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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 will travel south next week to hear oral arguments in two cases involving the seizure of drugs and guns.
Judges Edward W. Najam, Jr., Mark L. Bailey and Melissa S. May will first hear the case of Anthony Ector v. State of Indiana, 49A02-1710-CR-02422 at 10 a.m. Monday at the Lincoln Amphitheatre in Lincoln City.
Anthony Ector was convicted of Level 2 felony dealing in cocaine, Level 5 felonies dealing in marijuana and possession of a narcotic drug and adjudicated a habitual offender after police entered a “trap house” used to sell drugs and found Ector standing inside holding an AK-47. After securing him and two others, officers seized substantial amounts of contraband inside the house.
Officers also found a car key inside the house that was later used to unlock a Camry parked in the driveway, registered to Ector’s mother. While searching the vehicle, they found further contraband, paperwork addressed to Ector, and a key to the front door of the trap house.
Ector argues he was simply a bystander at the residence at the time the search warrant had been executed, and disputes whether the state acted properly under Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution when the it seized evidence from the car.
Next, the panel will hear Damon Lamar Maffett v. State of Indiana, 82A04-1711-CR-02679 at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Castle High School in Newburgh.
Damon Maffett surrendered after a 45-minute standoff with Evansville police, during which he threatened to “blast” the K-9 unit if it were sent into his apartment. Maffett was convicted of Level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon when police later found a shotgun and ammunition in the apartment where Maffett had been.
Maffett argues his 10-year sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of his offense and his character and that the trial court erred when it admitted recorded evidence of conversations regarding drug activity and handgun ammunition.
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