When defendant passenger testified that the driver was the dealer of the methamphetamine in a make-up bag next to her purse and that he threatened to hurt her and her children if she did not say the meth belonged to her, there was a “serious evidentiary dispute” as to whether defendant had intent to deal the meth, as charged, and it was reversible error not to instruct on the lesser included of possession of methamphetamine.
M. May
Shuai v. State, No. 49A02-1106-CR-486, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Feb. 8, 2012).
Trial court properly denied motion to dismiss murder and attempted feticide charges based on defendant’s having ingested rat poison to commit suicide and cause death of her third trimester fetus, which allegedly died a few days after birth from hemorrhage allegedly caused by the rat poison.
Castillo-Aguilar v. State, No. 20A04-1003-CR-195, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Jan. 20, 2012).
Some questions on police “information sheet,” purportedly used for administrative booking purposes, were investigative in nature under the circumstances of the case, and as the defendant was in custody when given the sheet to fill out the investigative questions were Miranda “interrogation” requiring Miranda warnings before defendant filled the sheet out in order for his answers to be admissible in evidence.
D.E. v. State, No. 49A02-1103-JV-319, __ N.E.2d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Nov. 14, 2011).
Counsel’s signature on delinquent’s plea agreement was sufficient to establish a proper waiver of his rights, notwithstanding absence of parental signatures.
G.N. v. IDCS (In re T.N.), No. 49A05-1101-JC-15, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App., Sept. 28, 2011).
One parent’s admission is insufficient to prove a child is a CHINS when the child’s other parent contests that allegation; due process requires a fact-finding hearing before the court declares the child is a CHINS.