The eggshell-skull doctrine does not apply in cases of murder or voluntary manslaughter. The relevant statutes require that the defendant either must intend to kill the victim or know that his actions will likely result in the victim’s death, which is inconsistent with the proposition that you take your victim as you find them.
Criminal
Kelly v. State, No. 23A-CR-1805, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Jan. 10, 2024).
A trial court has discretion to deny a defendant’s motion to replace counsel during or immediately before trial.
Stone v. State, No. 23A-CR-625, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Jan. 12, 2024).
Convictions based on the same subsection of the rape statute that are mutually exclusive criminal acts — forcible sexual intercourse and forcible other sexual conduct — do not violate double jeopardy.
Hoback v. State, No. 23A-CR-411, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Dec. 20, 2023).
Pursuant to C.R. 4, when docket entries are absent or missing regarding the reason for a delay, the delay is not chargeable to the defendant.
Sloan v. State, No. 22A-CR-2250, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Dec. 29, 2023).
A probable cause affidavit need not exclude every hypothesis of innocence to establish sufficient probable cause for the warrant; rather, it only needs to demonstrate to the issuing judge that, given all the circumstances, there was a fair probability that evidence of a crime would be found in a particular place. Moreover, facts establishing illegal internet activity associated with a particular IP address, and assignment of the IP address at the time in question to a particular internet subscriber at a specific physical address, provide a nexus between the illegal activity and the physical address sufficient to establish probable cause for a warrant to search the residence at the physical address.