Court Opinion

ID: 9803483
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 15:39:58.061277+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:03:11.793086
License: Public Domain

BAKER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully part ways from the majority inasmuch as the trial court lacked the authority to dismiss Count 1. Indiana Code section 35-48-4-12 provides that if a person with no prior conviction
relating to controlled substances pleads guilty to possession of marijuana ... as a Class A misdemeanor, the court, without entering judgment of conviction and with consent of the person may defer further proceedings and place the person in the custody of the court under such conditions as the court determines.
(Emphases added).
A judgment of conviction had already been entered on Count 1. Additionally, as acknowledged but quickly dismissed in a footnote by the majority, Section 35^48 — 4— 12 only applied to the marijuana offense. Thus, the trial court’s order dismissing Count 1 was void. See In re Guardianship of A.J.A., 991 N.E.2d 110, 115 (Ind.2013) (stating that if the General Assembly did not intend for the trial court to have the authority, the court’s action “was void ab initio and without legal effect”). Moreover, even assuming the trial court’s order dismissing Count 1 was not void, we cannot permit criminal defendants to reap the benefits of simple scriveners’ errors.