Error in habitual offender instruction that jury “must” find habitual status if it finds priors proven was compounded, not avoided, by a “law and the facts” instruction which told jury the instructions were its “best source in determining what the law is.”
Criminal
Duran v. State, No. 45S03-0910-CR-430, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind., June 30, 2010)
An arrest warrant confers limited authority to enter a dwelling in which the suspect lives when there is reason to believe the suspect is within; when police knew only the building in which the suspect lived, an anonymous bystander’s direction to a specific apartment was not sufficiently reliable to confer the required “reason to believe” for a forced entry.
Fowler v. State, No. 49A02-0910-CR-1037, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., June 30, 2010)
A police booking printout was “administrative,” not investigative, and hence was admissible under the public record hearsay exception; the booking printout also was not “testimonial” under the Crawford confrontation rule.
Romo v. State, No. 49A04-1003-CR-143, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., June 23, 2010)
English transcript of Spanish conversation was properly admitted as evidence, over objection. without playing the tape of the Spanish conversation.
Starr v. State, No. 49A04-0912-CR-677, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., June 22, 2010)
Passenger for whom there is no reasonable suspicion of a law violation does not commit “refusal to identify self” C misdemeanor if he refuses to identify himself.