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Date: 10-16-2024
Case Style:
State of Indiana v. Shianne Brooks-Brown
Case Number: 08C01-2106-MR-1
Judge: Benjamin A Diener
Court: Circuit Court, Carroll County, Indiana
Plaintiff's Attorney: Carroll County Indiana County Prosecutor's Office
Defendant's Attorney:
Description:
Delphi, Indiana accomplice to robbery and murder criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant.
Shianne Brooks-Brown alleges that she is a victim of human sexual trafficking. When one of her alleged traffickers set her up with a John[1] near Flora, Indiana, the trafficker robbed and murdered the John. The State does not believe that Brooks-Brown is the victim of human sexual trafficking and has charged her as an accomplice to that robbery and murder. She has been incarcerated on those charges since June 2021.
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Brooks-Brown filed a witness list that made it clear that she intended to argue that she did not have the mens rea required to commit the alleged offenses due to the circumstances and associated trauma of being the alleged victim of human sexual trafficking. The State responded with a motion in limine to exclude any such evidence on the ground that a defendant's challenge to her mens rea may only be made under Indiana's insanity defense. The trial court denied the State's request to exclude the evidence, but the court certified its order for interlocutory appeal, which we accepted.
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The insanity defense under Indiana Code section 35-41-3-6, which provides as follows:
(a) A person is not responsible for having engaged in prohibited conduct if, as a result of mental disease or defect, he was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct at the time of the offense.
(b) As used in this section, "mental disease or defect" means a severely abnormal mental condition that grossly and demonstrably impairs a person's perception, but the term does not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated unlawful or antisocial conduct.
State v. Brooks-Brown, 24A-CR-627 (Ind. App. Oct 16, 2024)
Outcome: Affirmed
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: