Opinion ID: 853623
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The State's Continuance

Text: Baxter argues that he was prejudiced when the trial court granted the State's motion for a continuance on December 24, 1997. Specifically, he argues that Johnson, who had not yet been charged with a crime at the time of the motion, would have been available to testify at trial if the State had not been granted the continuance. Courts do not favor continuances to allow more time to prepare for trial and should grant these motions only where good cause is shown and it is in the interests of justice. Williams v. State, 681 N.E.2d 195, 202 (Ind.1997). However, the granting of a motion for a continuance on nonstatutory grounds [3] lies within the discretion of the trial court and will be reversed only for an abuse of that discretion. See id.; Kindred v. State, 540 N.E.2d 1161, 1177 (Ind.1989) (citations omitted); Sims v. State, 521 N.E.2d 336, 338 (Ind. 1988); Mengon v. State, 505 N.E.2d 788, 791 (Ind.1987). There is no abuse of discretion if the appellant was not prejudiced by the continuance. Sims, 521 N.E.2d at 338. The continuance in question was granted at the request of the prosecution after it had located officials from the City of Indianapolis to conduct a study of the traffic flow on the route along which Baxter followed Knoebel. The State contended that this material would assist the trier of fact in determining the Defendant[`s] intent concerning these allegations. The State's inability to obtain this information earlier was alleged to be a result of the prosecuting attorneys' heavy trial calendar. At trial, this witness testified to the amount of time it would have taken for Baxter to drive that route. Because the State charged Johnson on December 29, 1997, and Baxter's initial trial date of December 15 had already been pushed back to January 5, 1998 due to the trial court's congested calendar, the grant of a continuance to January 20, 1998 did not result in any prejudice to Baxter. There was no abuse of discretion under these circumstances.