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Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

Rice v. State, No. 45S00-1206-CR-343, __ N.E.d ___ (Ind., Apr. 16, 2014)

April 17, 2014 Filed Under: Criminal Tagged With: M. Massa, Supreme

Massa, J.
Ronnie Jamel Rice appeals the trial court’s sentencing order, arguing it improperly relies on non-statutory aggravators as a basis for imposing a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Because we believe the order as revised comports with our precedent and does not represent an abuse of the trial court’s discretion, we affirm.
. . . .
In this case, we believe the trial court did not use non-statutory aggravators. The language Rice challenges, rather than providing reasons to improperly increase Rice’s sentence, demonstrates the trial judge’s thought process as she evaluated and balanced the mitigating factors against the lone aggravating factor. It was the trial judge’s attempt at a reasonably detailed recitation of her reasons for imposing a sentence. Rice did plead guilty and did express remorse, but, for the trial court, the nature of Rice’s relationship with the victim and his actions immediately after the act affected the weight of those mitigating factors. Additionally, the trial court noted Rice’s “youthful age,”2 but found this incident to be an escalation from previous criminal acts that belied the indiscretion and naiveté generally attributed to young people in our criminal justice system. Thus, the judge diminished the weight normally afforded to that mitigating factor. These are not non-statutory aggravators, as Rice suggests. They are explanations of how the mitigating and aggravating circumstances were evaluated and balanced against each other and in this case prevented the judge from believing the three mitigating factors outweighed the severity of the sole aggravating factor. We find no abuse of discretion and affirm the trial court.
Dickson, C.J., and Rucker, David, and Rush, JJ., concur.

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