Tata v. State

GIVAN, Chief Justice.

Appellant was found guilty by a jury of Attempted Murder, a Class A felony. The court imposed a fifty (50) year sentence.

The facts are: In August of 1982, Rhonda Grider Chapman lived alone in an apartment in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. At approximately 3:30 a.m., on August 27, she heard the sound of a key unlocking her apart ment door. She got out of bed and turned on the hall light. There she found appellant, who she recognized as the maintenance man for the apartment complex. As Chapman started to speak, appellant lunged at her and began striking her on the head with a pipe…