• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Categories
    • Civil
    • Criminal
    • Juvenile
  • Courts
    • Supreme
    • Appeals
    • Tax
    • SCOTUS
    • 7th Circuit
  • Judges

Case Clips

Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

Tipton v. State, No. 47A01-1201-CR-4, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Dec. 21, 2012).

December 31, 2012 Filed Under: Criminal Tagged With: Appeals, M. May

May, J.
The statute under which Tipton was charged requires there be an inhabited dwelling: “criminal recklessness is a Class C felony if it is committed by shooting a firearm into an inhabited dwelling or other building or place where people are likely to gather.”9 Ind. Code § 35-42-2-2. Tipton argues the house was not the “inhabited dwelling” the statute requires because nobody was home. He notes a statutory definition of “dwelling”10 as “a building, structure, or other enclosed space, permanent or temporary, movable or fixed, that is a person’s home or place of lodging,” Ind. Code § 35-31.5-2-107, and claims: “If the Legislature intended to elevate criminal reckless [sic] to a class C felony simply upon a showing that the building or structure shot into was a ‘person’s home or place of lodging,’ then the word dwelling would have sufficed.” (Reply Br. of Appellant at 4.) Compare Ind. Code § 35-43-2-1 (burglary is a Class B felony if it is committed while armed with a deadly weapon or the building or structure is a dwelling)
. . . .
We adopt the reasoning of those courts that have held the fact the occupants of a house were not physically present does not lessen the risk of danger to others or the recklessness of his behavior and that shooting at a structure currently used as a dwelling poses a great risk or “high probability” of death. We accordingly hold a residence may be “inhabited” for criminal recklessness purposes if someone is likely to be inside.
BAKER, J., and SHEPARD, Sr. J., concur.

Read the full opinion

If the link to the opinion in this case isn’t available above, you can search for it at public.courts.in.gov/decisions

Footer

About

Case Clips is a weekly publication of the Indiana Office of Court Services featuring appellate opinions curated by IOCS staff for Indiana judges.

Subscribe
  • Flickr
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Indiana Office of Court Services · courts.in.gov/iocs