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Saturday, May 26, 2007

Ind. Decisions - "New Albany man gets 20 years in prison, again"

Jennifer Rigg of the New Albany News-Tribune reports today:

NEW ALBANY — A New Albany man again was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday after his initial 20-year sentence for shooting and killing a Jeffersonville man was overturned by the Indiana Court of Appeals.

Floyd County Circuit Court Judge J. Terrence Cody gave 29-year-old Steven I. Paul the same sentence — 20 years with one year suspended to probation — as he did in 2004 after a jury convicted Paul of aggravated battery. Paul was originally charged with murder for shooting 35-year-old Donald Burnett, but a jury returned a guilty verdict for a lesser offense of aggravated battery.

Judge Cody then decided that five aggravating circumstances existed in the case — the main one being that the battery resulted in Burnett’s death — and sentenced Paul to the maximum sentence. Without the aggravators, Paul likely would have received the presumptive sentence of 10 years and could possibly have been released from jail as early as next month.

Judge Cody’s original sentence was overturned after rulings by the U.S. and Indiana supreme courts led to changes in sentencing rules. A jury is now required to find that aggravated circumstances exist before a judge can use them to lengthen a presumptive sentence.

But last month, a Floyd County jury partially agreed with Cody and decided two aggravating circumstances existed in the case: the battery resulted in Burnett’s death and the shooting occurred in a public place during the day. They rejected two others: that Burnett was unarmed and that he was shot in the back.

Only one aggravator is needed for a judge to enhance a sentence. * * *

During Thursday’s second sentencing hearing, [Paul’s attorney, John W. Mead of Salem] asked Cody to consider what he considered several mitigating circumstances — those that could lessen a sentence — including Paul’s completion of two college degrees while incarcerated at Branchville Correctional Facility in Tell City and that he had a minimal criminal history. Cody rejected Mead’s request, saying he found no mitigating factors in the case, and that the fact that Burnett died from his injuries “far outweighed any other circumstances.”

An earlier ILB entry on this case, from Sept. 6, 2006, quotes from a Louis Curier Journal story that begins:
Floyd Circuit Court Judge J. Terrence Cody will decide soon whether to remove himself from the re-sentencing trial of a New Albany man convicted last year in the shooting death of a Jeffersonville man.

An attorney for Steven Paul argued on Friday that Cody should step aside because his previous sentencing of Paul creates an appearance of bias.

Cody sentenced Paul, 27, last year to the maximum 20 years in prison after he was convicted of aggravated battery in the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Donald "Ducky" Barnett.

The Indiana Court of Appeals threw out the sentence because of new sentencing procedures called for in federal and state Supreme Court rulings made after Paul's trial.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 26, 2007 09:54 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions | Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions