Court Opinion

ID: 9714515
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:39:42.231094+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:26.813203
License: Public Domain

*80DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
Appellant introduced the written record of his prosecution in St. Joseph Criminal Cause Number 71D01-4250 which shows that he was charged with a "driving while Intox" offense under "I.C. 9-11-2-1." Indiana Code Section 9-11-2-1 (now 9-80-5-1) is a substantive criminal statute defining only a class C misdemeanor. The charge was not amended and the plea was to that charge. The court imposed a sixty day sentence, the maximum sentence for a class C misdemean- or conviction, and suspended fifty days. In my view, the specific citation and the consistent sentence loom large within the evidence before the trial court on the question of whether the conviction should be classified as a C or A misdemeanor, and compel the conclusion that the conviction was indeed for a class C misdemeanor. I would therefore order post-conviction relief as did the Court of Appeals.