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The Indiana Supreme Court sent a double-jeopardy, child-death case back to the appellate court on Friday in light of a recent decision that clarifies what constitutes being charged more than once for the same crime.
The Indiana Court of Appeals previously ruled that Elijah Mills’ felony neglect and battery convictions in Hamilton County for the 2020 death of his four-year-old son didn’t violate double jeopardy.
But the state’s high court decided Friday to send the case back to the appellate court in light of a ruling it issued in another case earlier last week that attempted to clarify the “Wadle” test used to determine if multiple charges constitute double jeopardy.
That clarification came in A.W. v. State of Indiana, 23S-JV-40. The high court said in its new order on Friday that it was sending the Mills case back to the appellate court to “reconsider in light of A.W.”
Mills was found guilty of Level 1 felony neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury or death and Level 3 felony battery resulting in serious bodily injury. He was also found guilty of Level 2 felony battery resulting in death, but the state merged that charge with the Level 1 felony neglect count.
The convictions came after Noblesville police responded to a call in November 2019 in which they discovered Mills performing chest compressions on his 4-year-old son.
L.M. had bruising across his face, torso and inner thighs, along with abrasions to his knees and scarring all over his body. According to court records he was also severely malnourished and weighed only 29 pounds.
Doctors at Riley Hospital for Children determined L.M. had suffered subdural hematomas on both sides of his brain, bleeding outside the spinal cord, retinal hemorrhages along with other injuries. He spent almost two months at Riley Hospital.
He was released in 2020 but never regained the ability to walk, talk or eat and he suffered from seizures. L.M. was readmitted when he contracted pneumonia and was placed on a ventilator. His breathing tube was eventually removed and his cause of death was listed as respiratory failure, with traumatic brain injury as an underlying condition.
The case alleging double jeopardy is Elijah Mills v. State of Indiana, 24S-CR-96.
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