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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana Supreme Court added no cases to its docket last week, rejecting all 11 transfer petitions justices considered.
Just one case got a single justice’s vote to hear the appeal. Justice Steven David was the lone justice who voted to hear a case over whether a traffic stop was impermissibly extended by a K-9 sniff that resulted in the discovery of drugs.
David voted to hear the appeal in Patrick Neil Tinker v. State of Indiana, 18A-CR-2880. Patrick Tinker was convicted of Level 6 felony dealing in marijuana and a Class B misdemeanor for possession of marijuana. Fishers police stopped his vehicle on Interstate 69 and, upon finding Tinker and another passenger appeared nervous, called for another officer and a K-9 unit. Tinker unsuccessfully sought to suppress the K-9’s subsequent discovery of more than 3 pounds of marijuana in the car’s trunk.
The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed Tinker’s conviction, with Judge Terry Crone writing that the dog sniff occurred “within the time reasonably required to complete the stop’s mission.”
The Tinker case also was the only for-publication decision justices considered last week. The full list of transfer petitions denied by the court last week is available here.
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