound to his left shoulder area that damaged major arteries. He died on his bedroom floor, where baking soda was later dumped on his body and a butcher knife was found under his body.

[6] That same morning, Wells turned up unexpectedly at Matthews's house, loudly knocking on her door and window. Wells, who appeared shaken up, was wearing only a t-shirt and sweatpants. He had blood on his clothing and what looked like fresh wounds to his hands. Wells told Matthews that he had “got[ten] into it with a couple of ni**as.” Id. at 118. Wells used the restroom with Matthews's help, which Wells needed because his hands were so badly injured. Wells stayed only about five minutes and asked for a hammer before he left. When he returned a few hours later, he was wearing clean clothes and had bandages on his hands. He spent that night at Matthews's home.

[7] Wells also went to Henderson's nearby apartment in the early morning hours of December 14. Henderson saw injuries to his hands and noted that Wells was “in a zone” and appeared to be under the influence of something, possibly PCP. Transcript Vol. 4 at 64. Apartment surveillance video showed Wells entering Henderson's apartment around 5:00 a.m. and coming and going over the next several hours, dropping a gun out of his pants in one instance and later emerging with bandages on his hands.

[8] Around 5:00 a.m. on December 16, Wells tried to call Henderson multiple times and then sent a Facebook message asking if she could take him to the bus station. Henderson responded, “Your bm can't take u[?]” Exhibits Vol. 3 at 120 (errors in original). Henderson then agreed to take Wells to the bus station after learning that Matthews could not transport him but had purchased a Greyhound bus ticket for Wells to travel from Indianapolis to Gary, leaving at 7:05 a.m. Wells arrived at Henderson's apartment carrying luggage, both hands still bandaged, and the two left at 6:20 a.m. for the bus station. Henderson checked in with Wells later that afternoon, and he responded that he was okay.

[9] In the meantime, after being unable to reach Patton or Perry for two days, a concerned friend went to their home on the afternoon of December 15. No one answered the front door, and the side door was found ajar, with their indoor cat roaming around outside. The friend called 911, and officers of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) arrived and conducted a welfare search that evening, locating the bodies in the victims’ bedrooms.

[10] Blood evidence was collected from throughout the home, including all three bedrooms, the laundry room, the dining room, both bathrooms, the kitchen, and the hallway. In the third bedroom, the one used by Wells, police found a cell phone with blood on it. The phone was later linked to Wells. DNA testing showed that many of the blood swabs taken from the scene contained Wells's DNA. A jacket found in the third bedroom had DNA from both Patton and Wells on it, as well as Patton's blood, hair, and fingernail. Wells's DNA was discovered under the fingernails of Perry's right hand, and swabs taken from Perry's hands and wrists had DNA from Perry, Patton, and Wells. Wells was also the major DNA contributor for the dreadlocks found on the floor of Patton's bedroom, and Patton was a minor contributor.

[11] Perry's vehicle was missing from the residence when police responded to the scene. With GPS tracking information, investigators were able to determine the vehicle's location just before and after the murders. It was on North Adams Street on December 13, North Forest Avenue on December 14 and 15, and North Tacoma Avenue on December 16 and 17, where it was eventually discovered by police. Matthews and Henderson both lived in the area where the vehicle traveled after the murders. Further, Wells's DNA was found inside Perry's vehicle on a blood swab taken from the back of the front passenger headrest. A shirt found inside the vehicle also had blood on it, along with DNA from both Perry and Wells.

[12] On December 20, 2021, Wells was apprehended at his grandmother's residence on the south side of Chicago. When arrested, Wells had in his possession a bag that belonged to Patton and Patton's credit card. He also had two cell phones ¹ that he had been using since the murders. One of the phones had a picture of Wells taken on December 19, showing him in dreadlocks and wearing bandages on one of his hands. The other phone had a screenshot of Greyhound bus information for a potential trip from Gary, Indiana to Miami, Florida on December 23.² When Wells was returned to Indiana on January 6, 2022, IMPD Detective Jose Torres documented scars and scabs on Wells's hands. From his experience, Detective Torres knew that with “extensive stabbings” involving a butcher knife, as here, perpetrators often become fatigued, causing their own hands to “slide down” and become injured. Id. at 196.

[13] Following a four-day jury trial in October 2023, Wells was convicted as charged of two counts of murder. On November 15, 2023, the trial court sentenced Wells to sixty years for Patton's murder and sixty-two years for Perry's murder, to be served consecutively in the DOC.

[14] Wells now appeals, challenging his convictions and sentences. Additional information will be provided below as needed.

Discussion & Decision

1. The State presented sufficient evidence to sustain the murder convictions.

[15] Wells argues that his convictions must be reversed because the State presented “no direct evidence” that he committed the murders, such as “surveillance video of the murders” or eyewitness testimony. Appellant's Brief at 28. “But it is well-settled that ‘circumstantial evidence alone’ can sustain a murder conviction.” Hancz-Barron v. State, 235 N.E.3d 1237, 1244 (Ind. 2024) (quoting Sallee v. State, 51 N.E.3d 130, 134 (Ind. 2016)). Further:

Sufficiency-of-the-evidence claims trigger a deferential standard of review in which we neither reweigh the evidence nor judge witness credibility, instead reserving those matters to the province of the jury. A conviction is supported by sufficient evidence if there is substantial evidence of probative value supporting each element of the offense such that a reasonable trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In conducting that review, we consider only the evidence that supports the jury's determination, not evidence that might undermine it.

Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

[16] As Wells concedes, the State presented significant circumstantial evidence against him. He lived in the victims’ home, had regular communication with Patton via Facebook messenger in the days leading up to the murders, and then sent no messages to Patton after the evening of December 13. Wells showed up unexpectedly in the early morning hours of December 14 at Matthews's and Henderson's residences. Both women observed injuries to his hands, which were later bandaged, and Matthews testified that Wells had blood on his clothing when he first arrived. Perry's vehicle was driven, after his death, to areas near the residences of Matthews and Henderson. With their help, Wells quickly left town hours after the bodies were discovered and Patton's mother made a Facebook post about his passing. Wells also made incriminating statements to Ortega during her visits with him in Chicago and Hammond. Further, Wells had Patton's credit card and bag in his possession when he was arrested in Chicago.

[17] In addition to circumstantial evidence, the State presented direct evidence that connected Wells with the murders. See id. at 1245 (observing that DNA and blood evidence collected at the scene was “direct evidence” connecting the defendant to the murders). His blood was found throughout the residence, his DNA was under Perry's fingernails, dreadlocks likely ripped from Wells's head were on the floor in Patton's bedroom, a mixture of all three men's DNA was found on Perry's hands and wrists, and the jacket found in Wells's bedroom had Wells's DNA and Patton's hair, blood, and fingernail on it. Wells's blood was also found inside Perry's vehicle, along with a bloody shirt that had DNA from both Perry and Wells.

[18] In sum, the State presented both circumstantial and direct evidence from which a reasonable jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Wells was the person responsible for murdering Patton and Perry. Thus, the State presented sufficient evidence to support the convictions.

2. Wells's 122-year sentence is not inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his character.

[19] Wells next seeks revision of his sentence ³ under Ind. Appellate Rule 7(B), which allows us to revise a sentence that is “inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender.” Our principal task in this regard is “ ‘to attempt to leaven the outliers,’ not to achieve a ‘correct’ result in every case.” Hancz-Barron, 235 N.E.3d at 1248 (quoting Cardwell v. State, 895 N.E.2d 1219, 1225 (Ind. 2008)). “And we generally defer to the sentence imposed unless a defendant presents ‘compelling evidence’ portraying the nature of the offense and their character in a positive light.” Id. (quoting Stephenson v. State, 29 N.E.3d 111, 122 (Ind. 2015)). Wells has failed to present such compelling evidence.

[20] The nature of the offenses was extraordinarily brutal. Wells stabbed Patton, a close friend, over 100 times and then turned his knife on Perry, stabbing him at least 9 times. Both victims were attacked in their own bedrooms, where they died. They had defensive wounds and suffered multiple lethal injuries, causing significant blood loss. The stabbings were so great in number and force that Wells sustained cuts to his own hands as he likely became fatigued. He then poured what appeared to be laundry detergent over Patton's body and spread baking soda on Perry's body. Wells also moved throughout the house after the murders, dropping his own blood as he attempted to conceal his involvement and flee the scene. And he took Perry's vehicle, both victims’ phones, and Patton's credit card and gun. Nothing about these circumstances portray the offenses in a positive light such as “accompanied by restraint, regard, [or] lack of brutality.” Stephenson, 29 N.E.3d at 122.

[21] We similarly find no compelling evidence portraying Wells's character in a positive light. Wells was twenty-seven years old at the time of the murders and had an extensive juvenile and criminal record that began at the age of fifteen. His prior offenses included, among others, resisting law enforcement while using a deadly weapon, burglary, battery, and attempted robbery. In 2013, he was sentenced to ten years with four years suspended and placed on work release through Marion County Community Corrections (MCCC). Wells subsequently violated the rules of MCCC several times resulting in revocation and multiple stints in prison in 2015, 2017, and 2020. At the time of Wells's sentencing, he also had pending felony charges for strangulation and domestic battery of Ortega, which allegedly occurred a few days before the murders.

[22] Though acknowledging that he has “a significant criminal history” and has been found to be in “the high-risk category to reoffend,” Wells simply asserts with respect to his character that he wants to obtain his GED and earn a certificate in cosmetology, that he agreed to pay $5,000 in restitution to Patton's mother, and that he is not among the worst of the worst offenders. Appellant's Brief at 36. None of these arguments are persuasive, and Wells has failed to present “substantial virtuous traits or persistent examples of good character” or otherwise compellingly place his character in a positive light. Stephenson, 29 N.E.3d at 122.

[23] Downward sentencing revision is not warranted and in fact would be wholly inappropriate in this case given the brutal nature of the murders and Wells's poor character.

[24] Judgment affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

1.   The victims’ cell phones were never recovered. Although there were two security cameras inside the residence, the footage could only be accessed on their phones. Patton's mother, however, was able to determine that the living room camera went offline at 4:47 a.m. on December 14 and the other went offline on December 16.

2.   Ortega had visited Wells on December 23 in Hammond, Indiana. Wells told Ortega that he was “stressed out” and could no longer stay there. Transcript Vol. 4 at 134. Ortega refused to take him with her when she left. Additionally, during a visit two days earlier in Chicago, Wells explained to Ortega how it felt after killing someone: “[Y]ou feel paranoid. You don't eat, you don't sleep.” Id. at 136. He also told Ortega that she did not want to know why he had a bleach stain on the jacket he was wearing or why he got rid of a certain pair of shoes that he was “going to miss.” Id.

3.   The sentencing range for murder is between 45 and 65 years, with an advisory sentence of 55 years. See Ind. Code § 35-50-2-3(a). The trial court imposed aggravated sentences of 60 and 62 years for the murders of Patton and Perry, respectively. Wells asks that we revise each sentence to the advisory term for an aggregate sentence of 110 years instead of 122 years.

Altice, Chief Judge.

Vaidik, J. and Crone, Sr.J., concur.