Tiffany Lynn Daugherty v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D),
this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED
regarded as precedent or cited before any May 09 2019, 9:27 am
court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK
the defense of res judicata, collateral Indiana Supreme Court
Court of Appeals
and Tax Court
estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Cara Schaefer Wieneke Curtis T. Hill, Jr.
Wieneke Law Office, LLC Attorney General
Brooklyn, Indiana
Caroline G. Templeton
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Tiffany Lynn Daugherty, May 9, 2019
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
18A-CR-2536
v. Appeal from the
Vigo Superior Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable
Appellee-Plaintiff John T. Roach, Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
84D01-1703-F1-715
Vaidik, Chief Judge.
Case Summary
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[1] Tiffany Lynn Daugherty pled guilty to several offenses surrounding the death of
her five-year-old disabled daughter, and the trial court sentenced her to twenty-
one years—fifteen years in the Department of Correction and six years
suspended to probation. Daugherty now appeals, arguing that her sentence is
inappropriate. We affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] Daugherty and her boyfriend, Brian Moseman,1 lived together in Terre Haute
along with their four children, including Adilynn, who was born in July 2010.
Daugherty was the primary caretaker of Adilynn, who had “extreme special
needs.” Tr. p. 102. Adilynn had microcephaly, mitochondrial disorder, and
seizures. In addition, she was hearing impaired, vision impaired, and unable to
talk; and she needed a feeding tube to eat, a tracheostomy to breathe, and a
wheelchair to get around.
[3] In April 2011, Adilynn, who weighed 8 pounds, was admitted to Riley Hospital
for Children for failure to thrive and malnutrition. While Adilynn was
hospitalized, she gained weight. Doctors warned Daugherty that malnutrition
could result in increased infections, developmental delays, and Adilynn’s death.
DCS was contacted, and the parents and DCS entered into an informal
1
Moseman pled guilty to two counts of Level 6 felony neglect of a dependent and was sentenced to
concurrent terms of two-and-a-half years, all suspended to probation. See 84D01-1703-F1-716.
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adjustment, which ended in late 2011. In July 2012, Adilynn was seen at Riley
Hospital and weighed 21.12 pounds.
[4] Adilynn, however, received very little medical care after this point. Although
Daugherty said Adilynn had a pediatrician in Terre Haute, she saw this
pediatrician only once, in November 2013. Adilynn weighed 16 pounds at this
appointment. Adilynn’s next doctor appointment was over two years later, in
December 2015, with a different pediatrician. Adilynn weighed 17.12 pounds
at this appointment. Although Adilynn was supposed to have regular follow-up
care at Riley Hospital, including further genetic testing, she was never seen
there again. This is so even though Daugherty took her other three children to
the doctor regularly.
[5] On December 23, 2015, Daugherty called Adilynn’s nutritionist at IU Health to
discuss Adilynn’s caloric intake. This was the nutritionist’s first contact with
Daugherty since 2012. Daugherty told the nutritionist that Adilynn, who was
then five years old, weighed 26 pounds (even though she weighed 17.12 pounds
earlier that same month). On January 6, 2016, the nutritionist called Daugherty
to follow up on Adilynn, and Daugherty said she had gained 1.5 pounds that
week. Daugherty said she was concerned that Adilynn was gaining too much
weight, which would interfere with the trach. The nutritionist told Daugherty
to follow up with Adilynn’s pediatrician to get a different trach size.
[6] Approximately two weeks later, on January 21, 2016, Daugherty dropped off
Adilynn at Moseman’s mother’s house. Shortly thereafter, the grandmother
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noticed that something was wrong with Adilynn and called Daugherty.
Adilynn was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Adilynn
weighed 16.94 pounds at the time of her death. DCS had Daugherty take a
drug screen that day, and she tested positive for marijuana. DCS also went to
Daugherty and Moseman’s house, where it found 115 unopened bottles of
Adilynn’s formula.
[7] An autopsy was conducted the following day. According to the forensic
pathologist, the cause of Adilynn’s death was “patchy bronchopneumonia” and
malnutrition. Ex. 5. The pathologist’s report showed the following signs of
medical neglect: (1) Adilynn failed to gain weight while in the care of her
parents, despite a consistent pattern of gaining weight while in the care of
hospital personnel; (2) the parents failed to seek ongoing medical care for
Adilynn at Riley Hospital for several years even though she had major medical
issues; and (3) Adilynn had severe malnutrition at the time of her death, despite
the fact that she was provided special feeding materials by social services.
[8] The State charged Daugherty with eight counts: Count I: Level 1 felony neglect
of a dependent resulting in death (failed to provide adequate nutrition and/or
medical care to Adilynn); Count II: Level 3 felony neglect of a dependent
resulting in serious bodily injury (failed to provide adequate nutrition and/or
medical care to Adilynn); Count III: Level 5 felony neglect of a dependent
resulting in bodily injury (failed to provide adequate nutrition and/or medical
care to Adilynn); Count IV: Level 6 felony neglect of a dependent (failed to
provide adequate nutrition and/or medical care to Adilynn); Count V: Level 6
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felony neglect of a dependent (placed Adilynn in a situation that endangered
her life or health by having “THC in her system”); Count VI: Level 6 felony
welfare fraud (misused SSI benefits for Adilynn); Count VII: Level 6 felony
theft (exerted unauthorized control over money from Vigo County Welfare
Department); and Count VIII: Level 5 felony reckless homicide. Appellant’s
App. Vol. II pp. 127-28. Daugherty was released on bond pending trial;
however, she later violated the conditions of her pretrial release for failing to
report and was sent back to jail.
[9] The State and Daugherty later entered into a plea agreement. According to the
agreement, Daugherty would plead guilty to Counts II, V, VII, and VIII, the
State would dismiss the remaining charges, and “[f]or purposes of sentencing,
Count VIII will merge with Count II” and “Counts II, V and VII shall run
consecutive to each other.” Id. at 124. The agreement also provided:
The State will recommend that defendant be sentenced to a set
sentence of twenty-one (21) years. A minimum of ten (10) years
shall be executed with the parties each permitted to argue to the
court placement on this portion of the sentence. The parties shall
argue the sentence imposed on the remaining eleven (11) years,
with each side permitted to argue from suspended time with or
without probation to a fully executed sentence.
Id.
[10] At the sentencing hearing, the trial court identified the following aggravators:
(1) Adilynn was less than twelve years old; (2) Daugherty violated the
conditions of her pretrial release; (3) Adilynn was mentally and physically
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infirm; (4) Daugherty had care, custody, and control of Adilynn; and (5) the
nature and circumstances of the crime, specifically the prolonged period during
which the acts occurred. The court identified the following mitigators: (1)
Daugherty had no criminal history at the time of these offenses; (2) she suffered
from post-traumatic stress disorder (according to Daugherty, she witnessed her
mother attempt suicide and was a crime victim herself as a child); and (3) she
accepted responsibility and expressed remorse. Pursuant to the plea agreement,
the trial court sentenced Daugherty to twenty-one years. The court then
ordered Daugherty to serve fifteen years in the DOC (the plea agreement
required a minimum of ten years) and six years on probation. The court
explained its sentence as follows:
You starved your child to death. . . . You made the statement
that [you] didn’t realize until [you] gather[ed] picture[s] for the
funeral about what was going on. You know why that’s not true?
Because after three (3) years of not taking her to the doctor, in
your own words, you knew something was wrong in December,
and what we had in December was the picture I’m not going to
show you again, you’ve seen it, it’s the picture in the autopsy,
when that child had gotten down to sixteen (16) pounds. That
doesn’t gradually happen. It happened because of your actions.
And to do anything less than the sentence in this case would
essentially make [Adilynn] a thro[w]-away and I’m not going to
do that.
Tr. p. 130. The court added that “[u]pon completion of ten (10) years of the
executed portion of the sentence, [Daugherty] is permitted to petition the court
for modification of her placement for the balance of her executed sentence.”
Appellant’s App. Vol. II pp. 184-85.
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[11] Daugherty now appeals her sentence.
Discussion and Decision
[12] Daugherty contends that having to serve fifteen years of her twenty-one-year
sentence in the DOC is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and
her character. She asks us to reduce the fifteen-year executed portion of her
sentence pursuant to Indiana Appellate Rule 7(B), which provides that an
appellate court “may revise a sentence authorized by statute if, after due
consideration of the trial court’s decision, the Court finds that
the sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the
character of the offender.” Because we generally defer to the judgment of trial
courts in sentencing matters, Norris v. State, 27 N.E.3d 333, 335-36 (Ind. Ct.
App. 2015), defendants have the burden of persuading us that their sentences
are inappropriate, Thompson v. State, 5 N.E.3d 383, 391 (Ind. Ct. App. 2014).
“Whether a sentence is inappropriate ultimately turns on the culpability of the
defendant, the severity of the crime, the damage done to others, and a myriad
of other factors that come to light in a given case.” Id. (citing Cardwell v. State,
895 N.E.2d 1219, 1224 (Ind. 2008)).
[13] Daugherty acknowledges that the crimes are “serious.” Appellant’s Br. p. 8.
As the trial court found, Daugherty, Adilynn’s mother and primary caretaker,
did not provide Adilynn—a child with “extreme special needs”—with medical
care for three years and “starved [her] to death.” Tr. p. 130.
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[14] As for Daugherty’s character, it is true that she had no criminal history until
this case. Although the trial court found that Daugherty accepted responsibility
and expressed remorse, it also found that Daugherty did not take any steps to
improve herself and in fact “went the complete opposite way” by violating the
terms of her pretrial release. See id. at 131-32. Finally, Daugherty points out
that this crime is unlikely to reoccur, as Adilynn had “serious physical needs
that warranted an extraordinary level of care” and her “other children do not
suffer from these same disabilities.” Appellant’s Br. p. 9. Even considering
these things in Daugherty’s favor, they do not overcome the disturbing nature
of these offenses. Daugherty has failed to persuade us that the fifteen-year
executed portion of her sentence, which she can ask the court to modify after
completing ten years (the minimum under the plea agreement), is inappropriate.
[15] Affirmed.
Kirsch, J., and Altice, J., concur.
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