On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A05-1511-CR-1782 MASSA , Justice . Eduardo Cruz-Salazar appeals his conviction for Class A misdemeanor possession of cocaine, claiming the warrantless search which led to the discovery of the drugs was improper under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. In this companion decision, issued today with Osborne v. State , 63 N.E.3d 329 , 2016 WL 6963962 (...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 29A02-1511-CR-1931. MASSA , Justice . Mary Osborne filed this interlocutory appeal following the trial court's denial of her motion to suppress, on the grounds that the traffic stop giving rise to the charges was not permissible under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. Although we believe the officer's actions in this case were prompted by a genuine...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 71A05-1505-MI-381 MASSA , Justice . An ESPN reporter requested information from the Notre Dame Security Police Department regarding 275 student-athletes. The Department declined, claiming that Notre Dame is a private university and its police force is not a "law enforcement agency" subject to Indiana's Access to Public Records Act. The trial court agreed, and dismissed ESPN's suit. We too find that a private university police...
RUSH , Chief Justice . Angela Martin and Brian Brothers co-hosted a house party. As it wound down, Brothers and two guests — Jerry Chambers and Paul Michalik — got into a fistfight. Afterwards, Martin found Jerry Chambers bleeding from his face and Paul Michalik lying motionless on her basement floor. Michalik died shortly thereafter. Chambers's bankruptcy trustee and Michalik's estate sued Martin, claiming, in part, that she negligently caused Michalik's injuries and that she furnished...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 15A04-1601-CR-32 PER CURIAM . After declining to plead guilty and receive a sentence capped at twenty years, Victor Karp was convicted by a jury of Level 4 felony burglary and was found to be a habitual offender. The trial court sentenced Karp to an aggregate term of twenty-four years. Karp appealed, contending among other things that the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him. Specifically, Karp argued the trial...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A04-1508-PC-1036 DAVID , Justice . At issue in this case is whether the post-conviction court erred in granting Collier's motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Trial Rule 60(B)(8). In light of the facts and circumstances of this case and given the deferential standard of review, we affirm finding that: 1) Collier filed his motion within a reasonable time given his incarceration, lack of education, limited resources and...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 29A04-1501-CT-00001 SLAUGHTER , Justice . In Stanley v. Walker, 906 N.E.2d 852 (Ind.2009), we interpreted Indiana's collateral-source statute to permit a defendant in a personal-injury suit to introduce discounted reimbursements negotiated between the plaintiff's medical providers and his private health insurer, so long as insurance is not referenced. Today, we hold the rationale of Stanley v. Walker applies equally to...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-1406-PL-00465 PER CURIAM . While Chuck Adams and Charles Howard were inmates at the Indiana Department of Correction ("DOC") Correctional Industrial Facility ("CIF"), they worked at a privately-owned brake shop operated by Meritor Heavy Vehicle Systems, LLC on the premises of CIF. Indiana Code chapter 11-10-7 permits the DOC commissioner to enter agreements with private enterprises to establish "facilities within the...
MASSA , Justice . Robert Lewis, III was convicted by a unanimous jury of murder, murder in the perpetration of criminal deviate conduct, criminal deviate conduct, and resisting law enforcement. The State sought a sentence of life without parole pursuant to Indiana Code section 35-50-2-9 (2008). In the penalty phase, the same jury was subsequently unable to reach a unanimous verdict as to whether the State had proven its charged aggravating circumstance. The trial court nonetheless sentenced...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-1504-CR-000234. DAVID , Justice . Indiana Code 35-38-2-2.3(a)(6) allows a trial court to order a defendant to pay restitution to a victim as a condition of probation, but the defendant's ability to pay must be considered before the order to pay restitution is entered. In the present case, we find that the trial court abused its discretion because the evidence before the court was insufficient to conclude defendant had...
On Direct Appeal RUSH , Chief Justice . James Griffith was convicted of murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery, and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole ("LWOP"). On direct appeal, he claims (1) he was denied due process in discovery; (2) he was denied his right to a speedy trial; (3) the trial court abused its discretion in denying his requests to hire at public expense expert witnesses in DNA and blood spatter; (4) the trial court committed fundamental...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 09A02-1512-CR-2311 PER CURIAM . Kyle Bess asked his 14-year-old niece to give him a lap dance, she declined, but Bess then had her sit on his lap while he kissed her on the cheek and tickled her. Bess pleaded guilty to one count of child solicitation as a Level 5 felony, which carried a sentencing range of one to six years, with three years being the advisory sentence. The trial court found Bess's guilty plea, lack of criminal...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 48A02-1504-MI-215 RUSH , Chief Justice . Indiana's comprehensive new expungement statutes allow the expungement of records from arrests, juvenile delinquency allegations, criminal charges, and criminal convictions. Here, D.A. successfully petitioned for the expungement of his criminal conviction records. He then filed a second petition asking for the expungement of civil forfeiture records. Because the trial court correctly...
RUSH , Chief Justice . As Michael Day's marriage dissolved, the family home became increasingly tense, until one night Day came home, screamed in his wife's face, and spat in her eye. Four 911 calls later, Day was arrested. He was subsequently convicted of disorderly conduct based on "fighting." Here, he asks us to interpret the disorderly conduct statute's "fighting" subsection to require both a public disturbance and a physical altercation, claiming the State failed to prove either...
On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 29A02-1412-CR-849 RUCKER , Justice . The driving privileges of a motorist were administratively suspended on grounds the motorist refused to take a chemical test. Upon judicial review the trial court declined to set aside the suspension. We affirm the trial court's judgment. Background Our courts have "long recognized the toll that drunk driving has taken on the general public and the state's interest in preventing accidents...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A04-1508-JT-1141. DAVID , Justice . This case involves the fundamental right of a parent to the care, custody, and control of his or her child. Because this relationship should be severed only when all reasonable efforts to maintain the relationship have failed, we reverse the trial court's order terminating the parental rights of Father to his son, R.S., II. Facts and Procedural History R.S. (Father) and L.H. (Mother) are...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 32A04-1508-CR-1110 PER CURIAM . A majority of the Court of Appeals reversed Defendant Corey T. Weaver's conviction for refusing to identify himself to a law enforcement official, finding insufficient evidence to support the conviction. We agree with the dissenting opinion that the evidence was sufficient, and therefore grant transfer and affirm the trial court. On the night of October 1, 2014, Hendricks County Sheriff's Deputy...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A05-1412-PL-586 RUSH , Chief Justice . In 2011, our Legislature made significant amendments to statutes addressing collective bargaining for teachers and their employers. Pursuant to these amendments, when the parties fail to reach a collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") regarding salaries, wages, and related fringe benefits, the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board ("IEERB") appoints a mediator. If mediation also...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-1506-CR-506 Victor Roar was convicted of class A misdemeanor intimidation after the property manager of his sister's apartment left an eviction notice on his sister's door, and Roar told the property manager, "if [the property manager] came back on the property, he'd kill [her]." Roar contended the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. Specifically, he argued that his statement was conditional, and not a...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A05-1404-CR-181. DAVID , Justice . This case involves whether Bryant Beatty had apparent authority to consent to police entry into Defendant, Timmie Bradley's, home. Specifically, does a houseguest, who happens to answer the door to a home shortly after he knocked to gain entry himself, have the apparent authority to consent to police entry Under the facts and circumstances of this case, we hold that he does not. Bradley...
