Gillie v. State

465 N.E.2d 1380, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 880
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 9, 1984
Docket1082 S 407
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 465 N.E.2d 1380 (Gillie v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gillie v. State, 465 N.E.2d 1380, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 880 (Ind. 1984).

Opinion

PRENTICE, Justice.

Following a trial by jury, Defendant (Appellant) was convicted of Theft, a class D felony, Ind.Code § 35-43-4-2 (Burns 1979), Robbery, a class B felony, Ind.Code § 35-42-5-1 (Burns 1979), and Criminal Confinement, a class B felony, Ind.Code § 35-42-3-3 (Burns 1979), and was found to be an Habitual Offender, Ind.Code § 35-50-2-8 (Burns Supp.1983). He was sentenced to two (2) years imprisonment upon the theft charge, fifteen (15) years imprisonment upon the robbery charge, and fifteen (15) years upon the criminal confinement charge, said sentences to be enhanced by five (5) years upon the habitual offender finding, and all sentences to be served consecutively. His direct appeal presents ten (10) issues for review, one of which compels us to reverse the convictions for robbery and criminal confinement. With respect to the theft conviction and the enhancement of its sentence upon the habitual offender finding, we affirm.

The record disclosed that on August 14, 1980, the Defendant committed a robbery at the Cambelltown Branch of the First National Bank of Winslow, Indiana. Gun in hand, he demanded that one employee, Kathryn Harker, lock the door of the bank and ordered both Harker and a second employee, JoAnn Radcliff, to enter the vault. Radcliff was ordered to put money into a sack. He then told the two women to remain in the vault and to lie on the floor. In the course of the robbery investigation, the police discovered a white Ford Pinto automobile, which was registered in Defendant’s name and which had been reported stolen from an automobile dealership in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Subsequently, Defendant was arrested in Texas, returned to Indiana, and charged with theft, robbery, and criminal confinement.

On January 15, 1981, the State filed informations charging Defendant with robbery and criminal confinement. Both informations purported to charge class B felonies; however, they only charged class C felonies. On February 11, 1981, after Defendant had filed a motion to dismiss the informations, the State moved to amend its informations by adding the allegation that, in each case, Defendant was armed with a deadly weapon when he committed the offenses. On February 18, 1981, the State filed its “Notice of Filing Amended Informations.” On March 3, 1981, Defendant objected to the amendments, and a hearing was held on the motion to amend. The *1383 trial court took the motion under advisement and subsequently allowed the amendments on March 9, 1981. On March 3, 1981, the Defendant waived formal arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty to all three counts. Defendant argues that the trial court erred in granting the State’s motion to amend in violation of Ind. Code § 35-3.1-1-5. We agree.

The procedural problem here presented is essentially identical to that presented in Trotter v. State, (1981) Ind., 429 N.E.2d 637 and is governed by the same subsection of the statute (since repealed) that controlled there. In Trotter, we wrote:

“The defendant charges that in permitting the aforesaid amendment, the trial court violated subsection (e) of Ind.Code § 35-3.1-1-5 (Burns 1979), [footnote omitted] which is as follows:
“ ‘(e) Notwithstanding any other provision in this section, an indictment or information shall not be amended in any respect which changes the theory or theories of the prosecution as originally stated, or changes the identity of the offense charged; nor may an indictment or information be amended after arraignment for the purpose of curing a failure to charge or state an offense or legal insufficiency of the factual allegations.’
(Repealed September 1, 1982.)
“Theory of the case is defined as ‘Facts on which the right of action is claimed to exist’. (Black’s Law Dictionary, Third Edition.) There is a substantial difference in the facts that constitute the two offenses. Hence, we believe that it cannot be said that the amended information did not change the theory of the prosecution.
“The code section above cited is a substantial departure from the former law in several respects and restricts the prosecutors and trial judges in several particulars not previously encountered.
“The purpose of an indictment or information is first to inform the court of the facts alleged, so that it may decide whether or not they are sufficient in law to support a conviction, and second, to furnish the accused with such a description of the charge against him as will enable him to make his defense and avail of his conviction or acquittal for protection against further prosecution for the same offense. State v. Allen, (1895) 12 Ind.App. 528, 40 N.E. 705.
“In view of the above stated purpose, we are at a loss to understand why the State should not be entitled to amend charges, even as to theory and identity, as we understand such terms, when it can be done without prejudicing the substantial rights of the accused. Nor do we see how the accomplishment of a change in charges by amendment, prior to arraignment, can be objectionable when the dismissal and refiling of charges would not be proscribed by the statute of limitations or speedy trial rules. Yet subsection (e) leaves no discretion in the trial judge in such matters.
“We are, therefore, compelled to hold that the trial court erred in permitting the amendment and that the defendant was convicted of a crime for which he had not been charged.”

Id. at 640-641.

Consequently, Defendant’s convictions for robbery and criminal confinement are reversed.

In order to support our affirmance of the theft conviction and the enhancement of its sentence upon the habitual offender finding and to guide the trial court upon retrial of the robbery and criminal confinement charges, we address the following issues raised by the Defendant:

(1) Whether the trial court erred in denying Defendant’s motions for a change of venue based upon pretrial publicity;

(2) Whether the trial court erred in denying Defendant’s Motion to Suppress predicated upon his claim of a tainted lineup identification;

(3) Whether the trial court erred in denying Defendant’s Motion to Suppress predicated upon his claim that hair and handwriting samples should not have been tak *1384 en inasmuch as he was without the assistance of counsel;

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Bluebook (online)
465 N.E.2d 1380, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 880, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gillie-v-state-ind-1984.