Thus, if the consecutive sentencing was proper, so were the individual sentence enhancements. However, the other aggravating circumstances properly support the trial court's decision both to enhance the sentences and to order them served consecutively. The trial court is not limited in the matters it may consider in determining the sentence. The majority opinion observes that the trial court accepted the defendant's plea of guilty but mentally ill but declined to consider the defendant's mental illness as a mitigating circumstance. If the trial court erred in failing to consider such mitigating circumstances, a preferable appellate resolution would be to remand to the trial court for reconsideration and a new sentencing order.
Murder is the most serious offense under Indiana law.
The unjustified, brutal and unrepentant murder of both parents by their only child is devasting to the family and the entire community. The Court described the mitigator thus The only mitigating circumstance by statute found to exist by the Court is that the defendant has no historyof delinquent or criminal activity. This factor is reduced by the fact that the defendant skipped school on at least two occasions and while out did, as a part of a group, engage in some vandalism. The Court specifically rejects the arguments put forward indicating that the crime was the result of circumstances unlikely to recur, that the victim induced or facilitated the offense, that there are substantial grounds tending to excuse or justify the crime, though failing to establish a defense or that the person acted under strong provocation for the reasons described in earlier sections. The diagnoses of Narcissistic Personality and borderline Personality Disorder appear most probable and are consistent with the defendant's presentation to the Court in a number of hearings over the course of more than a year.