Court Opinion

ID: 9505605
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:12:54.015063+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:38.979503
License: Public Domain

BOEHM, J.,
dissenting in part.
I concur in Part I of the majority’s opinion but respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences for the -multiple attempted murders. Indiana Code Section 35-50-1-2 limits a trial court’s ability to impose consecutive sentencing for multiple crimes which arise out of a single “episode of criminal conduct.” This limitation does not apply to “crimes of violence,” a term defined in the statute to include murder, all Class A felonies with four exceptions,15 all Class B felonies with three exceptions,16 and involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide, both Class C felonies. The majority concludes that because the statutory list of “crimes of violence” does not include “attempted murder,” the trial court’s imposition of consecutive fifty-year sentences for Ellis’ two attempted murder convictions was erroneous. For the reasons given below, I believe the statute includes attempted murder as a “crime of violence” where its commission includes a lesser offense that is itself a “crime of violence.” That is the case here where the attempted murders were also aggravated batteries because the two victims sustained serious bodily injuries. I would hold the limitation in Indiana Code Section 35-50-1-2 inapplicable.
I do not agree with the majority that the term “crimes of violence” is unambiguous in its omission of attempted offenses. Although this is the first case in which this Court has considered whether attempted murder is a “crime of violence” under Indiana Code Section 35-50-1-2, the Court of Appeals has published two opinions on the issue, with very different results. In Maxwell v. State, the Court of Appeals held that the current statute is unambiguous and that because attempted murder is not included in the list of “crimes of violence” it is subject to the limitation on consecutive sentencing. 731 N.E.2d 459, 464 (Ind.Ct.App.2000). However, in 1998, the Court of Appeals held that the trial court was not prohibited from imposing consecutive sentences where the defendant could have been convicted of aggravated *739battery for the acts that led to his multiple convictions of attempted murder. The Court of Appeals reasoned that because aggravated battery is explicitly included in the list of “crimes of violence,” attempted murder — or at least the attempted murder before the court was included by implication. Jackson v. State, 698 N.E.2d 809, 813-14 (Ind.Ct.App.1998).
In my view, there is no “plain, ordinary and usual meaning” of this statute without resorting to other rules of construction. Familiar rules are relevant here. The goal of statutory construction is to determine, give effect to, and implement the intent of the legislature. Collier v. Collier, 702 N.E.2d 351, 354 (Ind.1998). The statute is examined as a whole and it is often necessary to avoid excessive reliance on a strict literal meaning or the selective reading of individual words. Id.) Park 100 Dev. Co. v. Indiana Dep’t of State Revenue, 429 N.E.2d 220, 222 (Ind.1981). The legislature is presumed to have intended the language used in the statute to be applied logically and not to bring about an unjust or absurd result. Riley v. State, 711 N.E.2d 489, 495 (Ind.1999). We conventionally construe penal statutes strictly against the State, Smith v. State, 675 N.E.2d 693, 697 (Ind.1996), but they are not to be read so narrowly that they exclude cases they fairly cover, Cape v. State, 272 Ind. 609, 613, 400 N.E.2d 161, 164 (1980).
The basic purpose of this episode statute seems clear to me. By defining “crimes of violence” as a category of crimes not subject to the consecutive sentencing limit, the legislature demonstrated its intent to differentiate between two kinds of criminal acts — offenses against the person and offenses against property — and to restrict prosecutorial “piling on” as to the latter. Without exception, the defined “crimes of violence” are offenses against the person. Even robbery and burglary, which are essentially offenses against property, are included only when they reach the level of Class A or B felonies, that is, when they are committed with a deadly weapon or result in bodily injury. Of the category of offenses against the person, the only Class A or B felonies that are excluded from the definition of “crimes of violence” are Class A and B vicarious .sexual gratification and Class A and B sexual misconduct with a minor. However, those two crimes, if they rise to the level of a Class A or B felony, may be charged as Class A or B rape or criminal deviate conduct, both of which are excepted from the consecutive sentencing statute. As a result, virtually every offense against the person that could result in the conviction of a Class A or B felony is a “crime of violence.” An attempted murder, requiring the specific intent to take a life where the substantial step to that end is itself a battery resulting in severe bodily injury is surely as much a “crime of violence” as many others on the list.
The historical evolution of Indiana Code Section 35-50-1-2 also strongly suggests that the legislature intended an attempted murder accomplished by an aggravated battery to be excepted from the limitation on consecutive sentencing. The original statute addressing consecutive or concurrent sentencing was added to the Code in 1976. It simply gave trial courts broad authority to determine whether sentences should be served concurrently or consecutively. Ind.Code § 35-50-1-2 (1977). The restriction on consecutive sentences for crimes arising from a single episode of criminal conduct was added to the statute in 1994:
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), the court shall determine whether terms of imprisonment shall be served concurrently or consecutively. The court may consider aggravating and mitigating circumstances in IC 35-38-l-7.1(b) and IC 35-38-1-7.1(c) in making a determination under this subsection. The court may order terms of imprisonment to be served consecutively even if the sentences are not imposed at the same time. However, except for murder and felony convictions for which a person receives *740an enhanced penalty because the felony resulted in serious bodily injury if the defendant knowingly or intentionally caused the serious bodily injury, the total of the consecutive terms of imprisonment, exclusive of terms of imprisonment under IC 35-50-2-8 and IC 35-50-2-10, to which the defendant is sentenced for felony convictions arising out of an episode of criminal conduct shall not exceed the presumptive sentence for a felony which is one (1) class higher than the most serious of the felonies for which the person has been convicted.
Ind.Code § 35-50-1-2 (1994). The approach of the 1994 statute was clear. A trial court’s ability to impose consecutive sentences for crimes arising out of a single episode was restricted. But that restriction did not apply to a series of violent felonies committed “knowingly or intentionally” and resulting in “serious bodily injury.” Only a few of the most serious felonies were subject to the harsher consecutive sentencing rules. By virtue of their statutory elements, murder and aggravated battery could result in consecutive sentences. Attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, criminal deviate conduct, child molesting, robbery, burglary, and arson, were excepted from the restriction only if they resulted in “serious bodily injury.” Under the 1994 statute, Ellis’ convictions for the deliberate acts of shooting Matt Bebout in the head and Curt Krauss in the head and the hand would clearly have been excepted from the limitation on consecutive sentences for crimes arising out of a single episode. Greer v. State, 684 N.E.2d 1140, 1142 n. 7 (Ind.1997) (applying the 1994 statute: “we hold that the statutory limitation will apply to an attempted murder conviction unless the defendant received ‘an enhanced penalty because the felony resulted in serious bodily injury if the defendant knowingly or intentionally caused the serious bodily injury’ ”).
In 1995, the legislature amended the statute to its current form. It changed the description of crimes that are excepted from the limitation on consecutive sentencing to “crimes of violence” and created the list of those crimes. In doing so, the legislature significantly broadened the exception to permit consecutive sentences for many crimes that were not excepted by the 1994 language. Many of the crimes added to the excepted list do not necessarily result in serious bodily injury, or may be committed with a lesser degree of mens rea. It seems obvious to me that the legislature’s 1995 changes, which greatly expanded the crimes excepted from the limit on consecutive sentencing, did not simultaneously intend to remove the exception for attempted murders resulting in serious bodily injury.
In analyzing the 1994 version of the statute, we noted that:
It appears to us that the legislature’s intent with the statute here was to limit the use of consecutive sentences except where serious bodily injury occurred. Because the crime of attempted murder will at times involve serious bodily injury (as here) and at times not (as where a defendant fires a weapon at the victim but misses), we think it more consistent with the legislature’s intent to treat attempted murder as a felony distinct from murder.
Greer, 684 N.E.2d at 1142 n. 7. We thus recognized that many attempted murders are also aggravated batteries, i.e. batteries resulting in serious bodily injury. Aggravated battery is included in the list of “crimes of violence.” If. an aggravated battery is “factually included,” to borrow a phrase from Wright v. State's explanation of the right to an instruction on lesser included offenses, 658 N.E.2d 563, 567 (Ind.1995), I would find an attempted murder to be a “crime of violence”.
It is true, of course, that the list of “crimes of violence” does not include “attempted murder.” But each of the crimes identified in the “episode” statute as a “crime of violence” is in turn defined by the statute that lists its elements. No *741attempted crime is listed among the crimes of violence. But unlike the identified offenses, attempted murder, and all other attempted crimes, are the product of the attempt statute in concert with the statute defining the elements of the offense. The attempt statute also provides that the class of each attempted crime is the same as the class of the consummated offense. Ind.Code § 35^41-5-l(a) (1998). Murder is unique among these offenses in that it has no statutorily defined “class.” The attempt statute addresses this by providing that attempted murder is a Class A felony. It seems to me that the omission of attempted murder is explained by its unusual statutory composition, not by an intent to exclude it if, as is the ease here, it is accomplished through a crime that is listed.
Perhaps equally importantly, the majority’s construction seems to me to produce results that cannot have been intended and appear to be unconstitutional. It could not have been the legislature’s intent not only to treat attempted murder more leniently than other violent crimes, but also to punish a series of severely aggravated attempted murders within a single episode at the presumptive fifty-five year term for murder, which is only slightly more than the maximum for a single severely aggravated but isolated act of attempted murder. Other even more bizarre results flow from the majority’s conclusion. Multiple attempted murders stemming from a single episode, if charged as counts of aggravated battery, produce unlimited consecutive sentences because aggravated battery is plainly a “crime of violence.” But if charged as the more serious attempted murders, they are capped by the statute.
I am a supporter of and an adherent to the rule of lenity in construing criminal statutes. Ross v. State, 729 N.E.2d 113, 116 (Ind.2000). But I would not construe statutes to produce upside-down or absurd results. Cf. Sales v. State, 723 N.E.2d 416, 421 (Ind.2000). Indeed, although the contention is not advanced by the parties, the majority’s construction seems to me to run afoul of the proportionality requirement of Article I, Section 16 of the Indiana Constitution. See Conner v. State, 626 N.E.2d 803, 806 (1993) (a six-year sentence for selling fake marijuana, twice the maximum sentence for selling the same quantity of real marijuana, violated the proportionality requirement). This provision prohibits a penal code that penalizes a less serious crime more severely than a more serious one. Although wide deference should be given to legislative judgment in this arena, it seems inconceivable that attempted murder is less serious than aggravated battery, which under many fact patterns is a lesser included offense of attempted murder with intent to kill the only element differentiating the two. Wilson v. State, 697 N.E.2d 466, 475 (Ind.1998); Leon v. State, 525 N.E.2d 331, 332 (Ind.1988). Nor can it be less serious than armed robbery where, like attempted murder, in some cases the victim suffers no physical harm.
In short, I agree with the reasoning of the Court of Appeals in Jackson, which resolves the issues that I have with the majority’s construction of the statute and prevents the upside-down result that I believe flows from the majority’s interpretation. For all of the foregoing reasons, I would interpret Indiana Code Section 30-50-1-2 to include attempted murder resulting in severe bodily injury as a “crime of violence.” I would therefore affirm the trial court’s imposition of a total term of 165 years.
DICKSON, J., concurs.

. The following Class A felonies are defined as crimes of violence: voluntary manslaughter (Ind.Code § 35-42-1-3); kidnapping (Ind. Code § 35-42-3-2); rape (Ind.Code § 35-42-4-1); criminal deviate conduct (Ind.Code § 35-42-4-2); child molesting (Ind.Code § 35-42-4-3); robbery (Ind.Code § 35-42-5-1); and burglary (Ind.Code § 35-43-2-1). In addition to attempted murder, three Class A felonies are not on the list: vicarious sexual gratification (Ind.Code § 35-42-4-5); sexual misconduct with a minor (Ind.Code § 35-42-4-8); and arson (Ind.Code § 35-43-1-1).

. The following Class B felonies are defined as crimes of violence: voluntary manslaughter (Ind.Code § 35-42-1-3); aggravated battery (Ind.Code § 35-42-2-1.5); rape (Ind. Code § 35-42-4-1); criminal deviate conduct (Ind.Code § 35-42-4-2); child molesting (Ind.Code § 35-42-4-3); robbery (Ind.Code § 35-42-5-1); and burglary (Ind.Code § 35-43-2-1). Three Class B felonies are not on the list: causing suicide (Ind.Code § 35-42-1-2); carjacking (Ind.Code § 35-42-5-2); and arson (Ind.Code § 35-43-1-1).