Indiana Senate panel advances victim impact bill

A proposal to ensure crime victims are not forced to deliver impact statements to an empty courtroom chair advanced unanimously from an Indiana Senate committee Tuesday following emotional testimony from families denied the chance to confront the person convicted of killing their loved ones.

Senate Bill 9, authored by Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, would require a defendant to be present in the courtroom while a victim delivers a statement about the crime and the sentence, unless the defendant poses a safety risk or causes a significant disruption.

The bill cleared the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee in a bipartisan 9-0 vote and now heads to the full Senate.

The legislation was referred to by some supporters as “Aubree’s Law” after 2-year-old Aubree Zent; her siblings, 3-year-old Ashton and 5-year-old Carter; and their 26-year-old mother Sarah, who were killed in Fort Wayne in June 2021. All four died of stab wounds.

Family members told lawmakers that the defendant in the case, 22-year-old Cohen Hancz-Barron, chose not to attend sentencing — forcing them to read their statements in court without him present.

Hancz-Barron was found guilty of the murders and convicted to four life sentences without the possibility of parole.

“During the sentencing phase of the trial, we gave our victim impact statements to an empty chair, as he has the right to refuse to be shown, to come to that part of the trial,” said Jen More, Aubree’s grandmother. “This is unacceptable.”

“This gives no closure to any of the grieving processes that the victims and the victims’ families are going through,” she continued. “As a matter of fact, for me personally, I’m stuck. I’m stuck because I’ve been silenced. … I can’t go any further in my grieving process.”

Making sure victims, families are heard

Under current Indiana law, victims have the right to make statements at sentencing, but courts can proceed even if a defendant is not present.

Senate Bill 9 would tighten that standard by requiring the defendant’s presence during victim impact statements, with only limited exceptions.

As amended in committee, the legislation specifies that a court can excuse a defendant from the courtroom only if they present a safety risk or cause “a significant disruption,” or if the defendant was tried in absentia or failed to appear for trial. The amended draft also clarifies that sentencing can still proceed in those limited circumstances.

The changes would apply to felony and misdemeanor sentencing hearings beginning July 1.

Brown said multiple families who traveled to testify at Tuesday’s hearing had been waiting “for years” to be heard.

“They wanted the opportunity, after the horrific and brutal murders of these four loved ones, to be able to give their victim impact statement in court — to make sure the defendant understood the pain that he brought to their family,” she said. “And the one day in court that they were there, the defendant was not there. This bill will give them closure.”

Brown additionally emphasized the importance of preventing judges from using absence as a routine workaround.

“In this case, the judge did not require (the defendant) to be there,” she added, “and we just want to make sure that the judge doesn’t use this as a loophole.”

‘This is unacceptable’

Family members repeatedly told lawmakers that victim impact statements are a crucial part of accountability — and the grieving process — and that delivering them without the defendant present compounded their trauma.

Justin More, Aubree’s father, described how being denied an opportunity to speak directly to the defendant stalled his healing.

He said his victim impact statement included forgiveness for the convicted murderer.

“I was trying to move forward, but I never got to that point,” the father told the Senate panel. “(Grieving) is just a very long process, being that I couldn’t read the last words to the person who took my daughter from this world. He wasn’t even man enough to sit up and sit there and listen to what we had to say.”

Travis More, Aubree’s grandfather, told lawmakers the bill would ensure future victim statements do not fall on silent ears.

“Senate Bill 9 will give future grieving victims a chance to face their convicted person and begin the grieving process,” he said. “Ask yourself, before you vote, am I making a difference for the future victims of Indiana?”

Kayley Richardson, Aubree’s aunt, said the family helped draft the legislation because they felt the system failed them.

“In no world is it ever okay that the convicted have more rights than any of their victims or their families,” Richardson said. “There needs to be substantial consequences for such a profound loss.”

Angela Zent, founder of the Sarah Zent Foundation and stepmother to Sarah, testified that victim impact statements are “not legal formalities.”

“They are the final human truth spoken for those who no longer speak for themselves,” she said. “When the defendant is allowed to walk away from that moment, not only is it disrespectful, but it’s also giving him more control and placing more silence on his victims and the families.”

Senators from both sides of the aisle spoke in support of the bill.

“One of the most difficult things to do when you have a homicide is to keep the focus on the victim,” said Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, a former prosecutor.

She noted that families frequently attend criminal trials and “have to listen to the victim being characterized in many fashions. “Quite often,” Glick said, “the family sits there and endures it.”

“The victim impact statements allow the families to come forward and express to the court, ‘You need to hear this judge. This was a person. These were individuals. These were part of our lives and part of our family who have been taken away,’” Glick continued. “It is very much a part of what should be heard — not for the public, maybe not even for the families themselves — but for the court to hear that this was a living, breathing individual who was lost to society and lost to everyone who ever cared about them.”

Democrat Sen. Rodney Pol, an attorney from Chesterton, further flagged that prosecutors are sometimes prevented from telling a victim’s full story because of discovery rules.

“The idea that you would sit through one of the worst possible tragedies that your family is ever going to go through and not have your voice heard at the end of it — by the person that you feel needs to hear it the most — I think that is one of the most important aspects of being a victim,” Pol said.

Other bills on the move

The Senate corrections committee advanced 11 other measures Tuesday, too.

Senate Bill 271, authored by Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, addresses theft of telecommunications and broadband equipment by tightening rules governing the sale of valuable metals.

Another proposal, Senate Bill 160, would add a sentencing aggravator for crimes committed while wearing a mask or other face covering to conceal identity.

Senate Bill 140, authored by Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, seeks to criminalize doxing, or the intentional online disclosure of personal information to harass or threaten someone, while Senate Bill 144, another by Koch, would strengthen tobacco and vaping regulations.

Committee chair Sen. Aaron Freeman’s Senate Bill 246 would protect children in court records by requiring the redaction of minors’ names in certain filings, and his Senate Bill 251 separately increases penalties for individuals with prior operating while intoxicated, OWI, convictions.

Multiple measures on the move also deal with bail, including Freeman’s Senate Bill 252, which revises certain bail procedures and conditions for pretrial release.