Trotter v. State

The hobgoblin of inconsistency has caught up with me again. Perhaps I am a kindred spirit of the late Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, who, when criticized for some of his drastic changes of position, said "I am a man of principle, and one of my basic principles is flexibility." By a memorandum decision which I authored, this court reversed defendant-appellant Gordon Trotter's (Trotter) conviction for burglary, a class B felony,1 while affirming his conviction for theft, a class D felony.2 Trotter v. State (1985), Ind.App., 478 N.E.2d 1258.

Although my colleagues in the Second District,…