Case Title: Phillip Miles v. State of Indiana

Citation: 

Docket Number: 49S04-0806-PC-371

State: indiana

Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Date: 2008-06-30T00:00:00Z

Document:
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT  
 
 
 
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE 
Ann M. Sutton 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Steve Carter 
Indianapolis, Indiana   
 
 
 
 
Attorney General of Indiana  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Michael Gene Worden 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Deputy Attorney General 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Indianapolis, Indiana 
______________________________________________________________________________ 
 
 
In the 
Indiana Supreme Court  
_________________________________ 
 
No. 49S04-0806-PC-371 
 
 
PHILLIP MILES, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Appellant (Defendant below), 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF INDIANA,  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Appellee (Plaintiff  below). 
_________________________________ 
 
Appeal from the Marion Superior Court, Criminal Division 2,  
No. 49G02-0111-FC-223525, 
The Honorable Robert Altice, Judge  
_________________________________ 
 
On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A04-0504-PC-219 
_________________________________ 
 
June 30, 2008 
 
Per Curiam. 
FILED
CLERK
of the supreme court,
court of appeals and
tax court
Jun 30 2008, 2:29 pm
 
Phillip Miles argued with Steven Buddy Reed over a debt for crack cocaine, and Miles 
shot Reed in the face.  Flora Murff attempted to help Reed, and Miles shot Murff in the head.  
Both Reed and Murff died. 
 
Miles pleaded guilty, without a plea agreement, to two counts of Murder, Indiana Code 
section 35-42-1-1, one count of Carrying a Handgun Without a License, Indiana Code section 
35-47-2-1 (a Class A misdemeanor), and one count of Dangerous Possession of a Handgun, 
Indiana Code section 35-47-10-5 (also a Class A Misdemeanor).  The trial court sentenced Miles 
to consecutive forty-five year terms for each murder with twenty-five years suspended, and, after 
merging the misdemeanor offenses, to a single concurrent one-year term for the handgun 
offense.  Thus, the total executed sentence was sixty-five years.   
 
Miles appealed the sentence, arguing the trial court should have found more mitigating 
circumstances and asking that the executed sentence be reduced pursuant to an appellate court’s 
power to review and revise sentences.  See Ind. Const. art. VII, §§ 4 & 6; Ind. Appellate Rule 
7(B).  Deciding that Miles had forfeited the opportunity for appellate sentence review under the 
“invited error doctrine” when defense counsel asked the trial court to impose “no more than a 
sixty-five year sentence,” the Court of Appeals affirmed.  Miles v. State, 847 N.E.2d 275 (Ind. 
Ct. App. 2006) (table; unpublished decision), vacated.   
 
We grant transfer because Miles is not precluded from seeking appellate sentence review 
under the circumstances.  In Childress v. State, 848 N.E.2d 1073 (Ind. 2006), we rejected the 
argument that defendants, by entering plea agreements that specify a sentence range, have 
acquiesced to a sentence in the specified range and thus forfeit the opportunity for appellate 
sentence review.  We held that such defendants may raise the appropriateness of a sentence 
imposed under the terms of such plea agreements.  See id. at 1079-80.  Similarly here, defense 
 
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counsel’s arguments at the sentencing hearing about a sixty-five year sentence does not equate to 
“invited error” or acquiescence in a sixty-five year sentence such that Miles is precluded from 
asking an appellate court to review his sentence.  Rather, the trial court exercised discretion in 
determining Miles’s sentence and Miles is entitled to contest the reasonableness of a trial court’s 
sentencing discretion on appeal.  See Id. at 1078-79; see also Tumulty v. State, 666 N.E.2d 394, 
396 (Ind. 1996) (providing appellate sentence review to defendant on open plea). 
 
Having reviewed the merits of Miles’s argument that the sentence should be revised, 
however, we conclude the sentence was not inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses 
and the character of the offender.  
 
Accordingly, we grant transfer, thus vacating the Memorandum Decision of the Court of 
Appeals, and affirm the sentence. 
Shepard, C.J., and Dickson, Sullivan, Boehm, and Rucker, JJ., concur.