Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 91A02-1606-CR-1363 | February 15, 2017 Page 1 of 5

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

Jay T. Hirschauer

Logansport, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE

Curtis T. Hill, Jr.

Attorney General of Indiana

Matthew R. Elliot

Deputy Attorney General

Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

Donald E. Morris,

Appellant-Defendant,

v.

State of Indiana,

Appellee-Plaintiff

February 15, 2017

Court of Appeals Case No. 

91A02-1606-CR-1363

Appeal from the White Superior 

Court

The Honorable Robert B. Mrzlack, 

Judge

Trial Court Cause No. 

91D01-1403-FA-29

Mathias, Judge.

[1] Donald E. Morris (“Morris”) pleaded guilty in White Superior Court to Class A 

felony dealing in methamphetamine. On appeal, White contends that the 
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sentence imposed by the trial court was inappropriate. Concluding that White 

waived his right to appeal his sentence, we affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[2] In June 2014, Morris was a sixty-two-year-old disabled veteran of the Vietnam 

War who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”). Morris had 

been given a 70% disability rating due to his PTSD and still had shrapnel in his 

body as a result of his war injuries. Morris was also addicted to 

methamphetamine. On June 19, Morris made arrangements with a person with 

whom he was acquainted to come to his home and give him pseudoephedrine 

pills in exchange for methamphetamine. In fact, this person was a confidential 

informant working for the Indiana State Police. The amount of 

methamphetamine the informant bought was 3.09 grams.

[3] As a result of this controlled buy, the State charged Morris on March 11, 2014, 

with Class A felony dealing in methamphetamine. After bonding out of jail, 

Morris sought treatment for his methamphetamine addiction and PTSD at a 

facility operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Morris did not do 

well in outpatient treatment and attempted to commit suicide. Thereafter, he 

was admitted to an inpatient treatment facility and completed the treatment 

program successfully. 

[4] On July 17, 2015, Morris entered into a plea agreement that called for him to 

plead guilty to Class A felony dealing in methamphetamine in exchange for the 

minimum twenty-year sentence. In addition, the plea agreement provided that 
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the State would make no recommendation as to sentencing and that the 

placement for sentencing would be left to the discretion of the trial court.

Paragraph 4 of the plea provided, “[t]he Defendant waives his right to appeal 

any sentence imposed by the trial court that is within the range set forth in the 

plea agreement. Further, Defendant knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily 

waives his right to challenge the sentence on the basis that it is erroneous.” 

Appellant’s App. p. 65.

[5] On May 13, 2016, the trial court accepted the plea and sentenced Morris to the 

minimum term of twenty years. The trial court ordered Morris to serve ten 

years executed in the Indiana Department of Correction with the remaining ten 

years to be served on home detention. Morris now appeals. 

Discussion and Decision

[6] Morris claims that his sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the 

offense and the character of the offender. The State argues that, in his plea 

agreement, Morris waived his right to appeal his sentence. We agree with the 

State.

[7] Our supreme court has held that a defendant can waive the right to appellate 

review of his sentence as a part of a written plea agreement as long as the 

waiver is knowingly and voluntarily made. Creech v. State, 887 N.E.2d 73, 75 

(Ind. 2008). Here, Morris makes no argument that his plea was not knowingly 

and voluntarily made, and if he did, such an argument would be meritless.
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[8] During the guilty plea hearing, the trial court advised Morris of his rights, 

explained the rights he would forfeit by pleading guilty, inquired into Morris’s 

mental ability to enter into the plea agreement, and ensured that Morris was 

neither threatened nor forced to enter into the plea agreement. Tr. pp. 5-8. The 

trial court also explained that by pleading guilty, Morris was admitting to the 

facts underlying the charge against him, which Morris acknowledged. When 

asked, “Is your plea of guilty your own free and voluntary act,” Morris 

responded, “Yes.” Tr. p. 12. When asked, “And by pleading guilty you are 

telling the Court that on June 19, 2013, in White County, Indiana, you 

knowingly delivered a substance known to you to be methamphetamine in an 

amount that weighed more than three grams,” Morris replied, “Yes, sir.” Id.

Thus, there is nothing to suggest that Morris’s decision to plead guilty was 

anything other than knowingly and voluntarily made. 

[9] Unlike in Creech, here the trial court did not misadvise Morris that, despite the 

waiver-of-appeal provision contained in the plea agreement, he nonetheless had 

a right to challenge his sentence on appeal. See Creech, 887 N.E.2d at 74.1 This 

makes the argument for a valid waiver stronger. See Bowling v. State, 960 N.E.2d 

837, 842 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012) (holding that failure of trial court to misadvise 

defendant of her right to appeal, notwithstanding a clear waiver of the right to 

appeal contained in the written plea agreement, made the case for waiver 

 

1 The court in Creech held that the misadvisement did not render the waiver invalid, noting that the erroneous 

advisement came at the sentencing hearing which occurred after Creech had already pleaded guilty and 

received the benefit of his bargain. Id. at 77.
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stronger, not weaker). We note, however, that a specific dialogue with the trial 

court is not a prerequisite to a valid waiver of appeal, so long as there is other 

evidence in the record demonstrating a knowing and voluntary waiver. Id. at 

483 (citing Creech, 887 N.E.2d at 74). 

[10] As noted above, there is nothing in the record before us that would suggest that 

Morris’s waiver was anything other than knowingly and voluntarily made. The 

language of Paragraph 4 of the plea agreement is clear and unambiguous: by 

pleading guilty, Morris waived the right to appeal his sentence so long as the 

trial court sentenced him within the terms of the plea agreement. The trial court 

here sentenced Morris within the terms of the plea agreement.2 We therefore 

conclude that Morris waived his right to appeal his sentence.3 

[11] Affirmed.

Baker, J., and Pyle, J., concur. 

 

2 This is distinguishable from the facts in Morris v. State, 985 N.E.2d 364, 366 (Ind. Ct. App. 2013), clarified on 

reh’g, 2 N.E.3d 7, which held that a provision of written plea agreement providing that the defendant waived 

his right to appeal sentence on basis that it was “erroneous” was ambiguous as to whether he was giving up 

his right to challenge his sentence as inappropriate under Appellate Rule 7(B), because a non-erroneous 

sentence may still be considered inappropriate under Rule 7(B). Here, as in Morris, Paragraph 4 does state

that Morris waived his right to challenge his sentence as “erroneous.” Unlike Morris, though, it also provides 

more generally that Morris waived his right to appeal his sentence so long as the trial court sentenced him 

within the terms of the plea agreement, which the trial court here did. 

3 Waiver notwithstanding, we note that Morris received the minimum sentence allowed, and the trial court 

ordered him to serve only half of this sentence in incarceration. Assuming Morris receives Class 1 credit for 

his time served, he will spend five years in prison after admitting to a Class A felony. See Ind. Code § 35-50-6-

3. This is a comparatively lenient sentence. Morris also has a criminal history which includes a prior felony 

conviction for burglary. Thus, even if we reached the merits of Morris’s claim, we would be hard pressed to 

say that his sentence was inappropriate under Appellate Rule 7(B).