IN: Def mom’s arrest outside of home permitted officers to enter to check on unattended young children

Defendant was stopped at night on the way to the store for milk for her kids for morning, and she was arrested and searched because she smelled of marijuana. She told the officers about the children at home alone. The officers could enter the house on exigent circumstances for the safety of the children, and a plain view of marijuana was proper. Entering the basement was improperly called a protective sweep by the trial court, but it was still exigency based because all the children hadn’t been found by then. The court surveys the law from the parties’ submissions on both sides. Jones v. State, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 153 (May 17, 2016).