Trial court did not remedy defendant’s double jeopardy concern when it entered a judgment of conviction for the offense and its lesser-included offense (Class A misdemeanor OWI and Class C misdemeanor
OwI) and then merged the offenses purposes of sentencing.
E. Najam
Brantley v. State, No. 49A04-1606-CR-1401, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Feb. 24, 2017).
State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant acted under sudden heat to sustain a conviction for voluntary manslaughter.
Jean-Baptiste v. State, No. 49A02-1608-CR-1798, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Feb. 24, 2017).
Absent a defendant’s personal waiver on the record, it is fundamental error to deny a request for trial by jury even when defendant was advised of and failed to comply with Criminal Rule 22 requiring a written demand for a jury trial ten days before the scheduled trial date.
Estate of Pfafman v. Lancaster, No. 57A03-1603-CC-516, __N.E.3d__ (Ind. Ct. App, Jan. 18, 2016).
The Comparative Fault Act does not require that a jury allocate some fault to every actor who proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury, but permits the allocation of any percentage or no percentage of fault to a party or nonparty who caused or contributed to cause the injury.
Tyms-Bey v. State, No. 49A05-1603-CR-439, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Jan. 13, 2017).
Indiana’s RFRA offers no protection for the allegedly criminal nonpayment of income taxes, and the trial court did not err by denying a request to assert the defense.