Thames v. State
| Decision Date | 24 July 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 49A04-9410-CR-428,49A04-9410-CR-428 |
| Citation | 653 N.E.2d 517 |
| Parties | Larry D. THAMES, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Defendant-Appellant, Larry Thames ("Thames"), appeals from his conviction for Neglect of a Dependent, a class D felony. We affirm.
Thames presents one issue for our review: whether there was sufficient evidence to support his conviction.
Thames was left during the day to care for A.L., his girlfriend's five-year old child. He left the child alone. She wandered out of her home and was eventually taken to the police department. Additional facts will be supplied as necessary.
Thames was convicted of Neglect of a Dependent, I.C. § 35-46-1-4(a)(1): "A person having the care of a dependent ... who knowingly or intentionally: (1) places the dependent in a situation that may endanger his life or health ... commits neglect of a dependent, a class D felony." Thames argues there is insufficient evidence to prove he knowingly or intentionally placed A.L. in a situation that would endanger her life or health. In reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we will neither reweigh the evidence nor judge the witnesses' credibility. Jones v. State (1992), Ind., 589 N.E.2d 241, 242.
A person knowingly commits neglect of a child when he is subjectively aware of a high probability that he placed the child in a dangerous situation. Hill v. State (1989), Ind.App., 535 N.E.2d 153. A.L.'s mother testified that she left A.L. in the care of Thames while she was at work. A.L. testified that she was home alone with Thames and when she awoke from her nap, Thames was not in the home. Thames told the police that he was two streets over helping someone move furniture. A.L. was found wandering the street at approximately 1:30 p.m. and Thames did not return home until 4:00 p.m. Thames was experienced at watching children and thus should have been subjectively aware of a high probability that he placed A.L. in a dangerous situation by leaving her at home alone.
Affirmed.
The law as enunciated in Bean v. State (1984) Ind., 460 N.E.2d 936, and subsequent cases separates the victim's status as a dependent of someone from the neglect perpetrated by a third person. 1 For this reason, I concur.
The traditional analysis of neglect and dependency focused upon the parent-child, child-parent relationship, or at a minimum upon a loco parentis relationship, e.g., a guardian. See Dirk William de Roos Dependency and Neglect: Indiana's Definitional Confusion 45 Ind.L.J. 606 (1970). It did not embrace temporary custodians such as babysitters.
In any event, it seems that the law would be better served by criminalizing the conduct of persons who neglect children and disabled or elderly persons placed in their care. To couch the crime in terms of dependency implies criminal conduct on the part of the person upon whom the victim is truly dependent, i.e., parent or guardian. As presently construed a...
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Becklehimer v. State
...by leaving him alone for the weekend. In support of her claim, Becklehimer cites to two cases: Scruggs and Thames v. State , 653 N.E.2d 517, 517 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995).[14] In Scruggs , Scruggs left her seven-year-old son, M.H., at home while she ran an errand. Scruggs , 883 N.E.2d at 190. Wh......
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...activity by others, see Harrison, 644 N.E.2d at 891; leaving a small child alone in a house for several hours, see Thames v. State, 653 N.E.2d 517, 517 (Ind.Ct.App.1995); and driving while intoxicated and recklessly with an unrestrained child in the car, see Kellogg v. State, 636 N.E.2d 126......
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Scruggs v. State
...of a "high probability" that M.H. was placed in a dangerous situation when she left him home alone. See id.; but see Thames v. State, 653 N.E.2d 517, 517 (Ind.Ct.App.1995) (affirming Class D felony conviction for neglect of a dependent where caretaker left five-year-old girl home alone and ......
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Becklehimer v. State
...five-year-old daughter alone and the child wandered out of her home and was eventually 8 taken to the police department. Thames, 653 N.E.2d at 517. Although Thames was only a few houses away from the child, he was gone for several hours, and the child was found wandering the street. Id. We ......