Opinion ID: 2230054
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the Court Used Improper Aggravating Factors

Text: Johnson claims that the trial court's use of aggravating factors (4) and (5) were improper and caused the court to levy a manifestly unreasonable sentence upon him. Aggravating factor (4) states; [The v]ictims were in their own home at the time of the murders and the apparent motive for said murders was robbery of approximately $300 to $400. (R. at 92.) Johnson claims this aggravating factor is a simple paraphrasing of the elements of the offense. A factor constituting a material element of a crime cannot be considered an aggravating circumstance in determining sentence. Green v. State, 424 N.E.2d 1014, 1015 (Ind. 1981). However, the murder and robbery statutes under which Johnson was convicted do not provide that proof requires the victims were in their own home as an element of the offenses. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-1-1(2) (West Supp.1996); Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-5-1 (West 1986). We think that invasion of the victims' home, representing as it does a place of security in the minds of most, can plausibly be used by a trial court as an aggravating circumstance. A court is not limited to using only statutory aggravating factors to enhance sentences. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-38-1-7.1(d) (West Supp.1996); Shields v. State, 523 N.E.2d 411, 414 (Ind.1988). The second portion of aggravator (4) states: and the apparent motive for said murder was robbery of approximately $300 to $400. (R. at 92.) This is more troubling. To convict Johnson of murder under § 35-42-1-1(2), the jury necessarily had to find Johnson guilty of the elements of robbery. The robbery statute includes takes property as one of its elements. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-5-1 (West 1986). The fact that Johnson hoped to deprive Anne and Cleotha Smith of their money was thus improperly listed as an aggravating factor. Aggravator (5) states: [The v]ictims were bludgeoned to death in as heinous a crime as this court has been involved. (R. at 92.) Johnson claims this aggravator is improper because it does not state with specificity any facts which explain why Johnson's crime was sufficiently heinous to warrant a sentence enhancement. A trial court may not enhance a sentence by declaring a crime heinous without further articulating specific facts that suggest heinousness. Edgecomb v. State, 673 N.E.2d 1185, 1199 (Ind.1996), reh'g denied. Unlike the trial court in Edgecomb, however, the court here also noted a specific fact: that the victims were bludgeoned to death. The particular manner in which a crime is committed may serve as an aggravating factor. Widener v. State, 659 N.E.2d 529, 532 (Ind.1995). [2] The question is thus whether the trial court's use of the lone word bludgeoning to describe Johnson's crime sufficiently articulates the aggravating aspects of the crime to qualify as a proper aggravating factor. Some act which causes the death of a victim will always be traceable to the defendant in a murder conviction and, as noted above, the trial court cannot use an element of the crime alone as an aggravating factor. We conclude that the reference to bludgeoning is legally sufficient to describe why this crime might warrant more than the standard sentence. Bludgeoning is an especially time-consuming and violent act. In the present case one of the spouses who was eventually beaten to death most likely witnessed the death of the other since two individuals cannot be simultaneously killed in such a manner. The photographic evidence further shows that each victim was brutally struck several times, which indicates a certain type of malicious resolve in the actor which is not existent in some murders. (R. at 656, 657.) Johnson also urges that the trial court must specifically and separately list the aggravating factors on which it relied to impose consecutive sentences. Here, the trial court did specifically state that it relied upon the factors enumerated in its sentencing order to support both the aggravated sentences and the consecutive sentences it levied upon Johnson. (R. at 92.) There is no constitutional or statutory prohibition against using the same factors both to enhance a sentence and to impose consecutive sentences. Beatty v. State, 567 N.E.2d 1134, 1137 (Ind.1991).