Lewis v. State

In a trial to the court Wilma Diane Lewis was convicted of theft. Pursuant to the provision for sentencing recidivists she was sentenced to the Indiana Women’s Prison for an indeterminate term of one to ten years. 1

We sustain the conviction but find that sentence was erroneously imposed.

The evidence favorable to the state disclosed that an employee of L. S. Ayres saw two women take two pantsuits into a dressing room in the store. She then observed one of the women, who was wearing a white coat, wrap up a blue pantsuit “as though she was going to put it in her purse.” At this time the employee…