MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D),
this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED
regarded as precedent or cited before any Aug 29 2017, 9:16 am
court except for the purpose of establishing
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the defense of res judicata, collateral Indiana Supreme Court
Court of Appeals
estoppel, or the law of the case. and Tax Court
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Jacob P. Wahl Curtis T. Hill, Jr.
Steven E. Ripstra Attorney General of Indiana
Ripstra Law Office
Monika Prekopa Talbot
Jasper, Indiana Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
James B. Weathers, August 29, 2017
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
63A01-1703-CR-683
v. Appeal from the Pike Circuit Court
The Honorable Jeffrey L.
State of Indiana, Biesterveld, Judge
Appellee-Plaintiff. Trial Court Cause No.
63C01-1611-F4-712
Vaidik, Chief Judge.
Case Summary
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[1] James B. Weathers snuck a razor blade into jail during the booking process
because he wanted to harm himself. Later that same day, he attempted suicide
in his holding cell. The State charged him with Level 4 felony possession of a
deadly weapon while incarcerated. Following a plea agreement, the trial court
sentenced him to the maximum term of twelve years. Weathers contends that
his sentence is inappropriate because he did not intend to harm a fellow
prisoner or prison staff. Because Weathers’s goal was to harm himself, we find
that the maximum sentence is inappropriate. We therefore remand this case to
the trial court for the imposition of a sentence of ten years.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] On October 28, 2016, Weathers was served with an arrest warrant for criminal-
confinement and domestic-battery charges concerning his wife. See Appellant’s
App. Vol. II p. 48; Tr. Vol. II p. 15. He was serving a community-corrections
sentence at the time. See Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 46; Tr. Vol. II p. 50.
Suspecting that charges concerning his wife were forthcoming, Weathers had
taped a razor blade to himself using two bandages so that he could commit
suicide in jail. Tr. Vol. II pp. 15-16, 43. Weathers was booked into the Pike
County Jail, and the razor blade apparently went undetected.
[3] That same day, Indiana State Trooper James Manning was in the dispatch area
of the Pike County Jail when Weathers’s cell mate alerted dispatch that there
was an issue. Trooper Manning and other officers responded to the holding
cell, where they saw blood “everywhere.” Id. at 38. Weathers was leaning
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against the wall, with most of his body on the ground. Weathers was slipping
in and out of consciousness and was in “fairly bad shape.” Id. at 44. Trooper
Manning removed a tourniquet from his belt and applied it to Weathers’s left
arm.1 An ambulance was called.
[4] Thereafter, the State charged Weathers with Level 4 felony possession of a
deadly weapon while incarcerated. In February 2017, Weathers and the State
entered into a plea agreement. According to the plea agreement, Weathers
agreed to plead guilty as charged, and the State agreed to dismiss “all pending
matters” against him—which included the charges involving his wife as well as
a charge in a second cause number—and to modify the sentence in a third cause
number to “time served.” Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 36. Sentencing was left
to the discretion of the judge after hearing argument from counsel.
[5] At the March 2017 sentencing hearing, evidence was presented that Weathers
had attempted suicide on a second occasion in December 2016 while in DOC
custody. Id. at 50; Tr. Vol. II pp. 17, 27. Indeed, at the time of the sentencing
hearing, Weathers was housed in the psychiatric unit at New Castle
Correctional Facility, a DOC facility, because of his suicide attempts.
Appellant’s App. Vol. II p. 43. Weathers testified that he was currently taking
Zyprexa and Prozac and was a “totally different person” than he was when he
tried to kill himself. Tr. Vol. II p. 18. The trial court identified the following
1
Trooper Manning did not have any gloves on him at the time and did not put any on. As a result of his
exposure to Weathers’s blood, Trooper Manning underwent a battery of tests, which came back negative.
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aggravators: (1) Weathers’s criminal history (nine felonies and two
misdemeanors) (2) the IRAS assessment showed that he was at a high risk to
reoffend; (3) prior lenient treatment had failed; (4) taping the razor blade to his
body required planning; (5) Weathers’s suicide attempt at the jail affected
people other than himself; and (6) he violated his community-corrections
placement. The court identified one mitigator: Weathers pled guilty. The trial
court sentenced him to the maximum term of twelve years.
[6] Weathers now appeals his sentence.
Discussion and Decision
[7] Weathers contends that his twelve-year sentence is inappropriate and asks us to
modify it to “less than the maximum.” Appellant’s Br. p. 11. Indiana
Appellate Rule 7(B) 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, defendants have the burden of persuading
us that their sentences are inappropriate. Schaaf v. State, 54 N.E.3d 1041, 1044-
45 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016). “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.”
Thompson v. State, 5 N.E.3d 383, 391 (Ind. Ct. App. 2014) (citing Cardwell v.
State, 895 N.E.2d 1219, 1224 (Ind. 2008)).
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[8] Weathers does not claim that there are redeeming aspects to his character that
warrant a reduction in his sentence. Rather, his argument focuses on the nature
of the offense:
While the threat of harm to law enforcement was present, harm
to law enforcement occurs every time a prisoner possesses a
weapon, and such harm is greater in degree when the prisoner
attacks other inmates or prison staff. While Weathers did place
corrections officers at risk, his action[s] are arguably less harmful
than the risk involved in a typical prisoner in possession of a
deadly weapon case . . . .
Appellant’s Br. pp. 10-11. We agree. The evidence in this case is that Weathers
intended to use the razor blade only on himself. See Tr. Vol. II p. 45 (Trooper
Manning testifying that they did not find any evidence that Weathers “tried to
harm anybody but himself”). Indeed, Weathers used the razor blade on himself
the very day that he was booked into jail. In other words, he did not store the
razor blade in jail for a period of time, thereby increasing the risk of danger to
others. When Trooper Manning found Weathers in the holding cell, he was
slipping in and out of consciousness and in “fairly bad shape.” Given that
Weathers tried to kill himself (for which he is now receiving effective mental-
health treatment), we find that the maximum sentence is inappropriate. We
therefore remand this case to the trial court for the imposition of a sentence of
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ten years.2 See Ind. Code § 35-50-2-5.5 (providing that the sentencing range for
a Level 4 felony is two to twelve years, with an advisory sentence of six years).
[9] Reversed and remanded.
Mathias, J., and Crone, J., concur.
2
Weathers also argues that the trial court abused its discretion in not identifying as an additional mitigator
that the crime is unlikely to reoccur given the mental-health treatment that he is receiving. This is closely
related to his inappropriateness argument, and even if we were to separately address it and agree with him,
we would still impose a sentence of ten years.
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James B. Weathers v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
Combined Opinion