Opinion ID: 853446
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Double Jeopardy and the Neglect Conviction

Text: Roby next asserts that his conviction and sentencing for both murder and class B felony neglect of a dependent violated his double jeopardy rights under Indiana Constitution Article 1, Section 14. (Appellant's Br. at 8.) Under Richardson v. State, 717 N.E.2d 32, 49, 53 (Ind.1999): [T]wo or more offenses are the same offense in violation of Article I, Section 14 of the Indiana Constitution, if, with respect to either the statutory elements of the challenged crimes or the actual evidence used to convict, the essential elements of one challenged offense also establish the essential elements of another challenged offense. .... ... [T]he actual evidence presented at trial is examined to determine whether each challenged offense was established by separate and distinct facts. To show that two challenged offenses constitute the same offense in a claim of double jeopardy, a defendant must demonstrate a reasonable possibility that the evidentiary facts used by the fact-finder to establish the essential elements of one offense may also have been used to establish the essential elements of a second challenged offense. Roby's claim is like the one we recently addressed in Mitchell v. State, 726 N.E.2d 1228 (Ind.2000). Mitchell struck and killed her granddaughter. Id. at 1232, 1244. We concluded, applying the Richardson double jeopardy analysis, that there was a reasonable possibility that the jury looked to the same evidentiary facts in finding that the defendant knowingly killed the child, and that the defendant's neglect resulted in serious bodily injury to the child. Id. at 1244-45. The same is true here. Class B felony neglect of a dependent requires proof that the neglect resulted in serious bodily injury. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-46-1-4(b)(2) (West 2000). Murder, as charged here, requires proof that the defendant knowingly killed another human being. Ind.Code Ann. § 35-42-1-1(1) (West 2000). In Richardson, we noted that jury instructions and presentations of counsel to the jury can be helpful to the reviewing court in its analysis of the actual evidence to determine whether a jury used the same evidence to establish multiple offenses. Richardson, 717 N.E.2d at 54 n. 48. In preliminary and final jury instructions, here as in Mitchell, the neglect charge alleged that the serious bodily injury was the victim's death. Mitchell, 726 N.E.2d at 1244, (R. at 203, 709.) The murder charge in both cases alleged that the defendant struck blows that caused the victim to die. Mitchell, 726 N.E.2d at 1244, (R. at 204, 710.) In closing argument here, the prosecutor said he would not even bother talking about proof of the elements of the counts other than murder, focusing instead on the non-accidental injuries that Shawn incurred while in the defendant's sole care. (R. at 669.) As we did in Mitchell, we conclude that the State used the same evidencethat of Shawn's freshly-inflicted injuriesto establish both the serious bodily injury required for class B felony neglect and the knowing killing required for murder. Conviction on both counts therefore constitutes double jeopardy under the Richardson test.