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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 Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a man’s sentence for theft and resisting law enforcement after ruling he should have been granted credit time.
Michael Purdue was arrested for Level 6 felony theft and Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement Jan 29, 2015, and released two days later without being charged. On Feb. 22, he was arrested again and released after being charged with three new counts of theft. On March 10, he was arrested a third time and charged with Level 6 felony possession of narcotic drug, Class A misdemeanor trespass and Class A misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia. He was held in the Bartholomew County Jail for 128 days.
On June 8, Purdue entered a plea agreement, pleading guilty to one theft charge and a possession charge, but the possession charge was changed to resisting law enforcement just before the agreement was signed.
In sentencing, the state claimed he was not eligible for the 128 days he spent in jail waiting for his plea agreement because he was not in jail for the charges he pleaded to, but the charges that were dropped, the possession charge among them.
However, the Court of Appeals said Purdue should have been eligible for the 128 days credit. It said that Purdue was not only in jail awaiting trial and sentencing on the possession and other charges that were dropped, but on the resisting law enforcement charge as well. An additional warrant for the resisting charge was never issued, but it didn’t need to be because Purdue was already in jail.
The COA said Purdue was arrested for the resisting law enforcement charge before he was arrested for the charges that were eventually dropped, so all three causes were pending during his confinement. That also means that all three causes were not wholly unrelated. If they had been, Purdue would not have been eligible for his credit.
The court ruled Purdue should be granted credit for is 128 days already served, plus any other credit time due, reversed the sentencing order and remanded the case to Bartholomew Circuit Court.
The case is Michael B. Purdue vs State of Indiana, 03A01-1508-CR-1154.
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