A Level 6 felony in Indiana is the state’s lowest-ranked felony, punishable by six months to two and a half years of incarceration and a fine of up to $10,000.1Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-7 – Class D Felony; Level 6 Felony; Judgment of Conviction Entered as a Misdemeanor It replaced what used to be called a Class D felony when Indiana reorganized its felony system in 2014. The sentence itself is only part of the picture: a Level 6 conviction can cost you your firearm rights, your professional license, and, if you are not a U.S. citizen, your ability to stay in the country.
What Counts as a Level 6 Felony
Level 6 is one of the most frequently charged felony categories in Indiana because it covers a wide span of conduct. Theft of property worth at least $750 but less than $50,000 falls here.2Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-43-4-2 – Theft So does first-time possession of a small amount of certain controlled substances, including methamphetamine.
Operating a vehicle while intoxicated is normally a misdemeanor, but it becomes a Level 6 felony when the driver has a prior OWI conviction within the previous seven years.3Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 9-30-5-3 – Penalties; Prior Offenses; Passenger Less Than 18 Years of Age Intimidation, which generally involves communicating a threat to another person, is often charged at this level. Auto theft, certain fraud offenses, and resisting law enforcement where someone is injured in the process also fit.
Prison Time, Fines, and Credit
The sentencing range runs from six months to two and a half years, with an advisory sentence of one year.1Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-7 – Class D Felony; Level 6 Felony; Judgment of Conviction Entered as a Misdemeanor The advisory sentence is the starting point. The judge then adjusts upward based on aggravating factors like a long criminal history, or downward for mitigating factors like cooperation with law enforcement or no prior record. A fine of up to $10,000 can be added on top.
Good-Time Credit
People serving a Level 6 sentence are placed in Credit Time Class A, earning one day of credit for every day served.4Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-6-3.1 – Credit Time Someone without disciplinary issues can expect to serve roughly half of the imposed sentence. Credit already earned can be taken away for misconduct behind bars.
Jail or State Prison
Where the sentence is served depends on when the offense happened. For crimes committed before July 1, 2022, the default location was county jail, and commitment to the Indiana Department of Correction was limited to narrow situations such as two prior unrelated felonies, a crime committed inside a correctional facility, or classification as a violent offender. For offenses committed after June 30, 2022, courts have the authority to commit a Level 6 offender to the Department of Correction without those earlier restrictions.5Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-3-3 – Commitment to Department of Correction Whether that actually happens depends on the facts, but state prison is now on the table in cases where it wasn’t before.
Getting It Treated as a Misdemeanor
Indiana law gives judges two ways to treat a Level 6 felony as a Class A misdemeanor instead. A Class A misdemeanor caps jail time at one year and carries far less weight on a background check. For most people charged at this level, pursuing one of these paths is the single most consequential thing their defense can accomplish.
At Sentencing
A judge can enter the conviction as a Class A misdemeanor at the time of sentencing. The statute leaves the decision to the judge’s discretion but requires the reasons to be placed on the record.1Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-7 – Class D Felony; Level 6 Felony; Judgment of Conviction Entered as a Misdemeanor Three situations take this option off the table entirely: the person already had an unrelated felony entered as a Class A misdemeanor within the past three years, the current offense is felony-level domestic battery, or the offense involves possession of child sex abuse material. In any of those cases, the conviction must be entered as a Level 6 felony.
After the Sentence Is Served
If the judge did not grant misdemeanor treatment at sentencing, the person can later petition the court to convert the felony to a Class A misdemeanor. The court must find that the petitioner is not a sex or violent offender, was not convicted of an offense that caused bodily injury, was not convicted of perjury or official misconduct, and was not convicted of felony domestic battery.1Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-7 – Class D Felony; Level 6 Felony; Judgment of Conviction Entered as a Misdemeanor The petition must be verified, and the prosecutor gets notice and an opportunity to be heard. The exclusion list here is stricter than at sentencing. Anyone with a bodily-injury conviction, for example, cannot get the conversion later no matter how clean their record has been since.
Life After the Sentence
The formal punishment is often the smaller problem. The collateral consequences of a Level 6 felony reach into firearms, employment, immigration status, and travel, and some of them last indefinitely.
Firearms
Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from possessing a firearm or ammunition.6Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Identify Prohibited Persons A Level 6 felony hits that threshold because its maximum sentence is two and a half years. Reducing the conviction to a Class A misdemeanor, or getting it expunged, can restore firearm rights, but the interplay between state and federal law on this point is technical and worth running past a lawyer.
Voting and Jury Service
Indiana suspends voting rights while a person is incarcerated for a felony and restores them on release. Someone on probation or parole who is out of custody can register and vote. Jury service tracks voting: a person is disqualified from Indiana juries if their voting rights have been revoked for a felony and not yet restored.7Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 33-28-5-18 – Disqualification or Excuse From Jury Service
Jobs and Professional Licenses
Background checks are routine, and a felony can rule applicants out of certain positions. Indiana licensing boards have specific authority to suspend, deny, or revoke professional licenses for drug-related felonies, sex crimes, and any felony that “reflects adversely on the individual’s fitness to hold a professional license.”8Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 25-1-1.1-2 – Suspension, Denial, or Revocation of a License That last clause is deliberately broad. If your career is in nursing, teaching, real estate, or law, expect the licensing board to look hard at a Level 6 conviction, even after you’ve completed the sentence.
Commercial Driver’s License
Federal regulations require a minimum one-year CDL disqualification for a first major offense, and felonies involving the use of a motor vehicle qualify. If the felony involved a vehicle in any way, the conviction gets reported to the national CDL tracking system and the disqualification is mandatory.
Immigration
For non-citizens, a Level 6 conviction can be devastating. Federal immigration law treats certain offenses as “aggravated felonies” when they carry a sentence of one year or more, even if the sentence was fully suspended and no time was actually served. Theft, crimes of violence, fraud, and forgery all fall into this category. Because the advisory sentence for a Level 6 felony is exactly one year, many Level 6 convictions sit right on the aggravated felony threshold. An aggravated felony makes a non-citizen deportable and bars most forms of immigration relief, no matter how long the person has lived in the United States. For a non-citizen defendant, pushing the conviction down to a Class A misdemeanor is often the difference between staying and being removed.
Housing and Travel
Private landlords and property management companies routinely screen for felonies, and a Level 6 can lead to denied applications. International travel is also affected. Canada, for instance, may deny entry to anyone convicted of an offense that would be an indictable offense under Canadian law. Someone can apply for “deemed rehabilitation” once ten years have passed since completing the entire sentence, including probation and fines, but short of that even a brief trip across the border can be refused. A U.S. passport is generally available to people with felony convictions, with narrow exceptions like outstanding warrants, unresolved court-ordered financial obligations, and specific serious offenses such as drug trafficking.
Expunging a Level 6 Felony
Indiana lets people petition to expunge a Level 6 conviction, and the waiting period depends on whether the conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor first.
If the Level 6 was converted to a Class A misdemeanor, the waiting period is five years from the date of conviction. The petitioner must have no pending charges, must have paid all fines, fees, and restitution, and must not have been convicted of any new crime during the five years.9Indiana Courts. Detailed Information on Criminal Case Expungement
If the conviction stays a Level 6 felony and did not involve bodily injury, the waiting period is eight years from the date of conviction, with the same conditions on pending charges, finances, and clean record.10Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-3 – Expunging Minor Class D and Level 6 Felony Convictions In either track, the prosecutor can agree in writing to a shorter wait, though that is uncommon.
Some people cannot petition at all: registered sex or violent offenders, people whose offense resulted in bodily injury, and elected or judicial officers convicted while serving or running for office.10Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-3 – Expunging Minor Class D and Level 6 Felony Convictions Indiana allows only one expungement petition in a lifetime, so timing and strategy matter.