Attempts to Commit Suicide
In general
• [M]any states acknowledge the general rule that evidence the accused attempted to commit suicide is relevant as a circumstance tending to show consciousness of guilt.
Stephenson v. State, 29 N.E.3d 111, 119 (Ind. 2015)(quotation marks, citations, and ellipses omitted)
• We decline to find that the mere existence of an attempted suicide, without more, is relevant evidence of a person's guilty conscience about committing a charged crime, especially a charged crime which the person expressly disavows when the suicide is attempted.
Stephenson v. State, 29 N.E.3d 111, 120 (Ind. 2015)
• Because we conclude that the attempted suicide evidence was relevant to the issue of motive for the ensuing robbery and murder, however, its tenuous use as evidence of consciousness of guilt does not undermine its admissibility.