Biehl v. State
| Decision Date | 21 November 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 16A01-0001-CR-4.,16A01-0001-CR-4. |
| Citation | 738 N.E.2d 337 |
| Parties | Larry BIEHL, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Susan K. Carpenter, Public Defender of Indiana, Cynthia Maricle Russell, Deputy Public Defender, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellant.
Karen M. Freeman-Wilson, Attorney General of Indiana, Arthur Thaddeus Perry, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellee.
Larry Biehl was found guilty but mentally ill of voluntary manslaughter, a Class A felony and criminal recklessness, a Class C felony. The trial court found three mitigating circumstances (Biehl's mental illness, his lack of criminal history, and his remorse) and no aggravating circumstances, but nevertheless imposed presumptive, concurrent sentences of thirty and four years, respectively. In light of Biehl's severe, longstanding mental illness, lack of any criminal history, and the absence of any aggravating circumstances, we find the presumptive sentence manifestly unreasonable and remand with instructions to impose the minimum sentence of twenty years.
After a morning of glue-sniffing, four teenage boys decided to visit thirty-five-year-old Larry Biehl, who was living in a nearby abandoned barn. According to Biehl, the boys threatened him and threw bricks and boards at him. Biehl asked them to leave, but they refused. Biehl left, but returned with a gun. He shot at the boys, killing one and injuring another.
Biehl was charged with murder and attempted murder. The trial court appointed three doctors to evaluate his competency to stand trial. Biehl told the doctors that the CIA controlled his life through electronic surveillance and satellite technology. Biehl explained that he heard strange tones from this surveillance. All three doctors diagnosed Biehl as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. As one doctor explained, Biehl's "delusional thinking is chronic and pervasive," having influenced Biehl's life for "at least the last ten to fifteen years." R. at 135. All three doctors opined that Biehl was incompetent to stand trial. The trial court agreed, and Biehl was sent to Logansport State Hospital.
After three months of treatment and medication, Biehl attained the ability to understand the proceedings and assist in the preparation of his defense and was thus returned to the Decatur County Jail. He then filed a notice of his intent to pursue an insanity defense and was again examined by three doctors, who subsequently testified at trial.
R. at 1673-74. Finally, Dr. Davis testified that Biehl "was delusional at a profound level," and that this condition elevated his perception of the confrontation with the teenage boys to a risk of being killed. R. at 1634. He concluded that sanity was "a very difficult call as far as medical certainty is concerned...." R. at 1638.1 The jury found Biehl guilty but mentally ill of the lesser included offenses of voluntary manslaughter, a Class A felony, and Criminal Recklessness, a Class C felony. He was sentenced to the presumptive terms of thirty years for voluntary manslaughter and four years for criminal recklessness, to be served concurrently. The convictions were affirmed by a memorandum decision of this court in 1993. Biehl then filed a petition for post-conviction relief attacking the trial court's failure to find his mental illness as a mitigating circumstance. The petition was granted in 1999, and Biehl was ordered to be resentenced.
At resentencing, the trial court found no aggravating circumstances and three mitigating circumstances—no criminal history, remorse, and mental illness. Nevertheless, the trial court imposed the same sentence. This is a direct appeal of that sentence.
Biehl contends, in light of the three mitigating and no aggravating circumstances found by the trial court, his presumptive sentences are manifestly unreasonable. We agree.2
The Indiana Constitution gives this Court the power to review and revise sentences "to the extent provided by rule." Ind. Const. Art. VII, § 6; Redmon v. State, 734 N.E.2d 1088, 1094 (Ind.Ct.App. 2000). We will revise a sentence authorized by statute only when it is manifestly unreasonable in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender. Ind. Appellate Rule 17(B); Redmon, 734 N.E.2d at 1094. This inquiry requires the appellate court to reexamine all valid aggravating circumstances and mitigating circumstances. Carter v. State, 711 N.E.2d 835, 841 (Ind.1999).
We begin with the nature of the offense. Unlike many crimes in which the defendant seeks out his victim, the victims of these unfortunate shootings, to some extent, sought out Biehl. They entered his makeshift dwelling, threw bricks and boards at him, and refused to leave when asked to do so. Only then did Biehl depart and retrieve a gun. Although we are certainly troubled by the death and serious bodily injury that ensued, the totality of the circumstances surrounding the shootings point in favor of a mitigated sentence.
The same is true, with even greater force, in regard to the character of the offender. We are particularly influenced by Biehl's lack of criminal history and longstanding mental illness.
The General Assembly has recognized the significance of a defendant's lack of criminal history by specifically listing it as a mitigating circumstance in the sentencing statute. See Ind.Code § 35-38-1-7.1(c)(6) (1998). The statute appropriately encourages leniency toward defendants who have not previously been through the criminal justice system. Such mitigation is especially appropriate for a defendant like Biehl, thirty-five years old at the time of his crimes, who has lived a law-abiding life for decades.
Our supreme court has likewise recognized the significance of a lack of criminal history in sentencing. In a number of cases, it has found the maximum sentence to be manifestly unreasonable, at least in part, because the defendant did not have a prior criminal history. Edgecomb v. State, 673 N.E.2d 1185, 1198-1200 (Ind.1996); Mayberry v. State, 670 N.E.2d 1262, 1271 (Ind.1996); Willoughby v. State, 660 N.E.2d 570, 584-85 (Ind.1996); Widener v. State, 659 N.E.2d 529, 534 (Ind.1995); Walton v. State, 650 N.E.2d 1134, 1137 (Ind.1995); Harrington v. State, 584 N.E.2d 558, 565 (Ind.1992).3 Unlike the defendants in these cases, Biehl was not given the maximum sentence. Nevertheless, this significant mitigating circumstance should be given some weight in Biehl's sentence.
Likewise, mitigating weight should also be given to Biehl's mental illness. Our supreme court has outlined several considerations that bear on the weight, if any, that should be given to mental illness in sentencing. These factors include: (1) the extent of the defendant's inability to control his or her behavior due to the disorder or impairment; (2) overall limitations on functioning; (3) the duration of the mental illness; and (4) the extent of any nexus between the disorder or impairment and the commission of the crime. Weeks v. State, 697 N.E.2d 28, 31 (Ind. 1998) (citing Archer v. State, 689 N.E.2d 678, 685 (Ind.1997)).
The trial court considered these factors and found Biehl's mental illness to be a mitigating circumstance in its sentencing order:
Several cases from our supreme court have found the maximum sentence manifestly unreasonable for a defendant who was suffering a mental illness. Weeks, 697 N.E.2d at 31-32; Archer, 689 N.E.2d at 685-86; Gambill v. State, 675 N.E.2d 668, 677-78 (Ind.1996); Mayberry, 670 N.E.2d at 1271; Barany v. State, 658 N.E.2d 60, 67 (Ind.1995); Walton, 650 N.E.2d at 1137; Christopher v. State, 511 N.E.2d 1019, 1023 (Ind.1987).4 In each of these cases, the supreme court found that the defendant's mental illness must be accorded some weight in sentencing. Indeed, a defendant like Biehl who is suffering from a severe, longstanding mental illness that has some connection with the crime(s) for which he was convicted and sentenced is entitled to receive considerable mitigation of his sentence, as the ten to forty year sentence reductions in the cited cases highlight.
In sum, we hold that the trial court's failure to assign any mitigating weight to Biehl's...
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