Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: Charles Ploppert

Text: On November 19, 1987, Charles Ploppert and a co-defendant went to the residence of a forty-one-year-old blind man, with the intention of robbing him. Ploppert and the co-defendant had intended to hit the man over the head with a baseball bat when he answered the door; however, the screen door was locked and Ploppert was forced to identify himself to gain entrance to the man's house. After entering the house, Ploppert and the co-defendant sat at the table talking with the man. Then Ploppert approached the man from behind and struck him on the head with his fist. After the man fell to the ground, Ploppert beat and kicked the man in the head, rendering him unconscious. Ploppert and the co-defendant searched the house for money, finding approximately $1500, which they later split between them. Ploppert then piled wood on the man and poured lighter fluid on the wood and around the house. Ploppert then ignited the wood. The man died. The co-defendant gave a statement to the police detailing Ploppert's role in the killing. Also, Ploppert's live-in girlfriend stated that Ploppert and his co-defendant had told her that they were both involved in the assault and the fire. Ploppert was twenty-four-years old when he committed the crime. Ploppert was a high school graduate, but had a learning disability. At the time of the murder, Ploppert was living with his girlfriend and five-year-old daughter. Ploppert had a serious drug abuse problem, and though he had been through three drug rehabilitation programs, he continued to use drugs. A clinical psychologist diagnosed Ploppert as perceptually impaired with a low range of intelligence and an addiction to methamphetamine and cocaine. Ploppert had no previous convictions. Ploppert was charged with two counts of knowing-or-purposeful murder, one count of felony murder, two counts of robbery, and two counts of aggravated arson. He pleaded guilty to purposeful-or-knowing murder, robbery, and aggravated arson. At the penalty trial, the jury found aggravating factors c(4)(c), extreme suffering; c(4)(f), escape detection; and c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony. The jury found the following mitigating factors: c(5)(a), emotional disturbance; c(5)(c), the defendant's age; c(5)(d), mental disease or defect; and c(5)(h), the catch-all factor. The jury found that the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors. Ploppert was sentenced to a life term with a thirty-year parole bar for murder, a concurrent twenty-year term for robbery, and a concurrent ten-year term for aggravated arson.