Paul D. Stucker v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.) ( 2018 )

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED
this Memorandum Decision shall not be Nov 02 2018, 7:27 am
regarded as precedent or cited before any
CLERK
court except for the purpose of establishing Indiana Supreme Court
Court of Appeals
the defense of res judicata, collateral and Tax Court
estoppel, or the law of the case.
APPELLANT PRO SE ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Paul D. Stucker Curtis T. Hill
Carlisle, Indiana Attorney General
Kelly A. Loy
Supervising Deputy Attorney
General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Paul D. Stucker, November 2, 2018
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
18A-CR-1483
v. Appeal from the LaPorte Superior
Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable Richard R.
Appellee-Plaintiff Stalbrink, Jr., Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
46D02-1303-MR-84
Vaidik, Chief Judge.
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Case Summary
[1] Thirty-five years ago, Paul D. Stucker murdered a fellow inmate while
incarcerated for robbery. In a prison-disciplinary action, Stucker was
sanctioned to segregation and a loss of his past and future good-time credit
regarding his robbery sentence. In 2013, Stucker was charged with murdering
the inmate. A jury found him guilty, and the trial court sentenced him to forty-
five years. Stucker later filed a motion to correct erroneous sentence arguing
that the trial court should have awarded him credit in the murder case for the
time he spent in segregation and the good-time credit that he lost in the 1980s as
a result of the prison-disciplinary action. The court denied his motion, and
Stucker now appeals. Because the time Stucker served in the 1980s was
credited toward his robbery sentence, he is not entitled to a second credit for
that time in this case. We therefore affirm the trial court.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] In 1983, Stucker was serving a seven-year sentence for two counts of Class B
felony robbery at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Appellee’s App.
Vol. II p. 8 (PSI); see also Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 46 (the State arguing in its
response to Stucker’s motion to correct erroneous sentence that Stucker was
sentenced to seven years on October 31, 1980).1 On October 19, 1983, inmate
1
At the hearing on the motion to correct erroneous sentence, Stucker argued that he was originally sentenced
to seven years but that “the Court of Appeals remanded the sentencing, . . . and the judge gave me two tens
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Johnny Hodge was set on fire inside his locked cell, killing him. Indiana
Department of Correction officials investigated Stucker and two other inmates
for Hodge’s murder, and in January 1984 the DOC’s Conduct Adjustment
Board found that Stucker was “Guilty” of violating its disciplinary policy
(specifically, “Code Number 100”) and imposed the following sanctions
regarding Stucker’s robbery sentence: “Disciplinary Segregation” for three
years, a demotion to Credit Class III (which earned no good-time credit), and a
loss of 730 days of good-time credit time that he had previously earned.
Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 31. However, due to inconsistencies in witness
testimony, the State did not attempt to prosecute anyone for Hodge’s murder at
the time. See Stucker v. State, No. 46A05-1403-CR-117 (Ind. Ct. App. Feb. 9,
2015), trans. denied. Stucker was released from prison in 1988.
[3] The investigation into Hodge’s death was later reopened, and in March 2013
the State charged Stucker with murder. A jury trial was held in February 2014,
and Stucker was found guilty. The trial court sentenced Stucker to forty-five
years. According to the sentencing order, the court found that Stucker was
entitled to credit for 334 days he was confined awaiting trial and sentencing in
2013-14, along with 334 days of good-time credit. Appellant’s App. Vol. II
and run them together.” Tr. p. 6. For purposes of our opinion, it does not matter if Stucker’s robbery
sentence was seven or ten years.
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p. 33.2 We affirmed Stucker’s conviction and sentence on direct appeal.
Stucker, No. 46A05-1403-CR-117.
[4] In March 2018, over four years after he was sentenced for murder, Stucker filed
a motion to correct erroneous sentence with several exhibits attached to it,
including the sanctions he received in the 1984 prison-disciplinary action.
Appellant’s App. Vol. II pp. 37-38. Specifically, Stucker argued that he was
entitled to additional credit toward his murder sentence for (1) the three years
he spent in segregation, (2) the loss of good-time credit resulting from his credit-
class demotion, and (3) the loss of 730 days of good-time credit that he had
previously earned. According to Stucker, this amounted to an additional 2825
days. See Tr. p. 6. The trial court denied Stucker’s motion to correct erroneous
sentence.
[5] Stucker, pro se, now appeals.
Discussion and Decision
[6] Stucker contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion to correct
erroneous sentence. A trial court can grant a motion to correct erroneous
sentence only where an error is “clear from the face of the judgment imposing
the sentence in light of the statutory authority.” Robinson v. State, 805 N.E.2d
2Because Stucker committed his offense before July 1, 2014, he was entitled to one day of good-time
credit for each day that he was confined awaiting trial and sentencing. Ind. Code § 35-50-6-3(a), (b).
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783, 787 (Ind. 2004). “Claims that require consideration of the proceedings
before, during, or after trial may not be presented by way of a motion to correct
sentence.” Id.[7] Here, the sentencing order for Stucker’s murder conviction provides that he was
entitled to credit against his forty-five-year sentence for 334 days he was
confined awaiting trial and sentencing and 334 days of good-time credit. In
order to address Stucker’s argument that he is entitled to additional credit
toward his murder sentence for the sanctions he received in his robbery case, we
would have to look beyond the face of the murder sentencing judgment to the
thirty-five-year-old robbery case. As the State argues, the fact that Stucker
himself attached several exhibits to his motion to correct erroneous sentence
“demonstrates that his request for credit time required the trial court to go well
outside the four corners of the sentencing order.” Appellee’s Br. p. 12.
[8] However, even if this issue was proper for a motion to correct erroneous
sentence, Stucker would not be entitled to relief. Stucker claims that he is
entitled to additional credit toward his murder sentence for 2825 days he served
in the 1980s in his robbery case (about thirty years before he was officially
charged with murder). But Stucker already received credit for this time—credit
toward his seven-year robbery sentence. As the State points out, Stucker does
not argue that his seven-year robbery sentence “was extended or that he
remained incarcerated following the execution of that sentence.” Appellee’s Br.
p. 15. As the trial court found, “[t]o award [Stucker] with time served under the
separate sentence for this charge would undoubtedly award [him] double credit
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time.” Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 52. We agree with the trial court. See
Duncan v. State, 412 N.E.2d 770, 775 (Ind. 1980) (holding that “credit will not
be allowed for time served as a result of another separate charge”), reh’g denied.
We therefore affirm the trial court’s denial of Stucker’s motion to correct
erroneous sentence.
[9] Affirmed.
Riley, J., and Kirsch, J., concur.
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