HANCOCK COUNTY — Hayden J. Nix, the man convicted and sentenced to prison for more than 30 years for a series of sex crimes against underage girls, has lost an appeal of one of his convictions.
The Indiana Court of Appeals earlier this month rejected Nix’s claim that the evidence against him was insufficient and that his sentence was inappropriate, the appeal documents said.
A jury convicted Nix in July 2019 on two Level 5 felony counts of sexual misconduct stemming from an incident with an underage girl in October 2017. Court commissioner Cody Coombs sentenced Nix to a total of seven years.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
The case was one of four against Nix for similar crimes stemming from a series of attacks over a 32-day period in 2017. Each of the cases resulted in prison sentences, and Nix was sent to the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
Nix’s family has vowed to keep fighting the convictions. They plan to take the July 2019 conviction to the Indiana Supreme Court, said one of his attorneys, Denise L. Turner.
“It’s a long shot, but it’s worth doing because for one thing I disagree with the Court of Appeals, and he’s got to exhaust all his state remedies if he ever wants to file for some kind of relief,” Turner said.
At the time of each guilty verdict since the cases went to court starting in early 2019, Nix’s family vowed to pursue appeals. That included a public statement in court by Nix’s grandfather, Clyde Bush, who told the court in February during one of Nix’s sentencing hearings he’d defend Nix until the day he dies.
Deputy prosecutor Catherine Wilson, who worked on all the cases against Nix, said she was glad the appeals court reaffirmed the work she and the prosecutor’s office did to secure the convictions.
“I am pleased to receive the opinion by the Court of Appeals approving of the convictions and sentence in this case,” Wilson said in an email to the Daily Reporter. “I am not at all surprised, though, as the evidence the state presented at trial was credible. The jury looked at the evidence and decided their verdicts. The Court of Appeals has now reviewed it and approves.”
The appeals court’s summary said: “After due consideration, we conclude that Nix has not sustained his burden of establishing that his aggregate sentence of seven years is inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his character. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Nix’s convictions and sentence — affirmed.”
Turner, Nix’s attorney in his final case tried in the county, said the family plans to appeal each of the four convictions in cases the state brought against Nix, including the one she tried. However, a different lawyer will handle that appeal.
“I can’t do an appeal for the case that I tried because I can’t call myself ineffective,” Turner said, referring to a factor often cited in appeals. “But, there were a lot of things in that case I felt I was not effective on because of the amount of time I had to prepare.”
Turner plans to file the documents in the recent appeal case with the Indiana Supreme Court by July 20 and is hopeful they will hear something within 60 days.
