Treadway v. State

924 N.E.2d 621, 2010 Ind. LEXIS 243, 2010 WL 1404193
Indiana Supreme Court·Decided April 8, 2010·No. 49S00-0803-CR-147·Published·Cited by 116 cases

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

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

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