Treadway v. State

924 N.E.2d 621, 2010 Ind. LEXIS 243, 2010 WL 1404193
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 8, 2010
Docket49S00-0803-CR-147
StatusPublished
Cited by116 cases

This text of 924 N.E.2d 621 (Treadway v. State) 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
Treadway v. State, 924 N.E.2d 621, 2010 Ind. LEXIS 243, 2010 WL 1404193 (Ind. 2010).

Opinion

RUCKER, Justice.

Case Summary

After a trial by jury Jeffrey Treadway was found guilty of murder, felony murder, robbery, and battery. Alleging two statutory aggravating circumstances, the State *626 sought life imprisonment without parole. The jury recommended life imprisonment and the trial court sentenced Treadway accordingly. Rephrased and reordered Treadway raises the following issues: (1) did the trial court err in failing to dismiss the State's request for life imprisonment without parole; (2) did the trial court abuse its discretion in failing to grant a mistrial; (8) did the trial court abuse its discretion by admitting into evidence the testimony of two inmate witnesses; (4) did the trial court err in admitting into evidence Treadway's pretrial statement; (5) did the trial court err in instructing the jury; (5) was the evidence sufficient to sustain the verdicts; (6) did the State prove the existence of the statutory aggra-vators beyond a reasonable doubt; (7) is the trial court's sentencing order inadequate; and (8) is the life without parole sentence inappropriate based on Tread-way's character and the nature of the offense. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Facts and Procedural History

In the late evening hours of October 15, 2005, Treadway knocked on the door of a home occupied by an elderly couple, eighty-two-year-old Donald Carroll and his eighty-year-old wife Betty Carroll. Two years earlier Treadway had performed minor yard work for the couple for which Mrs. Carroll paid him $25.00. When Mr. Carroll answered the door Treadway struck him in the head repeatedly with a brick and took his wallet. As Mrs. Carroll attempted to intervene, Treadway swung at her with the brick and pushed her onto a couch causing injuries to her arms and hands. In response to Treadway's demand for money Mrs. Carroll gave Tread-way $200.00 and he fled the seene. Mrs. Carroll called 9-1-1. After the police arrived Mr. Carroll was taken to Methodist Hospital where he died as a result of blunt force injury to the head. Tr. at 1650. 1 When questioned by the police Mrs. Carroll gave a description of the attacker, noting that he had unkempt gray hair, a full beard, vivid eyes, wore a blue plaid jacket, that his name was "Jeff" and that he had done yard work for her in the past.

A few days later with the assistance of a sketch artist, Mrs. Carroll created a picture of Treadway that was thereafter released to the news media. On October 28, 2005, Treadway was arrested in the state of Minnesota on an unrelated charge and was questioned by officers of the Fairmont Police Department. During questioning Treadway made references of being wanted in Indianapolis and that he was "going for life." Ex. Tr. at 127.

The State charged Treadway with murder, felony murder, robbery as a Class A felony, and battery as a Class C felony. Alleging he committed the murder by intentionally killing the victim while committing or attempting to commit robbery-Indiana Code section 35-50-2-9(b)(1)(G)- and that he committed the murder while on parole-Indiana Code section 35-50-2-9(b)(9)(D)-the State also sought life imprisonment without parole. After a jury trial Treadway was convicted as charged. At the penalty phase of trial, the jury recommended life imprisonment for the murder conviction. And following a sentencing hearing the trial court sentenced Treadway consistent with the jury's recommendation. Also, the trial court entered judgment of conviction on the robbery as a Class B rather than a Class A felony and sentenced Treadway to twenty years imprisonment to run consecutive to *627 the life sentence. For the battery convietion the trial court imposed a sentence of eight years to run concurrent with the life sentence. Apparently because of double jeopardy concerns, the trial court merged the felony murder conviction with the murder eonviction and entered no sentence thereon. Treadway seeks review. Pursuant to Indiana Appellate Rule 4(A)(1)(a) this Court has mandatory and exclusive jurisdiction over this appeal. Additional relevant facts are set forth below where necessary.

Discussion

J.

Motion to Dismiss

Prior to trial Treadway filed a motion to dismiss the State's request for life imprisonment without parole, which the trial court denied. Correctly noting that a sentence of life without parole is imposed under the same standards and is subject to the same requirements as a capital sentence, see Ajabu v. State, 693 N.E.2d 921, 936 (Ind.1998), Treadway contends the trial court erred in denying his motion because Indiana's death penalty statute is unconstitutional under both the United States Constitution as interpreted by Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000) and Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002); and Article I, Section 19 of the Indiana Constitution. 2 In support of his contention, Treadway advances five arguments, each of which this Court has previously rejected: (1) the statute allows for the death sentence in the absence of a jury finding that aggravators outweigh the mitigators beyond a reasonable doubt (rejected in Ritchie v. State, 809 N.E.2d 258, 264-68 (Ind.2004), reh'g denied, cert. denied; and State v. Barker, 809 N.E.2d 312, 314-15 (Ind.2004), reh'g and remand granted, 826 N.E.2d 648 (Ind.2005), cert. denied ); 3 (2) the statute allows a judge to impose a sentence of life without parole without a jury's unanimous recommendation (rejected in Wilkes v. State, 917 N.E.2d 675, 687-89 (Ind.2009), reh'g denied, 2010 Ind. LEXIS 199 (Ind., Mar. 16, 2010) (holding where a jury finds the aggravating cireumstance(s) exists beyond a reasonable doubt the requirements of Apprendi and Ring for establishing eligibility for a penalty under Indiana Code section 35-50-2-9 are satisfied, and if the Jury cannot reach a unanimous sentencing recommendation the trial court may impose a sentence under the statute so long as it independently finds the aggravating circumstances)); (8) the statute calls for the use of special verdiet forms (rejected in Wilkes, 917 N.E.2d at 686-87 (holding that although Indiana Trial Rule 49 abolished special verdict forms, use of the form is necessitated by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution as interpreted by Apprendi and Ring)); (4) the statute permits, but does not require, the consideration of mitigating cireumstances (rejected in Wisehart v. State, 693 N.E.2d 23, 54 (Ind.1998), reh'g denied, cert. denied, (citing Matheney v. State, 688 N.E.2d 883, 907 (Ind.1997), cert. denied )); *628 and (5) that the statute diminishes the responsibility of the jury in making a sentencing determination under the statute (rejected in Barker, 809 N.E.2d at 317-318). We decline to revisit these issues. The trial court did not err in denying Treadway's motion to dismiss.

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

Related

Keri Brewer v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2017
Trevis Stokes v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016
Larry Crume v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016
Craig Sampson v. State of Indiana
38 N.E.3d 985 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2015)
Robert Lewis III v. State of Indiana
34 N.E.3d 240 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2015)
Kevin Charles Isom v. State of Indiana
31 N.E.3d 469 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2015)
Jeffrey Z. Hayden v. State of Indiana
19 N.E.3d 831 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014)
Paul A. Parsley v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Brenda Beecher v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Anthony P. Sharp, Jr. v. State of Indiana
16 N.E.3d 470 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014)
Charlie S. Hines III v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
James R. Willey v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Forest Lamar, Jr. v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
924 N.E.2d 621, 2010 Ind. LEXIS 243, 2010 WL 1404193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/treadway-v-state-ind-2010.