Logan M. Dull v. State of Indiana

44 N.E.3d 823, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 662, 2015 WL 5734397
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided September 30, 2015·No. 68A04-1502-CR-75·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

PYLE, Judge.

Statement of the Case

[1] Logan M. Dull (“Dull”) appeals the trial court’s restitution order. Dull was charged by indictment with one count of Class D felony theft for stealing grain during the Summer or Fall of 2013. 1 He pled guilty as charged, and, as part of his plea agreement, he agreed to pay restitution. When setting forth his factual basis for the crime, he admitted that he stole grain from the victim on or about one day that fell within ,the dates in the indictment. During the sentencing and restitution hearings, Dull admitted that he had stolen grain from the victim on two other occasions, and he agreed to pay restitution for these three occasions within the time period of the indictment. The trial court ordered him to pay $145,633.40 in restitution, and this amount included grain that Dull had sold up to one year prior to the dates contained in the indictment.

[2] On appeal, Dull challenges only the amount of restitution ordered. Specifically, he argues that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering him to pay $145,633.40 in restitution because part of that amount was based on uncharged acts to which he neither pled guilty nor agreed to pay restitution. We agree with Dull’s assertion. Absent an agreement to pay restitution, a defendant may not be ordered to pay restitution for an act that did not result in a conviction. Because the trial court ordered restitution for amounts that related to dates outside Dull’s indictment for which he did not plead guilty and for which he did not agree to pay, we reverse the trial court’s order of restitution. However, because Dull did agree to a specific amount of restitution that fell within the dates contained in the indictment, we remand to the trial court to enter an order for that specific amount.

[3] Reversed and remanded.

Issue

Whether the trial court abused its discretion by ordering Dull to pay $145,633.40 in restitution to the victim. *825 LOGAN DULL, on or about various times in the summer or fall of 2013, in Randolph County [,] State of Indiana, did knowingly exert unauthorized control over the property of Kenny Besh-ears (DBA Stone Station Elevator and Ridgeville Elevator), to wit: grain, with the intent to deprive said person of any part of the value or use of said property....

*824 Facts

[4] In January 2014, a grand jury indicted Dull for one count of Glass D felony theft. The indictment provided, in relevant part, that:

*825 (App. 119). 2

[5] On August 20, 2014, Dull entered into a written plea agreement, in which, he agreed to plead guilty as charged in the indictment. The parties agreed that Dull would be “sentenced to a term of two (2) years” and that “said term shall be suspended except one hundred eighty (180) days to be served on home detention” (App. 59). The parties also agreed that Dull would be placed on probation “with the length and terms to be determined by th[e] Court.” (App. 59). Additionally, Dull agreed that he would “pay restitution as ordered by th[e] Court.” (App. 60).

[6] On October 29, 2014, the trial court held a guilty plea and sentencing hearing. During the guilty plea portion of the hearing, Dull’s attorney questioned him in order to lay the factual basis for his plea. Dull admitted that “on or about August 20th of 2013,” he and another person went to Stone Station and Ridgeville Elevators, which were owned by Beshears, and took grain without Beshears’s permission. (Tr. 13). Thereafter, the prosecutor—after confirming that Dull understood that he was being charged with and would be convicted of only one count of theft “no matter what [he] sa[id] here today[,]”—asked him if there were “other thefts that occurred[.]” (Tr. 14). Specifically, the prosecutor asked Dull about his statement to police in which Dull admitted that he had gone to Beshears’s grain elevator on threé occasions and had stolen grain. Dull confirmed that he had stolen grain from Besh-ears on two additional occasions and had told the police about it.

[7] The trial court determined that “there [wa]s a factual basis fo.r the plea[,]” took the plea under advisement, and then proceeded to sentencing. During that portion of the hearing, Dull testified that he worked on and operated his family’s farm, which was owned by his mother. He explained that the farm’s operations included “Mattie, hay, and ... some exotic birds[,]” and he testified that he made “[g]ross probably forty, fifty thousand” dollars per year. 3 (Tr. 16). Dull also testified that he was aware that Beshears was.seeking approximately $147,000.00 in restitution, 4 but he asserted that he would not be able to pay that amount.

[8] Beshears testified during the sentencing hearing and expressed his dissatisfaction with Dull’s plea agreement. Specifically, Beshears stated he did not “feel like six months home detention and some probation [wa]s punishment for the *826 crime[,]” especially where Dull’s crime occurred on “dozens of occasions” over “an eighteen month period[.]” (Tr. 17, 18). Beshears also testified that he had not filed an insurance claim for any of the stolen grain.

[9] As an exhibit, the prosecutor offered a check that was made out to Dull from “The Andersons” (“Andersons”), the grain company that bought grain from Dull. (State’s Sentencing Ex. 1). The check, which was written for $1,667. 20 and dated September 16, 2013, was being held by the Ridgeville Police Department. The prosecutor then requested that the trial court defer an order on restitution until the State could obtain the remaining records from Andersons for the other occasions that Dull had sold it grain that he had stolen from Beshears. When questioned by the trial court, Dull admitted that he had taken grain, which had been stolen from Beshears, to Andersons and that he had' been issued a check from Andersons for that stolen grain. Dull, however, denied that there were more than two other occasions when he did so. The trial court then asked Dull:

COURT: So you wouldn’t have any objection then if that was stolen grain for the Court to order you to reimburse Mr. Beshears for the amounts of those shipments ..,
[DUTT]: Right.
COURT: Or truckloads correct?
[DUTT]: Right. Correct.

(Tr. 21). After Beshears again pointed out that there were “not just two or three” occasions, the trial court re-questioned Dull:

COURT: So Mr. Dull were there other times you would have received checks from the Anderson’s [sic] other than from stolen grain from Mr. Besh-ears[’] operations?
[DUTT]: No.
COURT: Those would be the only checks you would have would be the money that was owed to Mr. Beshears correct?
[DUTT]: Yes sir.

(Tr. 22).

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Logan M. Dull v. State of Indiana, 44 N.E.3d 823, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 662, 2015 WL 5734397 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015).

44 N.E.3d 823 (Logan M. Dull v. State of Indiana) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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