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Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited before any court except for the purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.

FILED
Dec 30 2009, 9:35 am
of the supreme court, court of appeals and tax court

CLERK

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: BRYAN M. TRUITT Bertig & Associates, LLC Valparaiso, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: GREGORY F. ZOELLER Attorney General of Indiana WADE JAMES HORNBACHER Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
MONICA HICKS, Appellant-Defendant, vs. STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee-Plaintiff. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 64A03-0902-CR-79

APPEAL FROM THE PORTER SUPERIOR COURT The Honorable Roger V. Bradford, Judge Cause No. 64D01-0801-MR-494

December 30, 2009

MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATION

CRONE, Judge

Monica Hicks challenges her eight-year sentence for class C felony assisting a criminal, claiming that it is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and her character. We affirm. In 2005, Hicks lived in a house with her boyfriend Jesus Sanchez, her ten-year-old son T.P., T.P.'s father Tim Pettis, and Pettis's girlfriend Ingrid Van Eck. All adult members of the household were heavy drug users at the time. When Pettis was arrested on drug charges in April 2005, Van Eck started selling household goods to raise money for his bond. On April 24, 2005, an argument ensued between Van Eck, Sanchez, and Hicks due to Van Eck's expressed desire to sell Pettis's 1956 Chevy, which he had purchased to restore for T.P. Around 2:00 a.m., while T.P. slept in an adjacent room and with Hicks present, Sanchez bludgeoned Van Eck in the head six or seven times with a hammer and/or socket wrench. As Van Eck lay bleeding and lifeless on the sofa, Hicks retrieved gloves and a garbage bag, which Sanchez placed over Van Eck's head and secured with a belt to contain the blood. Hicks and Sanchez dragged Van Eck's body from the sofa to the floor, wrapped her in a blanket and plastic, tied belts and cables around her feet, waist, and head, dragged her to the garage, and placed her inside a large suitcase, which they secured with ropes and cords. The two then went to bed and slept until 11:30 a.m. When Hicks and Sanchez awoke, they sent T.P. to a relative's house and began driving around Lake and Porter Counties in search of a place to dump Van Eck's body. Hicks suggested that they dump the body in the river by her cousin's Lake County home. That day, Hicks and Sanchez drove to the property to survey its prospects as a dumping site.

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When they returned the next morning, Hicks drove Van Eck's vehicle, with the body in the trunk, and Sanchez followed in his vehicle. They left the vehicle containing the body on an access road by the river and went home to clean up the crime scene. They cleaned the bloodstained carpet and dismantled and disposed of the sofa. At nightfall, Hicks and Sanchez donned black clothing and returned to the river. Together, they dragged the suitcase containing Van Eck's body down to the river. To keep the suitcase from floating, both Hicks and Sanchez retrieved concrete pieces to attach to it. The two placed the submerged suitcase under a fallen tree branch. They left and returned the next day to retrieve Van Eck's vehicle and park it at home. Shortly thereafter, they dumped the remaining bloody physical evidence in a dumpster outside Hicks's place of employment. During the days immediately following Van Eck's death, her mother repeatedly called the house in search of her. Hicks told Van Eck's parents that Van Eck had gone to California to pick up a car, but that she did not know when or with whom.1 On April 27, 2005, at the request of Van Eck's father, Hicks filed a missing person's report. When detectives questioned Hicks pursuant to the missing person's investigation, Hicks told them the same fabricated story that she had told the concerned parents. On May 7, 2005, a fisherman found Van Eck's body in the river. The body was so decomposed that experts had to resort to dental records to make a positive identification. The next day, Sanchez and Hicks disposed of the murder weapon by throwing it in a ditch south of Portage. During police interviews that ensued during the days and months that followed,

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Van Eck's parents were California residents.

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Hicks alleged that a man named Ricky Jacobs had murdered Van Eck. Finally, on August 9, 2007, Hicks admitted to police that Sanchez had committed the murder2 and that she had played a role in disposing of the body. On January 16, 2008, the State charged Hicks with murder, class A felony conspiracy to commit murder, and class C felony assisting a criminal. On December 1, 2008, a jury found her not guilty on the murder and conspiracy counts and guilty of class C felony assisting a criminal. On February 2, 2009, the trial court sentenced her to an eight-year executed term, specifically finding no mitigating factors and citing as aggravating factors Hicks's lengthy criminal history and failure to report the crime. This appeal ensued. Hicks now challenges the appropriateness of her eight-year sentence. On appeal, we "may revise a sentence authorized by statute if, after due consideration of the trial court's decision, [this] Court finds that the sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender." Ind. Appellate Rule 7(B). We do not look to see whether the defendant's sentence is appropriate or if another sentence might be more appropriate; rather the test is whether the sentence is "inappropriate." Fonner v. State, 876 N.E.2d 340, 344 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007). A defendant bears the burden of persuading this Court that her sentence meets the inappropriateness standard. Anglemyer v . State, 868 N.E.2d 482, 490 (Ind. 2007), clarified on reh'g, 875 N.E.2d 218; Childress v. State, 848 N.E.2d 1073, 1080 (Ind. 2006).

The State charged Sanchez with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and assisting a criminal. Sanchez pled guilty via plea agreement to class A felony conspiracy to commit murder. He maintained, however, that Hicks, not he, delivered the fatal blow. He is not the subject of this appeal.

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First, we address the nature of the offense. Hicks was convicted of class C felony assisting a criminal. See Ind. Code

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