Bacher v. State

In this direct appeal, the defendant-appellant, John R. Bacher, challenges his sixty-year sentence for the murder1 of his wife, Janet Odie (Bacher).

After the jury found the defendant guilty of murder, the judge imposed a sentence of sixty years. On direct appeal, this Court affirmed the trial court’s conviction but remanded the case to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing because the trial court’s sentencing statement contained questionable aggravating circumstances and failed to discuss a proffered mitigating circumstance. Bacher v. *801State, 686 N.E.2d 791, 801-02 (Ind.1997). The trial…