Edward A. Holt, Jr. v. State of Indiana

62 N.E.3d 462, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 385, 2016 WL 6107987
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 19, 2016
Docket40A04-1601-CR-192
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 62 N.E.3d 462 (Edward A. Holt, Jr. v. State of Indiana) 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
Edward A. Holt, Jr. v. State of Indiana, 62 N.E.3d 462, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 385, 2016 WL 6107987 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

PYLE, Judge.

Statement of the Case

[1] Edward A. Holt, Jr., (“Holt”) appeals his sentence imposed after his guilty plea to two counts of Class C felony child molesting.1 On appeal, he asks us to find that his four year sentence was inappropriate and to reduce or suspend it accordingly. In response, the State requests that we also find Holt’s sentence inappropriate but that we increase it to six years for each conviction. Because we do not find that Holt’s sentence was inappropriate, we affirm.

[2] We affirm.

Issue

Whether Holt’s sentence was inappropriate.

Facts

[3] On October 27, 2015, Holt pled guilty to two counts of Class C felony child molesting for molesting the two children of his former girlfriend—a five-year-old boy, A.G., and his six-year-old sister, S.U. As the factual basis for his guilty plea, Holt admitted that between January 2010 and February 2011 he had let the children fondle him. Holt’s plea agreement did not place a cap on the sentence to be imposed, but it provided that he would serve concurrent sentences for each count. The State also agreed to not make a recommendation as to his sentence.

[4] Subsequently, on December 29, 2015, the trial court held a sentencing hearing. After reviewing Holt’s pre-sen-tence investigation report (“PSI”) and questioning him briefly, the trial court found the following aggravators: (1) Holt, who was twenty-nine at the time of the hearing, had a prior juvenile delinquency adjudication for a sex crime, child molest; (2) Holt had a prior misdemeanor conviction for invasion of privacy and a probation revocation; and (3) Holt did not have a high school diploma or GED. The trial court also found the following mitigators: (1) Holt had been gainfully employed for most of his adult life; (2) Holt had pled guilty; and (3) other than Holt’s juvenile adjudication, his criminal history was not significant. The trial court then sentenced Holt to concurrent four (4) year executed terms at the Department of Correction. Holt now appeals.

Decision

[5] On appeal, Holt argues that his sentence was inappropriate in light of the nature of his offense and his character and requests that we revise or suspend it under Indiana Appellate Rule 7(B). In response, the State argues that we should instead increase Holt’s sentence for each of his convictions to six (6) years.

[6] While sentencing decisions rest within the sound discretion of the trial court, a reviewing court may revise a sentence pursuant to Appellate Rule 7(B) if, [465]*465“after due consideration of the trial court’s decision,” it finds that the sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender. Anglemyer v. State, 868 N.E.2d 482, 493 (Ind.2007), clarified on reh’g, 875 N.E.2d 218 (Ind.2007); Childress v. State, 848 N.E.2d 1073, 1079-80 (Ind.2006) (citing Ind. App. R. 7(B)). Whether a sentence is inappropriate ultimately turns on “the culpability of the defendant, the severity of the crime, the damage done to others, and a myriad of other factors that come to light in a given case.” Cardwell v. State, 895 N.E.2d 1219, 1225 (Ind.2008).

[7] We first address the State’s request to increase Holt’s sentence. Our power to review and revise a sentence includes the ability to reduce or increase the sentence imposed by the trial court. McCullough v. State, 900 N.E.2d 745, 750 (Ind.2009). The State may not request an increase to a defendant’s sentence on cross-appeal, but it may request such an increase in its Appellee’s Brief if a defendant requests “appellate review and revision of a criminal sentence” on appeal. Id.

[8] In assessing whether the State’s request in this case has merit, we consider our supreme court’s decision in Akard v. State, 937 N.E.2d 811 (Ind.2010). In that case, our' supreme court réversed this Court’s decision to raise a defendant’s sentence of ninety-three (93) years to an aggregate sentence of 118 years under Appellate Rule 7(B). Akard, 937 N.E.2d at 813. The supreme court’s decision was based on the fact that the prosecutor in Akard had requested a sentence “no greater” than 93 years at sentencing and that the State had asserted that the sentence of 93 years was appropriate on appeal. Id. at 814. The supreme court concluded that both of those factors were “strong indicators that the trial eourt[’s] sentence [was] not inappropriately lenient.” Id. Analogously to Akard, the State here agreed not to make a sentencing recommendation at sentencing, thereby implicitly indicating that it would agree with the trial court’s sentencing determination. As a result, we will not increase the sentence imposed in this case.

[9] Next, we address Holt’s request for a reduced sentence. In assessing whether his sentence is inappropriate, we acknowledge that the advisory sentence “is the starting point the Legislature has selected as an appropriate sentence for the crime committed.” Id. at 1081. At the time of Holt’s offense, the sentencing range for a Class C felony was between two (2) and -eight (8) years with an advisory sentence of four (4) years. I.C. § 35-50-2-6 (2011). Holt therefore received the advisory sentence on both of his convictions.

[10] ' First, Holt argues that the advisory sentence was inappropriate with respect to the nature of his offenses because there was nothing that placed his offenses outside of the normal sentencing considerations for a Class C felony. We agree, but we note that the trial court’s sentence already reflected the fact that nothing about Holt’s offenses were unusual for Class C felonies. The trial court sentenced Holt to the advisory sentence—the “starting point the Legislatúre .... selected as an appropriate sentence for the crime committed.” Childress, 848 N.E.2d at 1081. Holt has not persuaded us that the nature of his offense warrants a reduction of that sentence.

[11] As for his character, Holt asks us to consider the fact that, while he does have a prior misdemeanor for invasion of privacy, “this charge was due to continuing (or restarting) a romantic relationship with a willing partner while a protective order regarding her children was still in place.” (Holt’s Br. 9). Also, he notes that he was [466]*466assessed as having an overall low risk to reoffend; that he has been employed for the last four years; that he expressed his remorse at the sentencing hearing; and that he indicated his desire to enter into sex offender counseling and treatment.

[12] Contrary to Holt’s contentions, his criminal history is serious. The PSI and police report revealed that Holt had been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent when he was fifteen years old for what would have been Class B felony child molesting if he had been charged as an adult.2 That adjudication was based on Holt’s confession that he had anally penetrated two six-year-old boys.

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Bluebook (online)
62 N.E.3d 462, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 385, 2016 WL 6107987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edward-a-holt-jr-v-state-of-indiana-indctapp-2016.