Howard v. State

I firmly dissent to the majority’s attempt to distinguish Beno v. State (1991), Ind., 581 N.E.2d 922. The crux of the Beno holding to reject the consecutive sentencing is quoted by the the majority. See Majority at 575-576. Here, the police sting operation has resulted in exactly what Beno predicted; a number of additional buys were made and used to hook Howard for additional crimes with each subsequent sale. Although the trial court cited sufficient aggravating factors to impose the maximum sentences on each of Howard’s Class D felonies, as in Beno, the order to serve them consecutively is…