Defendant’s conviction of murder and sentence to life in prison without parole upheld, finding that the evidence was sufficient, jurors were properly admonished, co-conspirator’s text messages were properly admitted, reading a withdrawn accomplice liability instruction was not improper, and court properly considered a non-statutory aggravator when imposing sentence.
M. Massa
Horner v. Curry, No. 18S-PL-333, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., June 27, 2019).
It is constitutional that the legislature has directed that funds collected under the Indiana’s Civil Forfeiture Statute reimburse law enforcement costs before the transfer of proceeds from seized property to the Common School Fund.
Batchelor v. State, No. 18S-CR-436, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., March 18, 2019).
For the resisting-by-fleeing offense, trial courts should use Indiana Pattern Criminal Jury Instruction 5.3040, and discontinue using Instruction 22.
Bobadilla v. State, No. 19S-PC-128, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., March 5, 2019).
Trial counsel provided constitutionally deficient performance by not inquiring into his client’s citizenship status before entering into a plea agreement that eventually led to his deportation.
Barcroft v. State, No. 18S-CR-135, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., Dec. 3, 2018).
The evidence of defendant’s demeanor—taken together with the flaws in the expert opinion testimony and the absence of a well-documented history of mental illness—was sufficient to support the court’s finding of guilty but mentally ill (GBMI).