Morgan Mannix v. State of Indiana

54 N.E.3d 1002, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 83, 2016 WL 1132993
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 23, 2016
Docket49A04-1505-CR-294
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 54 N.E.3d 1002 (Morgan Mannix 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
Morgan Mannix v. State of Indiana, 54 N.E.3d 1002, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 83, 2016 WL 1132993 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

VAIDIK, Chief Judge.

Case Summary'

[1] Morgan Mannix struck 'and killed Alex Trabbert, who was walking along the road, when she was driving home around 2:30 a.m. Mannix stopped her car and briefly looked around but then left when she did not see anything. Mannix later [1004]*1004consented to a blood draw, which occurred approximately seven and a half hours after the accident. The results showed that Mannix’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.10. .

[2] After a jury trial, Mannix was convicted of Class C felony failure to stop after an accident resulting in death and Class C felony operating while intoxicated causing death. Despite noting that he had never seen, more compelling mitigators than in,this case, the trial judge sentenced Mannix to an above-advisory term of six years for each conviction, to be served concurrently. The judge suspended two years and ordered one year of probation.

[3] Reading together Indiana Code sections 9-30-6-15 and 9-30-7-3, we conclude that the fact that a chemical test was administered more than three hours after an .accident does not render it inadmissible; rather, it deprives the State of the rebuttable presumption that the driver’s blood-alcohol concentration,at the time of the test was the same at the time of the accident. In addition, we agree that the trial court erred in sentencing Mannix to an above-advisory term for each conviction. This is because the judge appeared to rely on the elements of one offense to support an above-advisory sentence for the other offense, and vice versa, but did not identify anything unique about the circumstances that would justify deviating from the advisory sentence, especially in light of the numerous mitigators in this case. We therefore use our review-and-revise authority to sentence Mannix to the advisory term of four years with one year suspended for each conviction, to be served concurrently, and one year of probation.

Facts and Procedural History

[4] In November 2012, twenty-three-yéar-old Morgan Mannix went home for Thanksgiving, She stayed with her parents, who lived on the northeast side of Indianapolis.

[5] The day after Thanksgiving, Man-nix drove to a friend’s house at 96th Street and Allisonville Road. According to Man-nix, she drank “probably” six Bud Tight beers between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Ex. 14. She stopped drinking around 1:00 a.m. and then left her friend’s house around 2:30 a.m. to drive back home.

[6] Mannix took Shadeland Avenue to get • home. She was driving south on Shadeland between 71st and 75th Streets when her passenger-side tires left the road and drove on the adjacent grass for over 100 feet.1 Mannix struck and killed twenty-three-year-old Alex Trabbert with her car. Alex had just left Fairbanks, an addictions treatment center near Community Hospital North at 82nd Street and Shade-land, and was walking along Shadeland carrying a pillow and trash bag full of his belongings. Mannix did not know what she hit and stopped her car. She looked around for about 10-15 seconds but then left when she did not see anything. Man-nix drove the rest of the way home and went straight to bed. She did not call 911.

[7] Around 5:30 a,m. Saturday morning, a passerby was driving south on Shadeland and spotted Alex’s body by the side of the road. The passerby called 911, and police officers arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. Alex had massive head trauma and bleeding. His cause of death was later determined to be multiple blunt force trauma to the head. Tr. p. 383.

[1005]*1005[8] When Mannix woke up Saturday-morning around 8:30 a.m., she told her father, Charles Mannix, that she “was driving home last night and something hit [her] car.” Id. at 265. Charles surveyed the damage to his daughter’s car, which included, a shattered windshield on the passenger side and a dented hood. Charles then drove approximately two miles to the location Mannix described, where he encountered Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Detective Eric Snow — a member of Marion County’s Fatal Alcohol Crash Team — sweeping debris. Charles asked Detective Snow if there had been an accident, and Detective Snow said that a pedestrian had been struck and killed. Charles responded, “I think my daughter may have been involved.” Id. at 271. Detective Snow asked if he could come to their house to see Mannix’s car, and Charles agreed.

[9] Detective Snow and Lawrence Police Department Officer Michael McKen-na — also a member of the Fatal Alcohol Crash Team — went to the Mannix home. Detective Snow arrived first; he examined Mannix’s car and then went inside to speak with Mannix and her parents. When Officer McKenna arrived, he used a card to read Mannix Indiana’s, implied-consent law for crashes involving fatalities. Id. at 295-96. Officer McKenna specifically told Mannix that she had the right to refuse the chemical test as well as the penalties for refusing. Id. at 295. Mannix consented to a blood draw, and Officer McKenna- drove her to Eskenazi Hospital,2 During their interactions with Mannix, both officers smelled.alcohol on her breath and person. Id. at 300,467.

[10] At the hospital, Mannix told the registered nurse that she consented to the blood draw and then signed the hospital’s toxicology-sample log, which indicated that her blood draw was by “consent,”. Id. at 340-41; Ex. 17. Mannix’s blood was drawn at 9:52 a.m,, approximately seven and a half hours after the accident. Tr. p. 543; Ex. 17. Testing showed that Man-nix’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.10. Ex. 23. Using retrograde extrapolation, Mannix’s blood-alcohol concentration was estimated to be between 0.17 and 0.28 at the time of the accident. Testing also showed the presence of marijuana.

[11] After the blood draw, Mannix agreed to give a statement. She was transported to the police station, where she waived her Miranda rights and gave her version of the events. She explained that after she struck Alex with her car, she “freaked out” and “panicked” because she thought she might have hit a person. Ex. 14. She stopped her car and briefly looked around but then left “too soon.” Id. She acknowledged that she “shouldn’t have left” and that she should have called 911. She told the police that she wanted to do “absolutely whatever” she could to “take responsibility,” Id. She broke down when the officers told her that Alex was her age.

[12] Three days' after the accident, the State charged Mannix with one count: Class C felony failure to stop after an accident resulting in death. The State later added Class B felony operating a vehicle with a controlled substance or its metabolite in the body causing death. Then, on July 17, 2014 — which was a few days before trial was set to begin and when- plea negotiations had stalled — the State moved to amend the charging information to include three additional counts, all involving alcohol: Class B, felony operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration greater than 0.15 causing death, Class C felony operating a vehicle with a [1006]*1006blood-alcohol concentration greater than 0.08 causing death, and Class C felony operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death. The trial court took the trial off the calendar and charged the delay to the State. On November 24, 2014, the trial court issued an order allowing the State to add the Class C felony OWI-causing-death charge — but not the BAC charges3

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

Related

Tyrone Stokes v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2026
George Lee Hall v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2025
Jay Paul Crouse, Jr. v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2020
Ruel P. Pedigo, III v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2020
Levern Nicole Howard v. State of Indiana
122 N.E.3d 1007 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2019)
Brittanie R. Corbin v. State of Indiana
113 N.E.3d 755 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2018)
Brandon Black v. State of Indiana
79 N.E.3d 965 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2017)
Elberta N. Jackson v. State of Indiana
67 N.E.3d 1166 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 N.E.3d 1002, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 83, 2016 WL 1132993, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morgan-mannix-v-state-of-indiana-indctapp-2016.