Hornaday v. State

639 N.E.2d 303, 1994 Ind. App. LEXIS 1074, 1994 WL 450594
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 22, 1994
Docket49A02-9301-PC-2
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 639 N.E.2d 303 (Hornaday 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
Hornaday v. State, 639 N.E.2d 303, 1994 Ind. App. LEXIS 1074, 1994 WL 450594 (Ind. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, Judge.

John Lee Hornaday appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief from his conviction of robbery, a Class B felony. 1 The basis of Hornaday's appeal is that the Marion Superior Court lacked jurisdiction to try the case. This seemingly simple contention presents many issues for our review which we state as:

I. Whether the 70-day time limit pre- ' seribed by Ind.Crim.R. 4(B) runs anew from the filing of a new charge where the State has dismissed and refiled charges against a defendant;
II. whether the 70-day period prescribed by Ind.Crim.R. 4(B) began anew from the date of Hornaday's request for continuance and renewed motion for a speedy trial;
whether the running of the 70-day period prescribed by Crim.R. 4(B) is suspended between the State's dismissal and refiling of new charges where the defendant continues to be imprisoned after dismissal; TIL.
IV. whether Hornaday waived his right to a speedy trial;
v. whether the trial court properly denied Hornaday's motion for dismissal;
VIL. whether a violation of Crim.R. 4(B) divests a trial court of jurisdiction on a refiled charge;
VII. whether Hornaday was deprived of his constitutional right to a speedy trial;
VIII. whether the deprivation of a defendant's constitutional right to a speedy trial divests a trial court of jurisdiction on a refiled charge?

Hornaday allegedly committed the instant crime while on Regulated Community Assignment 2 (RCA) from the Department of Correction (DOC) in whose custody he was serving a prison sentence upon a prior robbery conviction. Hornaday was arrested on December 7, 1986 and was formally charged in Marion Superior Court, Criminal Division One, on December 9 with two counts of attempted murder, a Class A felony, robbery, a Class A felony, and criminal recklessness, a Class D felony. 3 Upon Hornaday's request for a speedy trial, trial was set for January 7, 1987, within the 70-day speedy-trial period prescribed by Crim.R. 4(B).

Ten days after his arrest, the DOC conducted a parole revocation hearing at which Hornaday's parole and credit time on the prior conviction were revoked as a result of the charges against him.

On December 830, 1986, Hornaday requested a continuance from the January 7 date while renewing his request for a speedy trial. Accordingly, trial was set for February 2, 1987. On that date, the court, over defendant's objection, granted the State's motion to dismiss the charges.

Subsequently, in September of 1987, almost eight months after his arrest, the State secured a grand-jury indictment against Hor-naday filed in Marion Superior Court, Criminal Division One, charging him with robbery, a Class A felony, stemming from the same occurrence. Trial on this new charge was set for November 9, 1987. Hornaday moved to dismiss the renewed charge on November 4, 1987 alleging that it was time-barred by Crim.R. 4(B). The trial court denied the motion.

On November 12, 1987, three days into the trial, Hornaday requested permission to *306 withdraw his plea of not guilty; on December 9, 1987, the court accepted Hornaday's guilty plea to robbery as a Class B felony.

Hornaday remained incarcerated from December 17, 1986, the date of his parole revocation, to and including his guilty plea on December 9, 1987. Because of the pending charges, Hornaday was incarcerated beyond his regularly-scheduled parole date of March 26, 1987, on the prior conviction. 4

COMPUTATION OF 70-DAY SPEEDY TRIAL PERIOD

I. Dismissal and Refiling

Hornaday argues that where defendant has made a speedy-trial motion, the 70-day time limit does not start anew when the State dismisses and refiles the charge. 5 We agree.

There is a conflict among the decisions from various districts of this Court upon this issue. 6

In Fink v. State (1984) 4th Dist.Ind.App., 469 N.E.2d 466, Fink was incarcerated upon a charge of burglary. Fink moved for a speedy trial. On the date set for trial, and before the 70-day limit had expired, the State simultaneously dismissed and refiled the charges. Because of the simultaneous dismissal and refilling, Fink was never released from jail. Fink made a new speedy-trial motion on the renewed charges. The State argued that onee the original charges had been dismissed and refiled, a new 70-day period began to run from Fink's second speedy-trial motion. Our Fourth District disagreed, holding that "an incarcerated defendant's invocation of the speedy trial rule may not be defeated by the simultaneous dismissal and refiling of related charges ... Otherwise, if the state may at any time within the year prescribed by C.R. 4(C) abrogate the defendant's speedy trial motion simply by dismissing and refilling identical or related charges, we fail to discern the value of C.R. 4(B)." Id. at 468-69

The State cites Shields v. State (1983) Ist Dist.Ind.App., 456 N.E.2d 1033 in support of its argument that after dismissal and refiling, a new 70-day period starts but only if defendant files a new speedy trial motion. In Shields, the court held that when the State dismissed and refiled charges, "a whole new action began" and that the 70-day period would begin to run anew should Shields move for a speedy trial on the new charges. Id. at *307 1037. Under Shields, the State could dismiss charges against a defendant on the 69th day of the speedy-trial period, release him, and then rearrest him the following day on refiled charges. Shields would allow the State to hold a defendant for several 70-day periods, neatly cirenmventing the statute. 7 In fact, our Supreme Court recognized this danger with regard to the six-month limitation of Crim.R. 4. The Court stated that the rule should not be interpreted to "enable the state to hold a prisoner just short of six months, release him and then on re-arresting the same man on the identical charge hold him for another period of time just short of the six months." Majors v. State (1969) 252 Ind. 672, 251 N.E.2d 571, 573.

This court expressed its preference for Fink's reasoning in Phelps v. State (1989) 2d Dist.Ind.App., 532 N.E.2d 619, in which the State dismissed and refiled charges against Phelps before the 70-day period had expired. We held that Phelps' speedy-trial motion related back to the original charge because the statute states that "each and every day after the filing of such motion for early trial shall be counted" in computing the 70-day period. Id. at 620, quoting Crim.R. 4(B)(2). Seventy days from Phelps' arrest was July 1, 1986.

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Bluebook (online)
639 N.E.2d 303, 1994 Ind. App. LEXIS 1074, 1994 WL 450594, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hornaday-v-state-indctapp-1994.