Bex v. State

952 N.E.2d 347, 2011 Ind. App. LEXIS 1613, 2011 WL 3667054
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 22, 2011
DocketNo. 53A01-1008-CR-422
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 952 N.E.2d 347 (Bex v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bex v. State, 952 N.E.2d 347, 2011 Ind. App. LEXIS 1613, 2011 WL 3667054 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION

KIRSCH, Judge.

Robbie J. Bex (“Bex”) appeals from her conviction and sentence for operating while [349]*349intoxicated endangering a person,1 as a Class A misdemeanor. Bex presents three issues for our review, which we restate as:

I. Whether Bex was denied her constitutional right to a trial by jury when five jurors decided her case;
II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it imposed a public defender user fee as a condition of her probation without making a determination of her ability to pay; and
III. Whether the public restitution work component of Bex’s sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender.

We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On May 15, 2008, Bex was attempting to exit the parking lot after finishing her shift at General Electric in Bloomington. As she did so, she had a collision with another vehicle.2 A sheriffs deputy responded to the scene and spoke to Bex. The deputy detected the odor of alcohol and noticed Bex’s bloodshot, watery eyes and slurred speech. After administering field sobriety tests and a certified breath test, the deputy arrested Bex for driving while intoxicated.

The trial court held a jury trial in this case on May 28, 2010. A jury of six members was seated without an alternate juror being selected. During the trial, one juror suffered a medical emergency, and the case proceeded to a verdict with the five remaining jurors. Initially, defense counsel acknowledged the defense’s agreement to continuing with only five jurors, but counsel later moved for a mistrial, which the trial court denied. The five-person jury found Bex guilty, and the trial court sentenced her to 360 days in jail with 350 days suspended to probation and eighty hours of public restitution work. Bex now appeals.

I. Right to Jury Trial

Bex contends that her constitutional right to a trial by jury was violated when a jury of only five members determined her guilt. The Sixth Amendment of the federal constitution provides for the right to trial by jury for criminal defendants. The United States Supreme Court, in Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 149, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 20 L.Ed.2d 491 (1968), held that the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury for criminal defendants applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Article I, section 13 of the Indiana Constitution also secures a criminal defendant’s right to trial by jury but, here, Bex challenges the alleged violation of her right only under the federal constitution.

As an initial matter, the State argues in its brief that Bex waived her right to a jury trial by failing to timely file her demand for trial by jury pursuant to Indiana Criminal Rule 22. There has been no showing that Bex had at least fifteen days advance notice of her scheduled trial date and of the consequences of her failure to demand a trial by jury, as required by Indiana Criminal Rule 22. Thus, the alleged untimeliness of Bex’s motion for jury trial notwithstanding, we address her claim of a -violation of her Sixth Amendment right.

During the State’s presentation of its case-in-chief, juror number two suffered a medical emergency. After taking a recess, [350]*350the trial judge went back on the record and stated that previously the court, the State, and the defense counsel, in a sidebar conference, had agreed that no alternate juror would be picked and that if something happened to one of the jurors, the five remaining jurors would decide the case. The sidebar referred to by the trial judge was an unrecorded sidebar; however, defense counsel acknowledged on the record the accuracy of the trial court’s statement of the agreed procedure. After the trial judge’s statement, the court recessed for lunch. Upon reconvening, defense counsel moved for a mistrial based upon his uncertainty that his agreement to a five-member jury was valid. The trial court denied the motion, and the trial continued. The five remaining jurors deliberated and returned a guilty verdict to the charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated in a manner endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor.

In Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 90 S.Ct. 1893, 26 L.Ed.2d 446 (1970), the defendant had filed a pretrial motion to impanel a twelve-person jury instead of the statutorily mandated six-man jury in all but capital cases. The defendant’s motion was denied, he was convicted as charged, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal, the defendant claimed, in pertinent part, that his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. The Supreme Court stated as follows when addressing the issue of whether the constitutional guarantee of a trial by jury necessarily requires a trial by exactly twelve persons, or some lesser number:

We conclude, in short, as we began: the fact that the jury at common law was composed of precisely 12 is a historical accident, unnecessary to effect the purposes of the jury system and wholly without significance ‘except to mystics.’ To read the Sixth Amendment as forever codifying a feature so incidental to the real purpose of the Amendment is to ascribe a blind formalism to the Framers which would require considerably more evidence than we have been able to discover in the history and language of the Constitution or in the reasoning of our past decisions. We do not mean to intimate that legislatures can never have good reasons for concluding that the 12-man jury is preferable to the smaller jury, or that such conclusions — reflected in the provisions of most States and in our federal system — are in any sense unwise. Legislatures may well have their own views about the relative value of the larger and smaller juries, and may conclude that, wholly apart from the jury’s primary function, it is desirable to spread the collective responsibility for the determination of guilt among the larger group.... Our holding does no more than leave these considerations to Congress and the States, unrestrained by an interpretation of the Sixth Amendment that would forever dictate the precise number than can constitute a jury.

399 U.S. at 102-93, 90 S.Ct. 1893 (internal citations and footnotes omitted). The Supreme Court held that the twelve-man panel is not a necessary ingredient of ‘trial by jury,’ and that the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights were not violated by the Florida statute calling for a six-member panel. Id. at 86, 90 S.Ct. 1893. The right to trial by jury was not violated by denying the defendant’s request for a jury panel larger than provided for by statute.

It has long been held in this state that, under the Sixth Amendment, a defendant may waive the statutory right to a twelve-person jury and consent to a trial by an eleven-person jury. See Smith v. State, 176 Ind.App. 37, 39, 373 N.E.2d 1112, 1113 (1978) (although statute provided for jury of twelve members, such provision is pri[351]*351marily for protection of defendant and thus defendant may waive requirement of twelve-member jury and consent to be tried by jury of eleven members).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Shon L. Hudson v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
109 N.E.3d 1061 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2018)
Mason W. Meunier-Short v. State of Indiana
52 N.E.3d 927 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016)
Jason A. Henderson v. State of Indiana
44 N.E.3d 811 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2015)
Jeffery A. Foster v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Dejuan D. Cox v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Steven Duncan v. State of Indiana
975 N.E.2d 838 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
952 N.E.2d 347, 2011 Ind. App. LEXIS 1613, 2011 WL 3667054, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bex-v-state-indctapp-2011.