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Friday, March 06, 2009

Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals rejects appeal in fatal OWI; flip-flop at issue

The Court of Appeals NFP decision March 4th in the case of Kara Crisp v. State of Indiana is the subject of a story today in the Lafayette Jourrnal Courier. Some quotes:

A Fowler woman should spend six years in prison for driving impaired and causing a single-vehicle crash two years ago that killed one of her passengers, Indiana's higher court has ruled

A Benton Circuit Court jury found Kara A. Crisp, now 24, guilty of reckless homicide, a Class C felony, after a trial this past June. Jeremy A. Bell, 25, died in the wreck.

Jurors determined that Crisp was the driver of a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee that rolled several times on Indiana 352 near Boswell the morning of May 26, 2007.

Crisp appealed her conviction and sentence on grounds that the trial judge should not have allowed testimony from Sheriff Butch Pritchett regarding a flip-flop style sandal -- which was never linked to Crisp -- on the vehicle's accelerator. The appeal also alleged that Crisp's rights to due process were violated because law enforcement officers did not preserve the shoe.

In a unanimous ruling issued Wednesday, the Indiana Court of Appeals disagreed, noting that Camp's brother testified that Crisp had been wearing flip-flops the night of the crash.

The mother of the second passenger, Ismael Carabello III, 22, of Bos-well, testified that Carabello never wore that style of sandal. Indiana's higher court ruled that the shoe and Pritcher's testimony were inculpatory evidence, or that it appeared to link Crisp as being the driver.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 6, 2009 08:39 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions