Smith v. State

• Court: Indiana Appellate Court
• Writing for the Court: Bailey, Judge.
• Docket Number: 24A-CR-2492
• Decision Date: 29 December 2025
• Citation: Smith v. State, 24A-CR-2492 (Ind. App. Dec 29, 2025)
• Parties: Caden Smith, Appellant-Defendant v. State of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff

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Caden Smith, Appellant-Defendant v. State of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff

No. 24A-CR-2492

Court of Appeals of Indiana

December 29, 2025

Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision is not binding precedent for any court and may be cited only for persuasive value or to establish res judicata, collateral estoppel, or law of the case.

Appeal from the Marion Superior Court The Honorable Jennifer Prinz Harrison, Judge Trial Court Cause No. 49D20-2112-MR-36708.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT Talisha Griffin Marion County Public Defender Agency Appellate Division Chief Indianapolis Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Theodore E. Rokita Indiana Attorney General Jesse R. Drum Supervising Deputy Attorney General Criminal Appeals Indianapolis, Indiana

Judge Bailey Judges Tavitas and Kenworthy concur.

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Bailey, Judge.

Case Summary

[¶1] A jury found Caden Smith guilty of murder for the killing of Joseph Thomas, as well as guilty of murder and felony murder for the killing of Michael James and Abdullah Mubarak. The jury also found Smith guilty of robbing James and Mubarak, possessing a machine gun, dangerous possession of a firearm, possessing methamphetamine, and possessing marijuana. The trial court sentenced Smith, who was almost seventeen years old when he committed the crimes, to 189 years in the Department of Correction.

[¶2] On appeal, Smith argues that his convictions for possessing marijuana and robbing Mubarak are not supported by sufficient evidence; that the trial court committed reversible error in admitting and excluding certain evidence; that his convictions for possessing a machine gun and dangerous possession of a firearm violate substantive double jeopardy principles; that the sentencing order incorrectly describes his robbery convictions; that the trial court erred in merging his felony murder convictions with his related murder convictions instead of vacating them; and that his sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his character.

[¶3] We affirm Smith's convictions for murder, robbery, possession of a machine gun, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana, as well as his aggregate sentence. We reverse his conviction for dangerous possession of a firearm on double jeopardy grounds and remand with instructions to vacate that conviction. On remand, the trial court must also correct the description of the robbery convictions in its sentencing order and vacate Smith's convictions for felony murder.

Facts and Procedural History

[¶4] The relevant facts most favorable to the jury's verdicts are as follows. Smith was born in November 2004. His "mother was in prison most of [his] life, and [his] dad wasn't really around[.]" Tr. Vol. 7 at 168. When he was fourteen, Smith accidentally shot himself in the knee while posing for a selfie with a handgun. In October 2021 Smith lived with his maternal grandmother on West Thompson Road on the southwest side of Indianapolis. Smith bought and sold drugs and firearms and facilitated sales of devices known as Glock switches, which convert semiautomatic handguns into fully automatic handguns. He test-fired his firearms in a wooded area ("the woods") near his home between Bluff Road and the 4400 block of South Meridian Street. At that time, Smith was wanted on multiple juvenile court warrants.

[¶5] Shortly after 6:00 p.m. on October 10, eighteen-year-old Joseph Thomas went with his mother, Evelyn Nelson, to a gas station convenience store on Meridian Street, where he saw and talked with Smith. Smith had gone to school with him and was "good friends" with Thomas. Id. at 169. This encounter was captured on the store's surveillance camera. State's Ex. 176. After Thomas and Nelson got home, he told her, "Ma, I'm going to chill with Caden for a minute[,]" and left their apartment. Tr. Vol. 4 at 76. Nelson looked outside and saw Thomas get into the rear passenger seat of a car. Id. When the streetlights came on, Nelson called Thomas and asked when he would be home. Thomas told Nelson that he was on his way. When Thomas failed to arrive, Nelson tried calling and texting him and got no response. Sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., rapid gunshots were heard coming from the woods. The next day, Nelson called the police to report Thomas missing.

[¶6] Seventeen-year-old Abdullah Mubarak lived on the southwest side of Indianapolis with his mother, Amneh Al Shelebi. Around 8:00 p.m. on October 11, Mubarak told his mother that he was going to pick up some fast food with his twenty-two-year-old friend Michael James in Al Shelebi's car. Smith was "good friends" with James but did not know Mubarak. Tr. Vol. 7 at 169, 170. Al Shelebi expected Mubarak to be home by 9:00 p.m. because he had told her that someone was going to pick up James at that time. Between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m., rapid gunshots again were heard coming from the woods. When Mubarak failed to arrive as expected, Al Shelebi "started texting him" at 9:50 p.m. Tr. Vol. 4 at 170. Her phone indicated that Mubarak did not read her texts and that the location-sharing feature of his phone had been turned off.

[¶7] On the evening of October 12, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department ("IMPD") Officer Nicholas Stewart was working a part-time security job for a company that was installing power lines in the woods. The company's trailers had been "getting broken into overnight[,]" so Officer Stewart "watched over the equipment for a while." Id. at 41. The officer walked around the area and saw a trail that went through a field. He followed the trail, saw what appeared to be two "sets of legs that were in the trail," and called for backup. Id. at 44. IMPD Sergeant Brian Clark arrived, and he and Officer Stewart discovered the bodies of James and Mubarak. Farther down the trail, Sergeant Clark found Thomas's body.

[¶8] All three victims had died from multiple gunshot wounds. Thomas had been shot five times, including in the head, chest, and abdomen, and he had a glove on his right hand. James had been shot three times in the head, and he had gloves on both hands. Mubarak had been shot nine times, including in the head and the back. The ground near the bodies was littered with numerous 9-millimeter fired cartridge cases stamped with different manufacturers' marks, as well as several unfired 9-millimeter cartridges.

[¶9] On October 13, Al Shelebi's car was located in an apartment complex parking lot across Meridian Street from the woods. On the front passenger seat was an Apple iPhone that was later determined to have an Apple ID of MikeJames22@iCloud.com. In the front console cup holder was a firearm magazine with seventeen cartridges.

[¶10] On October 15, Al Shelebi found a backpack containing James's pay card and temporary license in her garage. The backpack also contained a bag of what appeared to be marijuana; two magazines, one of which was "loaded with unfired cartridges"; and two "fired cartridges[.]" Tr. Vol. 5 at 43. Al Shelebi informed lead investigator IMPD Detective Jose Torres about the backpack.

[¶11] On October 16, James's mother, Gladys Larson, opened James's iPad and "looked at his Instagram account." Tr. Vol. 4 at 165. Larson "found communication between" James and another person with a username "like redhead or something to that nature." Id. Smith has red hair. Tr. Vol. 7 at 248. Larson "noted that there was talk about guns as well as a location was being sent to [James] for him to meet the individual at a particular location." Tr. Vol. 4 at 165. She then "immediately called" Detective Torres. Id. The detective looked at the conversations on the iPad and saw "a couple of messages referring to a location, a wooded area[,]" as well as a "photo with highlight [of] the location where eventually the bodies were found." Tr. Vol. 5 at 137.

[¶12] At some point, Detective Torres spoke with Nelson and obtained the convenience store's surveillance video of Smith and Thomas's encounter on October 10. Police interviews with other relatives and friends of the victims led to the surveillance of Smith's home. A search warrant for the home was obtained and executed on October 27. Both Smith and his grandmother were home at the time of the search, and Smith was taken into custody. Inside Smith's bedroom, police found the following items: a backpack containing marijuana, methamphetamine pills, and a baggie with unfired cartridges bearing multiple manufacturers' marks; a loaded .40-caliber Glock handgun equipped with a Glock switch; a loaded 9-millimeter Polymer 80 handgun (a third-generation Glock clone, also known as a P80); a bulletproof vest; and six cell phones. The cartridges in the baggie and the Polymer 80 bore manufacturers' marks that matched those on cartridges and cartridge cases found at the murder scene. Smith's DNA was found on both handguns, as well as on a cartridge case found at the murder scene. Police later obtained search warrants for all six cell phones.

[¶13] In December 2021, the State charged Smith with three counts of murder; three counts of felony murder; three counts of robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 2 felony; possession of a machine gun, a Level 5 felony; dangerous possession of a firearm, as a Class A misdemeanor; possession of methamphetamine, as a Level 3 felony; and possession of marijuana, as a Class B misdemeanor.

[¶14] In August 2022, Smith filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized from his home. The trial court granted the motion, and the State appealed. Another panel of this Court reversed the trial court's ruling, finding that the search warrant was supported by probable cause. State v. Smith, No 22A-CR-2424, 2023 WL 3533380 (Ind.Ct.App. May 18, 2023) (mem.), trans. denied....