Court Opinion

ID: 9721443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:59:26.318086+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:25.928464
License: Public Domain

*663PRENTICE, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from the majority opinion insofar as it holds that the trial court did not err in denying Appellant’s motion to dismiss the habitual offender count, for the same reasons expressed in my dissenting opinion in the recent case of Baker v. State, (1981) Ind., 425 N.E.2d 98.
Appellant, in the case before us, had previously been acquitted of an habitual criminal count wherein the same convictions utilized in this case had been unsuccessfully utilized to support the charge of habitual criminality. Again, the majority has misapplied Hall v. State, (1980) Ind., 405 N.E.2d 530. In Hall, there had been no prior acquittal. As in Baker v. State, supra, by allowing the State to use those same two convictions a subsequent time, following a prior negative finding, to support a finding of habitual offender status permits the State to refine the evidence of those convictions, to re-litigate the issue before a different jury and to obtain a finding therein which is contrary to the prior finding. Collateral estoppel should operate to prevent the opportunity for just such refinement of the evidence.
The majority, in Baker v. State, supra, proceeded upon the theory that the prior convictions did, in fact exist and continued to exist, notwithstanding that a jury had previously found to the contrary. It must be recognized, that the same result obtains without regard to the correctness of the prior verdict against the State. In other words, under the Baker decision, the State may charge one with habitual criminal status who, in fact did not have such status; and if a jury so finds, the State may continue to charge and re-charge the defendant, until it ultimately obtains a contrary, but erroneous finding. Under Baker, a defendant so abused can have no remedy.
I concur with the majority upon the other issues in this case and would affirm the theft conviction but reverse as to the habitual offender sentence.
DeBRULER, J., concurs.