Cameron A. Britain v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED
this Memorandum Decision shall not be Dec 31 2018, 10:41 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.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Christopher L. Clerc Curtis T. Hill, Jr.
Columbus, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
George P. Sherman
Supervising Deputy Attorney
General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Cameron A. Britain, December 31, 2018
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
18A-CR-1776
v. Appeal from the
Bartholomew Circuit Court
State of Indiana, The Honorable
Appellee-Plaintiff. Kelly S. Benjamin, Judge
Trial Court Cause No.
03C01-1710-F6-5552
Kirsch, Judge.
Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 18A-CR-1776 | December 31, 2018 Page 1 of 7
[1] Cameron A. Britain (“Britain”) pled guilty to Level 6 felony fraud1 and was
sentenced to 547 days executed in the Indiana Department of Correction
(“DOC”).2 He now appeals contending that the trial court abused its discretion
in imposing the sentence.
[2] We affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
[3] In July 2017, the Columbus Police Department initiated an investigation based
on a victim report that a wallet had been stolen from an automobile, and later,
someone had put unauthorized charges on one of the credit cards. Columbus
Police Officer Ryan Linneweber obtained surveillance footage from a gas
station where one of the unauthorized transactions had occurred, and watching
the video, he noted an individual using the stolen card. Deputy Andrew
Dougan of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department was later able to
identify that individual as Britain.
[4] In October 2017, the State charged Britain with one count of Level 6 felony
fraud and one count of Class A misdemeanor conversion. In May 2018, Britain
pleaded guilty to fraud pursuant to a plea agreement, and the conversion charge
1
See Ind. Code § 35-43-5-4(1).
2
Britain notes that he was sentenced for 570 days; however, the abstract of judgment states that Britain was
ordered to serve 547 days executed. Appellant’s Conf. App. Vol. 2 at 7.
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was dismissed. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court ordered Britain
to serve 547 days executed in the DOC.
Discussion and Decision
[5] Sentencing decisions rest within the sound discretion of the trial court and are
reviewed only for an abuse of discretion. Green v. State, 65 N.E.3d 620, 635
(Ind. Ct. App. 2016) (citing Anglemyer v. State, 868 N.E.2d 482, 490 (Ind. 2007),
clarified on other grounds on rehearing, 875 N.E.2d 218 (Ind. 2007)), trans. denied.
“An abuse of discretion occurs if the decision is clearly against the logic and
effect of the facts and circumstances before the court, or the reasonable,
probable, and actual deductions to be drawn therefrom.” Id. at 635-36 (quoting
Anglemyer, 868 N.E.2d at 490). A trial court may be found to have abused its
sentencing discretion by: (1) failing to enter a sentencing statement; (2) entering
a sentencing statement that cites reasons unsupported by the record; (3) entering
a sentencing statement that omits reasons that are clearly supported by the
record and that were advanced by the defendant; and (4) entering a sentencing
statement in which the reasons given are improper as a matter of law. Id. at
636.
[6] Britain’s argument falls within the third category. On appeal, he claims that the
trial court abused its discretion when it did not identify his guilty plea as a
mitigating factor. Appellant’s Br. at 5.
[7] Our court recently reiterated that “a guilty plea may not be significantly
mitigating when it does not demonstrate the defendant’s acceptance of
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responsibility or when the defendant receives a substantial benefit in return for
the plea.” McCoy v. State, 96 N.E.3d 95, 99 (Ind. Ct. App. 2018) (quoting
Anglemyer, 875 N.E.2d 218, 221 (Ind. 2007)). Where, like here, Britain received
the benefit of having a count dismissed in exchange for the guilty plea, and the
police had the gas station surveillance footage of Britain committing the crime,
Britain’s decision to plead guilty was a pragmatic one. See Barker v. State, 994
N.E.2d 306, 312 (Ind. Ct. App. 2013) (“A guilty plea is not necessarily a
mitigating factor where the defendant receives substantial benefit from the plea
or where evidence against the defendant is so strong that the decision to plead
guilty is merely pragmatic.”), trans. denied.
[8] Furthermore, assuming without deciding that the trial court abused its
discretion when it did not find Britain’s guilty plea was a mitigating factor, we
find that error harmless. See Banks v. State, 841 N.E.2d 654, 658-59 (Ind. Ct.
App. 2006) (finding the trial court’s failure to consider the defendant’s guilty
plea as mitigating was harmless), trans. denied. If there is an irregularity in a
trial court’s sentencing decision, a reviewing court has the option to affirm the
sentence if the error is harmless, to remand to the trial court for a clarification
or new sentencing determination, or to reweigh the proper aggravating and
mitigating factors independently at the appellate level. Clippinger v. State, 54
N.E.3d 986, 992 (Ind. 2016).
[9] At the start of the sentencing hearing, the trial court recognized that Britain had
“entered a plea of guilty to Count 1, Fraud, a Level 6 Felony.” Tr. Vol. 2 at 4.
Following the close of evidence, the trial addressed Britain, saying:
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The Court has reviewed the Presentence Investigation Report;
heard the testimony here today, and the comments by counsel.
Judgment of conviction was entered earlier for Count 1, Fraud, a
Level 6 Felony. Any other counts are dismissed.
Mr. Britain, the Court has to weigh the aggravating and
mitigating circumstances and you know what your prior criminal
history looks like.
....
You had three juvenile convictions that is [sic] included in a total
of ten convictions that you had; three misdemeanors; seven
felonies.[3] You have been on probation seven times; straight jail
once. You attended juvenile DOC. You had work release after a
PTR on one occasion. Of the seven probations that you had, you
had PTRs file[d] ten times. You violated ten times. Those
violations were for work release, violations [of] drug screens,
threats, alcohol, controlled substance use, unlawful possession of
a syringe, auto theft. You were terminated at least three times.
You were on probation at the time of this incident. You’ve had
prior treatment that has not been successful. And all these
convictions occurred from 2006 going forward. So there’s been a
very short period of time if any that you were not either
committing a crime or dealing with a crime or on probation or
serving time for a crime.
3
Britain’s first contacts with the legal system came as a juvenile with adjudications for operating a motor
vehicle without a license in 2006, resisting law enforcement and intimidation in 2008, and possession of
marijuana in 2009. Appellant’s Conf. App. Vol. 2 at 21-22. As an adult, he was convicted of sexual misconduct
with a minor in March 2013, theft in April 2013, theft in 2015, theft in April 2016, unlawful possession of a
syringe in July 2016, theft in August 2017, and theft in October 2017. Id. at 22-24. He had also violated
probation on numerous occasions, including by committing auto theft in January 2018. Id. at 21-24.
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....
You’ve had five different counties which you’ve been in;
Dearborn, Hamilton, Marion, Johnson and now Boone County.
I don’t take lightly what Ms. Wertz says because when you look
back at why you’re here, it’s not just . . . you have an issue that
you have to deal with, when you committed these ten crimes,
you gave ten other people, if not more, things that they now had
to deal with; that they didn’t expect; that they didn’t want; that
they didn’t ask for and that they didn’t deserve.
....
[W]hen you talk about thefts, yeah, it’s to serve your own
purpose. Quite frankly, but this came, in this particular one,
came from a stolen wallet from a motor vehicle and using that
credit card. So you’re not affecting just the credit union; they are
set up to repay the lady that you took that from, but now she gets
to worry about did the person know me? Was this random? . . .
With a credit card, do I have to worry about it? Do I have to
take off work to try and deal with this? Is there going to be
something out there in a couple months I didn’t know about and
now is charged to us? . . . Will the bank help me out with this? .
. . Did you even care? Not at the time you didn’t.
Tr. Vol. 2 at 16-17. Our review of the record convinces us that, even if the trial
court had found Britain’s guilty plea to be a mitigating circumstance, based on
the description of his criminal history as an aggravating circumstance, it is
highly unlikely that the trial court would have imposed a lesser sentence. See
Ackerman v. State, 51 N.E.3d 171, 194 (Ind. 2016) (finding that although the trial
court abused its discretion during sentencing, there was no need to remand
because “the explanation of the aggravating factors and [the defendant’s]
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character allows us to say with confidence that the trial court would have
imposed the same sentence”), cert. denied, 137 S. Ct. 475 (2016). The sentencing
range for a Level 6 felony is between six months and two and one-half years.
Ind. Code § 35-50-2-7. Here, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it
sentenced Britain to 547 days executed in the DOC.
[10] Affirmed.
Riley, J., and Robb, J., concur.
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