Deckard v. State

SELBY, Justice.

John Deckard was convicted of felony murder for the burglary and subsequent death of Mr. Barry Scroggins. Deckard was tried to a jury, found guilty, and sentenced to sixty years imprisonment. A description of the events surrounding his arrest and conviction follow.

The victim, Barry Scroggins, lived in a cabin in a rural area of Monroe County, Indiana. Near Scroggins’ cabin was an abandoned home at which youth from the area congregated. Defendant Deckard, then seventeen, and his friend Will Taylor, age twenty, frequented the abandoned home, often overnight. On July 27, 1991,…