Court Opinion

ID: 9713754
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:21:43.239108+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:20.321070
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
By its pleading of Count VIII, the State took the position that the conspiracy to kidnap the victim Lanum was completed by the overt acts of handcuffing and gagging him. By its pleading of Count IX, the State took the position that the actual crime of kidnapping was committed by the same act of handcuffing and gagging La-num. Where, as here, the action element of a crime of conspiracy is alleged and proved to be identical to the action element of the substantive crime conspired about, I would hold that the conspiracy and the substantive crime are insufficiently distinguishable to support separate convictions and separate punishments. Omedley v. State (1990), Ind., 561 N.E2d 776, 788 (opinion of DeBruler, J., concurring and dissenting). See also Wethington v. State (1990), Ind., 560 N.E.2d 496. The separate conviction and sentence for conspiracy should be reversed. Otherwise, I concur.