Stokes v. State, 49A04-0905-CR-276 4th Dist.; 01-27-10, Ind.App. Attorney: Lisa Johnson
Holding: Trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Defendant’s motion for mistrial, which alleged the jury’s impartiality was compromised because several jurors saw two documents indicating Defendant and his co-defendants were incarcerated pending trial. Trial court reasonably concluded from its voir dire of jurors that knowledge obtained from documents would not impair jurors’ ability to be fair and impartial. A reasonable person would expect defendants facing multiple charges of robbery, attempted robbery, and criminal recklessness to be incarcerated pending trial. Defendant did not demonstrate that jury’s knowledge that he was incarcerated placed him in grave peril that the jury’s verdict would be influenced by this information. Defendant waived claim that trial court did not follow proper process by failing to interrogate and admonish the jury because, at trial, Defendant opposed interrogation and did not request an admonishment. Held, judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part on other grounds.
