Indiana Supreme Court: Guilty Plea Cannot Reserve Right To Appeal Pre-trial Ruling

On Monday, the Indiana Supreme Court resolved a conflict among Indiana Court of Appeals decisions, and held that a defendant who pleads guilty to an offense may not appeal the denial of a motion to suppress or other pre-trial motion on direct appeal. In Alvey v. State, the defendant’s plea agreement called for a guilty plea to dealing in methamphetamine and carrying a handgun.  Alvey also agreed to let the trial court determine his sentence.  In exchange, the…

Indiana Supreme Court: Man Sentenced to LWOP in 1970s Not Eligible For Parole

In State v. Hernandez, the Indiana Supreme Court considered whether a man serving two life sentences for crimes committed in 1975 was eligible for parole.  The Court concluded he was not. In 1975, Hernandez and others robbed a married couple and the married couple was killed in the process.  A jury found Hernandez guilty of two counts of “murder in the perpetration of a robbery” and “murder in the first degree.”  He was sentenced to two terms of…

Indiana Court of Appeals: Trial Court Errs In Dividing Marital Property

Addressing a couple’s marital dissolution case for the second time, the Indiana Court of Appeals again reversed the trial court in Montgomery v. Faust.  In 2008, the Indiana Court of Appeals held that the trial court erred when it indicated in a footnote in its final dissolution decree that “due to the short duration of the marriage” it “set off to each” party the “property which they possessed and brought into the marriage and dividing equally only what…