Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 49A02-1505-CR-452| December 1, 2015 Page 1 of 7

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), 

this Memorandum Decision shall not be 

regarded as precedent or cited before any 

court except for the purpose of establishing 

the defense of res judicata, collateral 

estoppel, or the law of the case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT

Hilary Bowe Ricks

Indianapolis, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE

Gregory F. Zoeller

Attorney General of Indiana

Paula J. Beller 

Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

I N T H E

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Corey Goodnight,

Appellant-Defendant,

v.

State of Indiana,

Appellee-Plaintiff

December 1, 2015

Court of Appeals Case No.

49A02-1505-CR-452

Appeal from the Marion Superior 

Court

The Honorable Marc Rothenberg, 

Judge

Trial Court Cause No.

49G02-1406-FB-031330

Bailey, Judge.
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Case Summary

[1] Corey Goodnight (“Goodnight”) was convicted of Theft, as a Class D felony,1

and Attempted Robbery, as a Class B felony.2 He now appeals, raising for our 

review the sole question of whether there was sufficient evidence to sustain his 

conviction of Attempted Robbery.

[2] We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[3] During their lunch break on June 9, 2014, Shirley Fleming (“Fleming”) and 

Troyce Golden (“Golden”), sisters who worked nearby one another, had eaten 

lunch together and were walking along Washington Street toward Meridian 

Street in Indianapolis. Fleming was carrying her wallet under her arm, and 

Golden was carrying a lunch bag that was suspended by a strap from her 

shoulder.

[4] Goodnight was riding his bicycle along Washington Street after having left an 

intensive outpatient treatment program for heroin use, and wanted money to 

 

1

Ind. Code § 35-43-4-2(a). Goodnight’s offenses were committed on June 9, 2014, and the Indiana General 

Assembly revised Indiana’s criminal statutes effective July 1, 2014. We refer at all times to the version of the 

statutes applicable at the time of Goodnight’s offenses.

2

I.C. §§ 35-42-5-1 & 35-31.5-2-168.
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purchase heroin. Goodnight saw Fleming and Golden walking down the street,

and noticed Fleming’s wallet.

[5] After looking to see whether he could easily take Fleming’s wallet, Goodnight 

circled his bicycle around, rode up behind Fleming and Golden, and grabbed 

Fleming’s wallet. Golden also felt a pull from behind and underneath where 

she was carrying her lunch bag, fell onto the wheel of Goodnight’s bicycle, and 

fell to the ground. Golden had scrapes on her elbows, deep cuts in her knees, 

and bruising and bleeding on her face and eye.

[6] As Goodnight tried to ride away, Fleming yelled out, saying that someone had 

stolen her wallet. Quentin Bey (“Bey”), a nearby pedestrian, saw Goodnight 

take Fleming’s wallet and saw Golden fall, and grabbed Goodnight as he rode 

by. Bey took Fleming’s wallet and returned it to her, and began to wrestle 

Goodnight to the ground.

[7] At some point during the struggle with Bey, Goodnight said that he had a knife 

and attempted to retrieve it from his pocket, but Bey kicked it away. A nearby 

electrical contractor, Chadd Sherman (“Sherman”), saw the incident from his 

cherry picker, returned to the ground, and helped Bey subdue Goodnight before 

police arrived. A third man also helped subdue Goodnight, and Sherman was 

able to secure Goodnight’s hands with zip ties. Once police arrived, Goodnight 

was placed into handcuffs and arrested.

[8] On June 10, 2014, Goodnight was charged with two counts of Robbery: one as 

to Fleming (Count I), and one as to Golden (Count II). A bench trial was 
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conducted on February 26, 2015. During the trial, Goodnight admitted to 

having committed Theft as to Fleming. At the trial’s conclusion, the court 

found Goodnight guilty of Theft, as a Class D felony, as a lesser included 

offense to Robbery with respect to Count I, and guilty of Attempted Robbery, 

as a Class B felony, as a lesser included offense to Robbery with respect to 

Count II.

[9] On May 6, 2015, a sentencing hearing was conducted. At the end of the 

hearing, the trial court sentenced Goodnight to 180 days imprisonment for 

Theft and seven years imprisonment for Attempted Robbery, with the sentences 

run concurrent with one another, yielding an aggregate term of imprisonment 

of seven years. The trial court ordered 662 days of the sentence to be served as 

executed time in the Department of Correction, ordered 1,528 days to be served 

on home detention, and suspended the rest of Goodnight’s sentence to 

probation.

[10] This appeal ensued.

Discussion and Decision

On appeal, Goodnight challenges only the sufficiency of the evidence as to his 

conviction for Attempted Robbery. Our standard of review in such cases is 

well-settled.

This court will not reweigh the evidence or assess the credibility of 

witnesses. Cox v. State, 774 N.E.2d 1025, 1028 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002).

Only the evidence most favorable to the judgment, together with all 
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reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom will be considered.

Id. If a reasonable trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty 

based on the probative evidence and reasonable inferences drawn 

therefrom, then a conviction will be affirmed. Id. at 1028-29.

Sargent v. State, 875 N.E.2d 762, 767 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007).

[11] To convict Goodnight of Attempted Robbery, as a Class B felony, the State was 

required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Goodnight attempted to 

commit the offense of Robbery, as a Class B felony, by engaging in conduct that 

constituted a substantial step toward the commission of that crime. See I.C. § 

35-31.5-2-168. Robbery, as a Class B felony, occurs when a defendant

knowingly or intentionally takes property from another person or from 

the presence of another person: (1) by using or threatening the use of 

force on any person; or (2) by putting an person in fear ... while armed 

with a deadly weapon or [engaging in conduct that] results in bodily 

injury to any person other than the defendant.

I.C. § 35-42-5-1.

[12] Goodnight’s challenge to his conviction centers on whether his conduct 

amounted to Attempted Robbery with respect to Golden. Goodnight argues 

that the “backwards jerk” Golden experienced, even taken in conjunction with 

her injuries, was insufficient to establish that Goodnight committed robbery.

[13] Interpreting the robbery statute under which Goodnight was charged, the 

Indiana Supreme Court in Maul v. State observed:

We have held that the degree of force used to constitute the crime of 

robbery has to be a greater degree of force than would be necessary to 

take possession of the victim’s property if no resistance was offered 

and that there must be enough force to constitute violence.
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467 N.E.2d 1197, 1199 (Ind. 1984).

[14] This Court has also considered the use of force in distinguishing a robbery from 

a theft in Cooper v. State, 656 N.E.2d 888 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995). In Cooper, the 

defendant took a firearm from Bailey’s back pocket, and the evidence indicated 

“that the gun slipped easily from Bailey’s pocket.” Id. at 889. However, Bailey 

gave chase, and the two struggled in Bailey’s front yard. Id. Cooper was only 

able to escape after biting Bailey’s arm, but was subsequently arrested and 

found guilty of robbery. Id. On appeal, this Court affirmed Cooper’s 

conviction, noting that “if the person in possession of the property resists before 

the property has been removed from the person’s presence or premises, the 

taking is not completed immediately,” and that “it is not until the property is 

successfully removed from the premises or person’s presence that the robbery is 

complete.” Id. Moreover, “[i]f the use of force is necessary to accomplish the 

theft and elude the person in possession of the property, it is part of the 

robbery.” Id.

[15] Here, Golden testified that as Goodnight rode by, she felt something like “a jerk 

that pulled me down,” that came “[u]nder her arm” where she was carrying her 

lunch bag. Tr. at 27. Golden further testified that she struck the ground from 

“a jerk when the young man came up beside me and pulled me down.” Tr. at 

27. This, taken together with testimony from Fleming, Bey, and Sherman that 

Goodnight was stopped within six feet of Fleming and Golden and continued 

to offer resistance afterward, permitted a reasonable inference that Goodnight 

used force in excess of that needed to take Golden’s bag, even if Golden had 
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not offered resistance. To the extent Goodnight now argues that “[t]he possible 

attempted theft of Golden’s lunch bag did not become an attempted robbery 

simply because she was somehow injured in the aftermath,” Appellant’s Br. at 

15, and compares the difference between the Theft conviction in Count I with 

the Attempted Robbery conviction in Count II, we decline Goodnight’s 

invitation to reweigh evidence.

[16] We accordingly conclude there was sufficient evidence to sustain Goodnight’s 

conviction for Attempted Robbery.

[17] Affirmed.

Vaidik, C.J., and Crone, J., concur.