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Evidence found in the bedroom of a man charged as a teen with three killings can be admitted at the man’s murder trial after the Indiana Supreme Court declined to review the reversal of a suppression order.
The Supreme Court last week denied transfer to State of Indiana v. Caden Smith, 22A-CR-2424, which came to the justices after the Court of Appeals of Indiana in May reversed the grant of defendant Caden Smith’s motion to suppress.
Smith was charged in December 2021 in the shooting deaths of 18-year-old Joseph Thomas, 22-year-old Michael James and 17-year-old Abdulla Mubarak. Smith was 16 at the time.
The shooting occurred in October 2021, and later that month, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers executed a search warrant on the home of Smith’s grandmother, where Smith lived. A search of his bedroom revealed “several incriminating items,” according to the Court of Appeals, including two firearms, one with a “switch” attached, ammunition and six cellphones.
Smith moved to suppress that evidence, arguing that the affidavit supporting the search warrant failed to prove the items sought to be seized were sufficiently connected with criminal activity and would be found at the residence. The Marion Superior Court agreed, but the COA reversed, finding the affidavit was supported by probable cause.
The justices then denied transfer, with Chief Justice Loretta Rush dissenting.
Shortly after the grant of his motion to suppress, Smith had been released with an ankle monitor pursuant to Criminal Rule 4(B). But he was returned to jail in November 2022 after he violated his pretrial release conditions.
Online jail records indicate Smith is still housed at the Marion County Jail. His next scheduled hearing is a status conference on Dec. 8.
Online court records do not list a trial date.
Also denied transfer last week was the case of C.S. v. State of Indiana, 22A-JV-1400, a case in which the trial court denied, and the Court of Appeals affirmed, a juvenile’s motion for relief from a delinquency adjudication for what would be attempted Level 4 felony child molesting if committed by an adult.
Transfer decisions are available online.
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