Defendant was properly convicted of possession of heroin, without the introduction of the drug itself, when he admitted using heroin and showed clear signs of a heroin overdose.
Criminal
Hall v. State, No. 17A-CR-3022, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Aug. 1, 2018).
“[W]e need not decide whether there might have been any error in the filing of the petition by the prosecuting attorney instead of the director of community corrections because we hold that any potential error was a procedural, not jurisdictional, error.”
Fairbanks v. State, No. 49A02-1707-CR-1675, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Aug. 1, 2018).
The trial court properly admitted evidence that the defendant’s daughter’s death was no accident under Evid. Rule 404(b)’s lack-of-accident purpose, even though the defendant did not affirmatively claim mistake or accident.
Stickrod v. State, No. 79A04-1710-CR-2473, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Aug. 3, 2018).
The entry of judgments of convictions for two counts of possession of methamphetamine violated double jeopardy; merging the two convictions at sentencing was insufficient to correct the violation.
Carr v. State, No. 18A-CR-286, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., July 23, 2018).
Admission of a prior statement made by the victim to a law enforcement official did not violate defendant’s Sixth Amendment confrontation rights and was admissible as a hearsay exception when defendant’s own wrongdoing caused the victim’s unavailability.