Opinion ID: 2035676
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Habitual Offender Evidence Sufficient

Text: James urges that the trial court erred in refusing to grant his motion for judgment on the evidence at the close of the proceedings on the habitual offender count. James premised his motion on the failure of the State (1) to prove the date of the principal murder during the habitual offender phase of the trial or (2) to move to incorporate the proof of the date of the principal offense presented during the guilt phase of the trial. Therefore, James argues, the evidence was insufficient to support the required finding that the principal offense was committed after sentencing on the prior felony. This Court rejected an identical argument in Smith v. State (1989), Ind., 543 N.E.2d 634: The State's burden in the habitual offender phase of a felony trial is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant has accumulated two prior unrelated felonies. Of course, the defendant must have committed the first and been sentenced for it before he commits and is sentenced for the second and the second sentencing must have preceded the commission of the offense of which he was found guilty in the first part of the trial. Clearly the State must introduce evidence during the habitual proceeding to prove the two priors. On the other hand, the jury hearing the habitual evidence already knows when the defendant committed the crime of which it has just found him guilty. The statute does not require the State to reprove that fact a second time to the same jurors. Id. at 636 (citations omitted). The evidence was sufficient for the jury to find James to be an habitual offender.