Judges uphold sexually violent predator status

The Indiana Court of Appeals found a defendant failed to establish that the process used to determine his sexually violent predator status constituted a fundamental error, so the court upheld the SVP status.

In Keiyun L. Mays v. State of Indiana, 45A04-1205-CR-287, Keiyun Mays was sentenced to 15 years in prison for Class B felony criminal confinement and found to be a SVP. Mays attacked his ex-girlfriend’s sister in the middle of the night with a tire iron and stabbed her several times. He argued on appeal that the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him, the state produced insufficient evidence to sustain the SVP finding, and the SVP interview process violated his right against self-incrimination as to constitute fundamental error.

The Court of Appeals rejected all of Mays’ arguments.

Mays was charged with several crimes, including rape, for which he was not convicted. He argued the trial court considered his rape charge based on the court’s sentencing order, which erroneously indicated the jury found him guilty of rape. But that is just a scrivener’s error and the order issued by the court at the end of the trial clearly shows the jury did not convict him of rape.

The judges declined to reweigh the evidence regarding whether the state produced sufficient evidence to sustain the SVP finding, and found the trial court did not commit fundamental error by admitting statements Mays made to two court-appointed psychiatrists who examined Mays to determine whether he was an SVP. Mays told one doctor he intended to rape D.K. and told another doctor his motive for his crime was sexual. He did not object to the admittance of these statements during the SVP evaluation process.

“… the SVP procedure here was a post-conviction evaluation that did not produce any admissions that contributed to any criminal convictions, only, in this case, to the determination of Mays’s SVP status,” Judge Cale Bradford wrote. “…Mays was informed prior to trial that he had the right to remain silent and that anything he said could be used against him.”