State v. Hicks

453 N.E.2d 1014, 1983 Ind. LEXIS 967
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 30, 1983
Docket283S33
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 453 N.E.2d 1014 (State v. Hicks) 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
State v. Hicks, 453 N.E.2d 1014, 1983 Ind. LEXIS 967 (Ind. 1983).

Opinions

GIVAN, Chief Justice.

The State brings this appeal following the granting of appellee William Hicks' Motion to Dismiss the habitual offender count of a criminal information.

The facts are these. Hicks and two accomplices burglarized a dwelling in Tippecanoe County. An information charging all three with Burglary and Attempted Theft was filed on August 10. The arraignment was set for August 28. At the hearing held on that date, Hicks entered a plea of guilty to both counts which the court accepted.

On August 31, the prosecutor filed an "Information of Habitual Offender" as to Hicks. The essential allegation of this pleading was that Hicks had accumulated three prior unrelated felony convictions.

On September 8, Hicks filed a Motion to Dismiss the Habitual Offender Allegations. The court heard argument on the motion at the September 20 sentencing hearing and also entertained an oral motion from the prosecutor to amend the information originally filed. This motion was denied. On September 24, the court granted Hicks' Motion to Dismiss. On September 29, the State filed a written Motion to Amend, but it was also denied. Hicks was sentenced to a twenty year term of imprisonment upon conviction on the burglary charge. The State timely perfected its appeal.

Appellee Hicks contends on several grounds this Court has no jurisdiction to hear this appeal and also that the State has no right to appeal this case.

[1016]*1016Hicks argues we should dismiss the appeal for the State's failure to include a jurisdictional statement in its brief. Ind.R. App.P. 8.8(A)(2) states:

"When a direct appeal (other than in a criminal action ) is taken to the Supreme Court there shall be included under a heading entitled Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, a brief statement of why, in appellant's opinion, the Supreme Court has jurisdiction to hear the direct appeal." (Emphasis added.)

The State correctly points out since this is an appeal "in a criminal action," notwithstanding the fact it is an appeal by the State, no jurisdictional statement is required in the appellant's brief under the rule.

Hicks asserts jurisdiction in this Court cannot be found anywhere in Ind.R.App.P. 4(A), which sets out the kinds of appeals in which this Court has exclusive jurisdiction. The rule reads in part:

"(A) Appeals from Final Judgments. Appeals may be taken by either party from all final judgments of circuit, superior, probate, criminal, juvenile, county, and where provided by statute for municipal Courts. A ruling or order by the trial court granting or denying a motion to correct errors shall be deemed a final judgment, and an appeal may be taken therefrom. The Supreme Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction of:
* * #k a * a
"(7) Appeals in criminal cases from judgments (sentences) imposing a sentence of death, life imprisonment or a minimum sentence of greater than ten [10] years. If the appeal is from the denial of post-conviction relief, jurisdiction shall be determined by reference to the sentence originally imposed." Id.

Hicks is incorrect. In the case at bar this is an appeal from a judgment or a sentence for more than ten years imprisonment and hence this Court has exclusive jurisdiction over the appeal pursuant to Appellate Rule 4(A)(7).

Hicks contends the State has no right to appeal in this case because it is not the kind of case from which an appeal by the State is allowed. He correctly points out the State's right to appeal in criminal cases is purely statutory. State v. Holland, (1980) Ind., 403 N.E.2d 832; State v. Sierp, (1973) 260 Ind. 57, 292 N.E.2d 245. The statute governing the State's right to appeal in eriminal cases is 1.C. § 85-1-47-2 [Burns 1982 Supp.]. In pertinent part it reads:

"Appeal by state. Appeals to the supreme court or to the court of appeals, if the court rules so provide, may be taken by the state in the following cases:
(1) From an order granting a motion to dismiss an indictment or information." Id.

We disagree with Hicks that this appeal does not fall within the purview of the statute. It is clear upon examining the State's brief and its Motion to Correct Errors that the error the State claims was committed by the trial court was its grant of Hicks Motion to Dismiss the information adding an habitual offender allegation to the original charge. Accordingly, this appeal is authorized under L.C. § 35-1-47-2(1) as an appeal "[fJrom an order granting a motion to dismiss an ... information."

He argues the State waived any objection to this ruling by failing to preserve the error for review. See, eg., McCraney v. State, (1981) Ind., 425 N.E.2d 151; Stubblefield v. State, (1979) 270 Ind. 421, 386 N.E.2d 665. Hicks contends at the August 283 arraignment when he entered his guilty plea and the State made known its intent to file an habitual offender allegation, the State should have objected to the acceptance of Hicks' guilty plea, or asked for a continuance of the arraignment, or dismissed the charges and refiled them later with the habitual offender allegation added, in order to preserve the error now claimed.

The error claimed is the trial court's September 24 grant of the Motion to Dismiss. We are at a loss to understand how the State could waive an objection regarding that ruling by its conduct at a proceeding [1017]*1017conducted almost one month earlier, when neither the Motion to Dismiss nor the amendment it attacked had yet been filed.

Turning to the issue on the merits of whether the trial court erred in granting the Motion to Dismiss, we look first to the habitual offender statute, LC. § 85-50-2-8 [Burns 1982 Supp.]. It reads in pertinent part:

"Habitual offenders-(a) The state may seek to have a person sentenced as an habitual offender for any felony by alleging, on a page separate from the rest of the charging instrument, that the person has accumulated two [2] prior unrelated felony convictions.
(b) After he has been convicted and sentenced for a felony committed after sentencing for a prior unrelated felony conviction, a person has accumulated two [2] prior unrelated felony convictions. However, a conviction does not count, for purposes of this subsection, if:
(1) It has been set aside; or
(2) It is one for which the person has been pardoned. |
(c) If the person was convicted of the felony in a jury trial, the jury shall reconvene for the sentencing hearing; if the trial was to the court, or the judgment was entered on a guilty plea, the court alone shall conduct the sentencing hearing, under I.C. § 35-4.1-4-8 [85-50-1A-3]." Id.

We have held the statute provides a mechanism for the enhancement of a sentence imposed upon conviction on the underlying felony when it is proven the defendant has accumulated two prior unrelated felony convictions. Yager v. State, (1982) Ind., 437 N.E.2d 454; Griffin v.

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Bluebook (online)
453 N.E.2d 1014, 1983 Ind. LEXIS 967, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hicks-ind-1983.