COA orders man resentenced with credit time considered

Although the Indiana Court of Appeals disagreed with a defendant’s argument on appeal, it still found the trial court erred when it ordered him to serve the entirety of his original sentence without any credit time for time spent on home detention.

Tyree Hill was sentenced to 730 days on home detention after pleading guilty to Class D felony strangulation and Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement in September 2013. While on home detention, he had several unapproved absences, which led to a hearing on whether to revoke his placement in July 2014. At the hearing, Hill’s sister testified that he has a mental disability, but Hill told his case manager that he left his home to go to a family reunion and a grocery store.

The trial court revoked his placement in home detention and ordered him to serve 730 days in the DOC, minus 16 days of credit time for the days he was incarcerated prior to the court’s hearing on the state’s notice of the community corrections violation.

Hill argued that the trial court abused its discretion when it resentenced him without taking into account evidence that demonstrates he has a mental disability, but the COA rejected that argument. He did not commit a new crime while on home detention and the entirety of his evidence consisted of his sister’s testimony. It was well within the court’s discretion to give that testimony little or no weight, Judge Edward Najam wrote in Tyree Hill v. State of Indiana, 49A02-1409-CR-632.

But the judges did find the court erred when calculating the amount of credit time to which Hill is entitled.

“The order does not account for the time Hill actually served on home detention. As such, we are not persuaded that the trial court properly credited Hill with all the time to which he is entitled by statute. We reverse the court’s sentencing order and remand with instructions that the court resentence Hill and give him credit for time he served on home detention,” Najam wrote.