ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Leanna Weissmann Steve Carter
Lawrenceburg, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
Cynthia L. Ploughe
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
______________________________________________________________________________
In the
Indiana Supreme Court
FILED
Apr 01 2008, 1:33 pm
_________________________________
CLERK
of the supreme court,
No. 69S01-0708-CR-332 court of appeals and
tax court
THERON W. HUNTER, Appellant (Defendant below),
v.
STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee (Plaintiff below).
_________________________________
Appeal from the Ripley Circuit Court, No. 69C01-9912-CF-43
The Honorable Carl Taul, Judge
_________________________________
On Petition To Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 69A01-0702-CR-61
_________________________________
April 1, 2008
Dickson, Justice.
The determinative issue in this case is whether there was sufficient evidence to support
the revocation of the defendant's probation for violating a probation condition of disputed mean-
ing. We conclude that the condition lacked sufficient clarity to provide the defendant with fair
notice that the conduct at issue would constitute a violation of probation.
The defendant, Theron Hunter, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment with four
years suspended to probation.1 Three months after his release and the commencement of his
probation, the Ripley County Probation Department sought to revoke his probation. After an
evidentiary hearing, the trial court found that he had violated the conditions of his probation,
finding that he had been "living in a residence located approximately 15 feet from a house trailer
where three (3) minor children reside with their parents and that he has been in the house trailer
at least once a week while the children were present." Appellant's App'x at 40. The specific
probation condition alleged to have violated required:
The defendant must never be alone with or have contact with any person under the age of
18. Contact includes face-to-face, telephonic, written, electronic, or any indirect contact
via third parties. You must report any incidental contact with persons under age 18 to
your probation officer within 24 hours of the contact.
Id. at 28. This probation condition was expressly stated in the trial court's sentencing judgment.
The trial court revoked probation, ordered the remaining sentence served, and imposed additional
sanctions. The Court of Appeals affirmed by memorandum decision. Hunter v. State, 69C01-
9912- CF-43 (Ind. Ct. App. June 21, 2007). We granted transfer and now reverse.
The relevant evidence at the revocation hearing is essentially undisputed. Shortly after
his release from the Department of Corrections, the defendant met with his probation officer,
who reviewed the terms and conditions of the defendant's probation. Due to difficulty obtaining
a residence, the defendant eventually moved into a recreational vehicle (RV) parked on property
owned by his father. The RV was adjacent to both the defendant's father's residence and a mo-
bile home occupied by the defendant's half-sister, her husband, and her three children. Upon
learning of the defendant's living situation, the probation officer investigated by going to the
property, asking questions of the defendant's parents and half-sister, in order to ascertain if the
defendant was "in contact" with persons under the age of eighteen. Tr. at 6-8. The probation
officer learned, through the defendant himself, that the defendant had been present on multiple
occasions in the mobile home when the children arrived home from school. Undisputed evi-
dence at the revocation hearing indicated that after the defendant began to live in the RV, he
worked construction for his father in the early mornings and began to work in the afternoons do-
ing construction in his sister's trailer, remodeling her bathroom. The defendant testified that his
sister's children, ages 14 to 18, normally didn't get home until 4:20 in the afternoon, and that it
1
This sentence resulted from his conviction of Child Molesting as a class C felony.
2
was "always my intent to be out of the trailer by the time they got home from school." Tr. at 23.
Admitting that there were times when the children came home before he left, the defendant ex-
plained that "[a]s soon as they came in, as fast as I could, I would pack up my tools and get out
the door until the next day." Id. at 24. He emphasized that "I didn't sit down with them. I didn't
have anything to do with them as far as wrestlin' around, playing with them, nothing at all." Id.
at 23-24. The defendant knew he "wasn't supposed to have contact with them as far as like he,
[the probation officer] said as far as talking to them, face to face . . . interaction type of stuff.
And I did not have interaction type stuff with them." Id. at 25. There was no definitive evidence
presented to establish that the defendant had any face-to-face contact with the children.
The defendant contends that the State did not present sufficient evidence to prove that he
violated his probation. He argues that he understood the word "contact" as set forth in the terms
of his probation to mean "interaction" and that the State failed to prove that there was any inter-
action between the children and the defendant.
The State argues that the evidence was sufficient to prove the probation violation because
"he was in his sister's trailer with his sister's children and did not report this information to his
probation officer." Appellee's Br. at 6. The State construes the term "contact" much more
broadly, arguing that merely being in the presence of persons under the age of eighteen is suffi-
cient evidence to find the defendant in violation. And, the State further points out, that even if
the contact was incidental, the defendant failed to notify his probation officer, further violating a
term of the defendant's probation.
The State urges that the evidence here is comparable to that in Smith v. State, 727 N.E.2d
763, 768 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000), trans. not sought, in which the evidence was sufficient to sustain a
probation revocation. In Smith, the defendant was convicted of child molestation and attempted
child molestation, receiving a ten-year sentence with three years suspended to probation. Id. at
765. A condition of Smith's probation was that he not be in contact with children under the age
of sixteen until he completed a sex offender's program. Id. Smith was unsuccessful in complet-
ing the sex offender's treatment program. Id. Based on evidence of contact that Smith had with
a five-year-old boy, the State filed a petition to revoke Smith's probation. Id. Smith had married
3
the mother of a five-year-old boy, began to reside with them, and was seen picking the child up
from a Head Start program. Id. at 766. Further, the young boy referred to Smith as his "dad."
Id. The Court of Appeals found that
The evidence that [the child] was comfortable in identifying Smith as his father supports
an inference that the contact between Smith and [the child] was substantial. Also, the ob-
servations of the Head Start employees were sufficient to show contact on more than one
occasion. . . . The trial court did not abuse its discretion in revoking Smith's
probation.
Id. In contrast to the present facts, however, the evidence in Smith demonstrated a quality and
quantity of interactive contact substantially distinct from the occasions of simply momentary
presence in the same residence with children where the defendant immediately left without inter-
acting with them.
Whether the evidence was sufficient to establish that the defendant violated the terms of
his probation or not hinges, in large part, on the definition of the word "contact." Conditions of
probation delineate conduct that must be avoided by the probationer. Like statutes defining pe-
nal offenses, the language must be such that it describes with clarity and particularity the mis-
conduct that will result in penal consequences. Smith v. State, 779 N.E.2d 111, 118 (Ind. Ct.
App. 2002), trans. denied ("A probationer has a due process right to conditions of supervised
release that are sufficiently clear to inform him of what conduct will result in his being returned
to prison."); see also Brown v. State, 868 N.E.2d 464, 467 (Ind. 2007) (discussing prohibition
against vagueness in criminal statutes); Foster v. State, 813 N.E.2d 1236, 1239 (Ind. Ct. App.
2004), trans. not sought (finding a probation condition void for vagueness where it was not suf-
ficiently clear what conduct would return the defendant to prison.)
The defendant urges that "contact" means "establishing of communication with someone"
or "to get into communication with." Wright v. State, 688 N.E.2d 224, 226 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997),
quoting WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY 249 (10th Ed. 1993). "Communication occurs when a person
makes something known or transmits information to another." Id. In addition to the element of
communication, we also observe that the word "contact" is not commonly understood to occur
by mere presence alone. WEBSTER'S NINTH NEW COLLEGE DICTIONARY (1987) contains three
separate entries for the word "contact" that include thirteen definitions and sub-definitions, none
4
of which include or imply "in the presence of." As to those sub-definitions that may be germane
to the issues in this case, the elements of either physical touching or communication are also in-
cluded in the definition.2
The conditions of probation stated "Contact includes face-to-face, telephonic, written,
electronic, or any indirect contact via third parties," Appellant's App'x at 28, but this definition is
ambiguous. If literally read, "Contact includes face-to-face . . . contact via third parties," does
not apply to the facts of this case. And even if we extract the fragment "Contact includes face-
to-face," this isolated phrase does not reasonably communicate to a probationer that the plain
meaning of "contact" is altered to include mere presence.
If the trial court intended a condition of probation to prohibit the defendant from the be-
havior shown by the evidence in this case, effective deterrence and fair advance notice necessi-
tate that the choice of language must clearly describe the prohibited conduct. The probation
condition in this case lacked sufficient clarity to provide the defendant with fair notice that the
conduct at issue would constitute a violation of probation.
We likewise note that the defendant's failure to report his occasional momentary pres-
ences with his sister's children as "incidental contact" to his probation officer does not constitute
a probation violation because of the vagueness of the word "contact" as applied to the defen-
dant's challenged behavior.3
We therefore conclude that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the defendant's
conduct constituted a violation of the asserted condition of probation. The judgment of the trial
court revoking the defendant's probation, ordering the remaining sentence to be served, and
2
For example, definition entries include "union or junction of surfaces;" "association, relationship;" "con-
nection, communication;"an establishing of communication with someone or observing or receiving of a
significant signal from a person or object;" and "to get into communication with." WEBSTER'S NINTH
NEW COLLEGE DICTIONARY 282 (1987).
3
The probation condition also included a requirement that the defendant "never be alone with . . . any
person under the age of 18." Appellant's App'x at 28. The State makes no argument that the evidence
was sufficient to establish a violation of this provision.
5
imposing further sanctions is reversed. This cause is remanded to the trial court to reinstate the
defendant's probation and for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Boehm and Rucker, JJ., concur. Shepard, C.J., concurs in result. Sullivan, J., dissents
with separate opinion.
6
Sullivan, Justice, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The trial court revoked Hunter’s probation for violating a proba-
tion condition that (1) prohibited him from having “contact with any person under the age of 18”
and (2) required him to “report any incidental contact with persons under age 18 to [his] proba-
tion officer within 24 hours of the contact.”
The Court holds that there was insufficient evidence of violating the prohibition on con-
tact because Hunter “understood the word ‘contact’ . . . to mean ‘interaction’ and the State failed
to prove that there was any interaction.” Slip. op. at 3. It further holds that there was insufficient
evidence of violating the requirement to report because of the “vagueness of the word ‘contact’
as applied to [Hunter’s] behavior.” Id. at 5.
But the conditions of probation defined the word “contact”: “Contact includes face-to-
face, telephonic, written, electronic, or any indirect contact via third parties.” “Contact,” as de-
fined in the written terms of Hunter’s probation conditions, does not require “interaction.” And
there is nothing vague about the term “face-to-face.”
There is no dispute but that Hunter was present on multiple occasions in the mobile home
when the children came home from school. This was sufficient evidence for the trial court to
conclude that Hunter had face-to-face contact with children under the age of 18. He did not re-
port the contact to his probation officer within 24 hours of the contact. This was sufficient to
support the revocation of his probation.