Juniors and seniors at Griffith High School attended a live Indiana Court of Appeals hearing in the school auditorium on March 3 at 10 a.m. involving a man previously found guilty of murder.
Jeffrey Swisher, Griffith Mock Trial Team sponsor, organized the live proceedings for students as an additional learning opportunity for the mock trial team.
Griffith’s Mock Trial team provides an opportunity for students interested in law careers to participate in firsthand experiences within the field.
On January 1, 2020, in Vigo County, just before 7:30 am, Justin Gasaway discovered Bryan Owen laying on his porch and kicked him in the head and side repeatedly as well as made a 3-4″ stab wound about 2” from Owen’s heart on his back, causing him to bleed internally.
Not presented in the original case, Dr. Kore, a pathologist associated with the case, claimed in a report that Owen may have survived if he had received proper medical treatment.
The State of Indiana, however, posits that medical intervention has not qualified as an “intervening cause” in previous cases, and that the knife wound was so major that the exclusion of the statement did not unfairly impact the results of the first case.
A little after 10:20 AM, the lights dimmed, the head of the Indiana Court of Appeals (Anne Fuches) spoke and shared that she was delighted to give Griffith this opportunity to host the Indiana court of appeals, and GHS Senior Jesus Cadena (who filled the role of bailiff), called the court into session.
The oral argument began, and both sides had eight minutes in total to convince the judges of their point.
The hearing lasted about 46 minutes, after which the oral argument was over and all three judges in attendance took questions from students about anything that was not about the case at hand.
Students asked questions ranging from what the most interesting case each of the judges had seen, to whether or not they watched crime television shows (they do, but made clear that the shows are nothing like reality).
“I got to see the trial from a different point of view, and I think it was pretty interesting talking to the actual bailiff,” Cadena said. “I just think overall it was really interesting, and I’m glad I went.
(Since then the court has ruled Gasaway as guilty, with the only changes to his case being sentencing paperwork)
