Jones v. State, 966 N.E.2d 1256

Jones was charged with murder and tendered instructions for reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter as lesser offenses.
The trial court refused the lesser-included-offense instructions for lack of evidentiary support.
A jury convicted Jones of murder.
The Court of Appeals adopted Wright v. State’s test and upheld the trial court’s refusals.
The Indiana Supreme Court granted transfer and adopted the Court of Appeals’ reasoning.
The State argued no evidence supported reckless homicide and the information foreclosed involuntary manslaughter.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether reckless homicide instruction is supported by the evidence	Jones: instruction warranted by evidence	State: no serious evidentiary dispute; not supported	Reckless homicide instruction properly refused
Whether involuntary manslaughter instruction is foreclosed by the charging information	Jones: charging information allowed I.M. instruction as lesser offense	State: information omits battery, foreclosing I.M.	Involuntary manslaughter instruction foreclosed by charging information

Wright v. State, 658 N.E.2d 563 (Ind. 1995) (three-step test for lesser-included offense instructions)
Jones v. State, 948 N.E.2d 1197 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011) (reckless homicide as inherently included; evidentiary dispute standard)
Horan v. State, 682 N.E.2d 502 (Ind. 1997) (prolonged conduct and awareness standard for guilt)
Lyttle v. State, 709 N.E.2d 1 (Ind. 1999) (prolonged conduct reviewed for inclusion of offenses)