Opinion ID: 853385
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Auto Theft and Robbery

Text: For his last double jeopardy claim, Johnson contends that he was improperly convicted and sentenced for auto theft. More particularly, Johnson argues that auto theft is a lesser included offense of robbery, and thus the auto theft conviction must be vacated. We need not decide this issue on Indiana constitutional grounds because Indiana Code section 35-38-1-6 specifically addresses this concern by prohibiting judgment and sentence for both a greater and a lesser included offense. [3] Theft is an inherently included lesser offense of robbery. One cannot commit robbery without also committing theft. Brown v. State, 650 N.E.2d 304, 305 (Ind.1995); Clemmons v. State, 538 N.E.2d 1389, 1389 (Ind.1989). The State counters that in this case, auto theft is not a lesser included offense of robbery because the taking of different property supports each offense. In support, the State points out that the charging information for robbery alleged alternatively that Johnson took from Miller a 1997 Harley Davidson motorcycle, cash and/or drugs, R. at 47, while the auto theft charge involved only the motorcycle. Under the single larceny rule, Johnson's conviction for auto theft cannot stand. The rule provides: [W]hen several articles of property are taken from the same person at the same time, from the same place, there is but a single larceny for which there may be but one judgment and one sentence. This rationale extends to theft as an included offense; where both cash and an automobile were taken during an armed robbery, the State could not split up a single offense to make distinct parts the basis for multiple prosecutions. Tingle v. State, 632 N.E.2d 345, 350 (Ind. 1994) (citation omitted). We conclude that the same material elements of auto theft were included in the elements of robbery. Pursuant to Indiana Code section 35-38-1-6, Johnson's auto theft conviction also must be vacated. In a related argument, Johnson also complains the trial court erred in ordering his sentences to run consecutively because, Theft, Auto Theft and Robbery as a Class C felony are not crimes of violence for purposes of consecutive sentencing as set out in Indiana Code § 35-50-1-2. [4] Br. of Appellant at 11. The trial court did not sentence Johnson for theft, and we have vacated his conviction for auto theft. Thus, those two convictions are not a part of the calculus. As for robbery, it is true that the statute does not identify Class C felony robbery as a crime of violence. I.C. § 35-50-1-2 (defining the term to include, among other things, robbery as a Class A felony or a Class B felony). However, the limitations the statute imposes on consecutive sentencing do not apply between crimes of violence and those that are not crimes of violence. See Williams v. State, 741 N.E.2d 1209, 1214 (Ind.2001); Ellis v. State, 736 N.E.2d 731, 737 (Ind.2000). Accordingly, the trial court did not err by ordering Johnson's sentence for robbery as a Class C felony to run consecutive to the murder and burglary as a Class B felony, both of which are defined as crimes of violence. I.C. § 35-50-1-2(a)(1), (11).