Admission of government lab technicians’ sworn “certificates of analysis” that substance taken from defendant was cocaine violated defendant’s Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause right; the certificates were “affidavits” and within the “core class of testimonial statements” defined in Crawford v. Washington.
Criminal
Farris v. State, No. 02S03-0904-PC-181, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind., June 17, 2009)
Consecutive habitual offender sentences are not authorized when related charges are tried in separate causes.
Bailey v. State, No. 49S02-0812-CR-00630, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind., June 18, 2009)
Disorderly conduct’s “tumultuous conduct” may occur “when the aggressor appears well on his way to inflicting serious bodily injury but relents in the face of superior force or creative resistance.”
Mathews v. State, No. 01A02-0901-CR-44, __N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., June 18, 2009)
When probationer in open court was informed of date for revocation fact-finding hearing, and would have learned of the rescheduling of the hearing had she appeared on the original date scheduled, she could be tried in absentia when she did not appear at the rescheduled hearing.
Davis v. State, No. 45A03-0808-CR-407, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., June 11, 2009)
Search based on a warrant based in part on information obtained in violation of the 4th Amendment was upheld when the remaining information for the warrant was not illegally obtained and sufficed to show probable cause.