Smith v. State

929 N.E.2d 255, 2010 Ind. App. LEXIS 1150, 2010 WL 2605232
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided June 30, 2010·No. 52A04-0909-CR-504·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

OPINION

MAY, Judge.

Michael L. Smith pled guilty to auto theft, institutional criminal mischief, and arson. 1 He received a seven-year sentence, with three years suspended to probation. Smith raises three issues on appeal, which we restate as:

1. Whether the trial court should have considered certain mitigating circumstances Smith offered;
*258 2. Whether the sentence was inappropriate in light of Smith's character and the nature of the offense; and
3. Whether the trial court may require as a condition of probation that a probationer undergo polygraph examinations, with the condition that positive results amount to a probation violation and would be admissible in subsequent court proceedings.

We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Smith stole three cars and set fire to two. On March 5, 2009, Smith and his accomplice used the third stolen vehicle to destroy property at a public swimming pool and a golf course. When Smith was apprehended on the golf course, he admitted stealing and setting fire to vehicles both that day and in January 2009.

Smith was in special education classes in high school until he began home schooling in the ninth grade. He has not completed high school. He has Marfan's Syndrome 2 and receives social security disability benefits.

Smith's plea agreement capped his executed sentence at four years and required the State to dismiss three other counts. The court sentenced Smith to four years for institutional criminal mischief, one and a half years for each count of auto theft, and one and a half years for arson. The court ordered some of the sentences be served concurrently, leaving a final sentence of four years incarceration and three years probation.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

1. Mitigating Factors

"[Slentencing is principally a discretionary function in which the trial court's judgment should receive considerable deference." Cardwell v. State, 895 N.E.2d 1219, 1222 (Ind.2008). A trial court may impose any sentence "within the allowable range for a given crime without a requirement to identify specific aggravating or mitigating cireumstances." Id. "The trial court must enter a statement including reasonably detailed reasons or cireumstances for imposing a particular sentence." Id. at 1223. We review the reasons given, and the omission of reasons arguably supported by the record, for abuse of discretion. Id. "The relative weight or value assignable to reasons properly found or those which should have been found is not subject to review for abuse." Id. A sentencing court abuses its discretion only if its decision is "clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and cireumstances before the court, or the reasonable, probable, and actual deductions to be drawn therefrom." Anglemyer v. State, 868 N.E.2d 482, 490 (Ind.2007), clarified on reh'g on other grounds 875 N.E.2d 218 (Ind.2007).

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining the length of Smith's sentences. The court considered as aggravating factors Smith's juvenile adjudication of theft, and his subsequent violation of the probation imposed therefor. As a mitigating factor, it considered Smith's plea agreement. The court determined the aggravating and mitigating factors negated each other.

*259 Smith argues the trial court overlooked three mitigating factors: 1) his acceptance of responsibility and cooperation with the police; 2) his diminished mental capacity; and 3) his inability to pay restitution to the victims while incarcerated. The trial court abuses its discretion in sentencing if it overlooks "substantial" mitigating factors that are "clearly supported by the record." Anglemyer, 868 N.E.2d at 491. The trial court may decide what cireumstances it finds mitigating. "When a defendant offers evidence of mitigators, the trial court has the discretion to determine whether the factors are mitigating, and it is not required to explain why it does not find the proffered factors to be mitigating." Johnson v. State, 855 N.E.2d 1014, 1016 (Ind.Ct.App.2006), trans. denied.

As the trial court found Smith's guilty plea to be a mitigating factor, we cannot say it erroneously overlooked his acceptance of responsibility. See, eg., Sensback v. State, 720 N.E.2d 1160, 1165 (Ind.1999) (indicating a guilty plea has mitigating effect when it demonstrates defendant's acceptance of responsibility). We decline to hold the court was obliged to consider Smith's cooperation with the police as a mitigator, as Smith was cooperative with police only after he was apprehended. See Glass v. State, 801 N.E.2d 204, 209 (Ind.Ct.App.2004) (cooperation not entitled to mitigating weight when decision to cooperate came after arrest, and thus was a pragmatic decision).

Neither did the trial court abuse its discretion in declining to find Smith's diminished mental capacity was a mitigating factor. The mitigating weight to be afforded a defendant's mental impairment depends on: 1) the extent of the defendant's inability to control his or her behavior due to the impairment; 2) overall limitations on functioning; 3) the duration of the mental illness; and 4) the extent of any nexus between the impairment and the commission of the crime. Williams v. State, 840 N.E.2d 4883, 439 (Ind.Ct.App. 2006). Smith has not established the effect his diminished mental capacity had on his ability to control his behavior, the extent to which it limited his ability to function, or whether there was a nexus between his mental condition and the crime. We therefore cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in declining to find Smith's mental capacity a mitigating circumstance.

Finally, the trial court was not obliged to find Smith's inability to pay restitution from jail a mitigating factor. Mitigating cireumstances can be found in any aspect of a defendant's character or record, or any cireumstances of the offense, that the defendant proffers as a basis for a reduced sentence. Wisehart v. State, 698 N.E.2d 23, 64-65 (Ind.1998), reh'g denied, cert. denied 526 U.S. 1040, 119 S.Ct. 1338, 148 L.Ed.2d 502 (1999). As inability to pay restitution by virtue of imprisonment is not an aspect of Smith's character or offense, it does not fall within that definition. Recognizing such a miti-gator would entitle a defendant to mitigation every time a sentence included prison time and payment of restitution.

2. Appropriateness of Sentence 3

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Smith v. State, 929 N.E.2d 255, 2010 Ind. App. LEXIS 1150, 2010 WL 2605232 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010).

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