The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected a Chicago woman’s appeal Tuesday who said her conviction for stabbing her sister’s boyfriend in the heart was too harsh.
Tamika Graves, then 43, was convicted in May after pleading guilty to Battery Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury, a Level 5 felony. She was sentenced to four years in prison and two on probation.
In a 3-0 decision, Indiana Appeals Judge Mark Bailey wrote that the law gave wide latitude to judges. He noted Graves had a criminal history and violated probation by stabbing the man.
“Graves argued with her host over music, waited for him to return to his apartment, and then inflicted a near-fatal wound by stabbing him in the chest,” Bailey wrote. “Rather than seek help, Graves walked to the sink, washed the knife, and left the apartment. Smith was hospitalized for approximately one month. He was intubated for ten days and required multiple surgeries to insert a plate into his chest and rods alongside his rib cage. He requires medication for the remainder of his life to promote his heart function.”
“Nothing that is known to us about the nature of the offense militates toward a lesser sentence,” he wrote.
Child molesting conviction upheld
Aaron Seidel, then 39, of Hobart was sentenced to 12 years in prison and another four years probation in March for inappropriately touching a girl starting when she was 10.
He was sentenced on two counts of Level 4 child molesting.
In his appeal, he argued Judge Gina Jones shouldn’t have used the girl’s age as an aggravator to give him a higher sentence. He argued her age was already taken into account in the charges.
In a 3-0 decision, Indiana Appeals Court Judge Mark Bailey also rejected this.
Even if they granted his appeal, Seidel had two past felony convictions, violated supervised release and was an adult in the child’s life. Jones could have used those factors, as well, for an aggravated sentence, Bailey wrote.
