State-court restitution award to Ponzi scheme victims was improper; their losses resulted from defendant’s related federal crimes, for which restitution had already been ordered. Five counts of conducting business as a broker-dealer without registering constituted a “single episode of criminal conduct”; gravamen of the offense not the precise number of times defendant transacted business, but rather the initial failure to register, which is a grievance against the Secretary of State and did not directly harm the victims.
Criminal
Pierce v. State, No. 28A05-1502-CR-57, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind. Ct. App., Sept. 23, 2015).
Petition to revoke probation based on commission of theft, unlike criminal charge of theft, need not identify the stolen property with specificity.
Gibson v. State, No. 22S00-1206-DP-359, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind. Sept. 24, 2015).
Six prospective jurors’ exposure to information that defendant was separately charged with two other murders did not warrant striking entire venire or declaring mistrial; trial court’s extensive small-group and individual voir dire identified the affected jurors, and all were immediately dismissed for cause.
Helsley v. State, No. 63S00-1406-LW-440, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind. Sept. 24, 2015).
Role of defendant’s alleged mental illness in double-murder was not so “exceptional and extraordinary” as to warrant appellate revision of LWOP sentence. Jury’s weighing of LWOP aggravators and mitigators is not subject to appellate review.
Slaybaugh v. State, No. 79A02-1411-CR-798, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind. Ct. App., Sept. 24, 2015).
Fact that juror was Facebook “friends” with relatives of the victim did not establish juror misconduct, when juror testified that she did not know them personally, and trial court found her testimony truthful.