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ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT Michael R. Fisher Indianapolis, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Steve Carter Attorney General of Indiana Maureen Ann Bartolo Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

In the

Indiana Supreme Court
________________________________ No. 49S02-0506-CR-285

STEVEN V. WRIGHT, Appellant (Defendant below), v. STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee (Plaintiff below). ________________________________ Appeal from the Marion Superior Court, 49G01-0211-FB-276086 The Honorable Tanya Walton Pratt, Judge __________________________________ On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-0405-CR-405 __________________________________

June 22, 2005

Shepard, Chief Justice.

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Even in the substantial flow of cases reflecting child abuse, Steven V. Wright's appeal stands out. Wright was the stay-at-home caregiver for four very young children, whom he battered and neglected over a substantial period of time. In sentencing Wright on six counts, the trial court ordered enhanced sentences based on aggravating circumstances we now know must be admitted or proven to a jury based on Blakely v. Washington. We remand for a new sentencing hearing.

When the Marion County Sheriff's Department went to Wright's home on September 2, 2001, to investigate the concern of an alarmed relative who had recently seen the children, it was not the first indication that Wright was abusing and neglecting the children in his care. In April 1999, Ma. W., then five months old, arrived at the hospital with a fever, but medical examination revealed she also had seven right rib fractures and two left rib fractures and a healing fracture in her right femur. (Tr. at 121.) Wright told investigating officers that the leg was broken when an uncle had lost his grip while holding the child and grabbed her to prevent her from falling. (Ex. at 16.) At that time, Wright had no explanation for the broken ribs, except to suggest that he had, perhaps, held Ma. W. too tightly. (Ex. at 24.) At trial, however, Wright suggested the possibility that both the ribs and femur were broken when the uncle grabbed his daughter to prevent her from falling. (Tr. at 581-82.)

The scene observed by the sheriff's deputies thirty months later was a chilling one. Two twins lying on a couch presented such a shocking appearance that the officers immediately called an ambulance. (Tr. at 54.) The children's heads were enlarged and swollen; their bodies were malnourished and thin; their eyes were popping out of their heads. (Tr. 38, 70). Medical examination showed that each child had suffered at least seventeen fractures on various parts of their bodies. (Tr. 129-40; 141-50.) At seven months of age, they weighed barely ten pounds apiece. (Tr. 379, 389.) The record is replete with details of brain injury and other damage to the twins. (See, e.g. Tr. 660.) Upstairs, the deputies found Ma. W. and her sister, ages three and two, in somewhat less distressful condition.

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The State filed two counts of neglect of a dependent, Ind. Code Ann.

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