On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A04-0811-CV-665 SULLIVAN, Justice. Insurance companies question whether they have a duty to defend an insured in environmental remediation proceedings under policies alleged to cover risks in Indiana and California. Predicate to answering that question is determining whether the law governing the policies' interpretation is "site-specific" (whereby Indiana law governs the policies' interpretation with respect to the Indiana site...
Attorney Discipline Action PER CURIAM. This matter is before the Court on the report of the hearing officer appointed by this Court to hear evidence on the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission's "Verified Complaint for Disciplinary Action," and on the post-hearing briefing by the parties. The Respondent's 1993 admission to this state's bar subjects her to this Court's disciplinary jurisdiction. See IND. CONST. art. 7, 4. We find that Respondent, Jane G. Cotton, engaged in...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 20A04-0912-CR-00720. DAVID, Justice. Andres Sanchez received consecutive enhanced sentences for three counts of Child Molesting. Based on the character of the offender and the nature of the offenses, we revise the sentences and order them to be served concurrently. Facts and Procedural History Andres Sanchez was convicted of three counts of class A felony child molesting for three incidents involving his two stepdaughters. The...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 33A01-0906-CR-280 SULLIVAN, Justice. Despite nonconflicting expert and lay opinion testimony that defendant Gregory Galloway was insane, the trial court rejected the insanity defense after concluding that the defendant could continue to be a danger to society because of an inadequate State mental health system. This was insufficient to sustain the trial court's finding because there was no probative evidence from which an...
DAVID, Justice. In this direct appeal, Anthony Delarosa seeks reversal of his convictions for two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, for which he received two sentences of life imprisonment without parole and one sentence of fifty years. Delarosa argues that the trial court's admission of alleged hearsay statements and the prosecutor's closing arguments independently constituted fundamental error, and that the evidence at trial was insufficient to sustain his...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 71A03-0901-CV-25 SHEPARD, Chief Justice. Jasmine Watson transferred from Elkhart Memorial High School to South Bend Washington High School and sought an athletic transfer allowing her to participate on the basketball and track teams. The Indiana High School Athletic Association ("IHSAA") ruled her ineligible after determining she transferred for primarily athletic reasons. Jasmine's mother sued on Jasmine's behalf and sought a...
On Petition for Rehearing RUCKER, Justice. Indiana Insurance seeks rehearing of this Court's opinion in which we determined that damage caused by faulty workmanship may be covered under a standard Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy. See Sheehan Constr. Co. v. Cont'l Cas. Co., 935 N.E.2d 160 (Ind.2010). More particularly, on a claim for indemnification made by Sheehan Construction Company and a Class of homeowners (hereafter "Sheehan") against various insurance carriers including...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 32A04-0905-CR-241 SHEPARD, Chief Justice. Appellant Joshua Nicoson committed confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, earning a class B felony conviction. The trial court added five years to the regular class B sentence, relying on a statute authorizing an additional term where the perpetrator "used" a firearm while committing the offense. We hold that adding these years is consistent both with the statutes in question and...
On Petition For Review RUCKER, Justice. In this opinion we determine that charging below market rent for part of a building rented to a church is insufficient, standing alone, to justify a religious and charitable purpose property tax exemption. Instead, an owner of leased property must provide evidence that it possesses an exempt purpose separate and distinct from the exempt purpose of its lessee. Facts and Procedural History Oaken Bucket is a domestic for-profit limited liability company...
On Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 79A02-0904-CR-345 DICKSON, Justice. The defendant was convicted, following a jury trial, of three counts of Rape, two as Class A felonies and one as a Class B felony; three counts of Criminal Deviate Conduct, two as Class A felonies and one as a Class B felony; two counts of Criminal Confinement as Class B felonies; and two counts of Battery as Class C felonies. The trial court sentenced the defendant to an aggregate of ninety-three (93)...
On Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 57A04-0910-CR-575 DICKSON, Justice. This appeal challenges the trial court's revocation of probation for failure to pay child support. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Runyon v. State, 923 N.E.2d 440 (Ind.Ct.App.2010). We granted transfer to clarify the applicable burden of proof. On the facts of this case, we affirm the trial court's decision to revoke probation and reinstate a significant portion of the original sentence. Convicted of...
On Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 73A05-0710-CV-552 DICKSON, Justice. Daniel Moore died when, despite wearing his seatbelt, he was ejected through the sunroof of his Ford Explorer vehicle during a rollover that followed a tire failure as he was driving on Interstate 65 near Edinburgh, Indiana. He was survived by his wife and one minor son. His widow, as personal representative of his estate, brought this wrongful death action. At the conclusion of a fourteen-day trial, the...
On Petition for Post-Conviction Relief RUCKER, Justice. Case Summary Wayne Kubsch has been tried twice for the murders of his wife, Beth Kubsch, her ex-husband, Rick Milewski, and her eleven-year-old son, Aaron Milewski. Two juries found him guilty and both juries recommended the death penalty. On direct appeal we affirmed Kubsch's conviction and sentence of death. Thereafter, Kubsch filed a petition for post-conviction relief which the post-conviction court denied after a hearing. Kubsch...
RUCKER, Justice. In this opinion we address the question of whether a contribution by a parent corporation to the capital of its subsidiary is automatically excluded from Indiana use tax. We conclude it is not. Facts and Procedural History Belterra Resort Indiana, LLC ("Belterra") is a Nevada corporation that owns and operates a hotel and riverboat casino in Switzerland County. Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. ("Pinnacle"), a Delaware corporation, is Belterra's parent company. Pinnacle contracted...
On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 62A01-0905-JV-252 RUCKER, Justice. Case Summary The trial court terminated Father's parental rights on the grounds that (1) the reason for his child's placement outside of Father's home will not be remedied; and (2) the continuation of the parent-child relationship poses a threat to the well-being of the child. Concluding that the evidence does not clearly and convincingly demonstrate that Father's parental rights should be...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 19A01-0904-CR-187 BOEHM, Justice. The defendant was arrested at a public restaurant for an unrelated crime. A drug dog called to sniff the defendant's car in the restaurant's parking lot indicated narcotics in the car. We hold that the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a warrantless search of an operational vehicle found in a public place if the police have probable cause to believe the vehicle contains evidence of a crime. We...
On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-0805-CV-420 RUCKER, Justice. Continental Casualty Company filed a declaratory judgment action to determine its obligation to its insured, Sheehan Construction Company. The trial court determined that the policy issued by Continental to Sheehan did not cover Sheehan's claim and granted summary judgment in favor of Continental. The main issue in this case is whether a standard commercial general liability ("CGL") insurance...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 20A05-0903-PC-165 SHEPARD, Chief Justice. As courts continue to deal with questions of language, the issue arises how to determine whether criminal defendants understand what is occurring in the courtroom. Here, a Spanish-speaking drug defendant who pleaded guilty to two felonies seeks post-conviction relief on grounds that he thought he was pleading only to one felony and that his misunderstanding was the product of faulty...
On Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 25A04-0906-CR-356 DICKSON, Justice. Appealing his conviction for Murder, 1 the defendant alleges four errors: (1) denial of his motion for discharge under Indiana Criminal Rule 4; (2) admission of his statement to a police detective despite his repeated invocation of his right to counsel; (3) limitations on defense questioning of the police detective; and (4) refusal of tendered instructions regarding lesser included offenses. The Court of...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-0907-PC-599 SHEPARD, Chief Justice. Craig Cooper pled guilty a decade ago to driving after his driver's license was suspended for being adjudicated a habitual traffic violator (HTV). In a subsequent post-conviction proceeding, Cooper argued that the factual basis for his plea had been inadequate. The post-conviction court granted relief. We reverse. Facts and Procedural History On May 15, 1996, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles...
