By LISA HURT KOZAROVICH and JENNIFER RIGG
BOONVILLE — More than five years of intense emotion erupted late Friday in the Warrick County courtroom where former Indiana State Police Trooper David Camm was found guilty — for a second time — of murdering his wife and young children.
“Oh God, get me out of here, get me out of this room,” Julia Hogue, Camm’s sister, cried out while shaking and holding her 74-year-old father tight. “Keep your cool baby,” Don Camm told her, himself in tears.
“No, get them out of here ... I don’t want them over there celebrating. They can celebrate somewhere else,” Hogue said, as the family of murder victim Kim Renn Camm embraced each other and congratulated prosecutors.
On the other other side of the courtroom, Kim’s sister, Debbie Karem, cried tears of joy, while her husband Greg said, “I saw a smile on the faces (of Kim’s parents Frank and Janice Renn) for the first time tonight. It was not a smile of victory, it was a smile of closure.”
The jury decided David Camm killed Kim Camm, 36, and their two children, 7-year-old Brad and 5-year-old Jill, in the garage of their Georgetown home on Sept. 28, 2000.
The verdict — which means Camm could be sentenced to life without parole — was reached about 9 p.m. EST following four days of deliberations. The jury will return at 10 a.m. Monday to consider the life without parole sentence.
Lead defense attorney Katharine “Kitty” Liell said she, like most defense attorneys, has been writing her appeal throughout the trial in case the verdict wasn’t in Camm’s favor.
She said she has four grounds for appeal — the exclusion of evidence of Charles Boney’s foot fetish and of his taped statement to police; the prosecution’s argument that molestation of Jill Camm was the motive; and the striking of women from the jury during the selection process, which Liell called improper.
Debbie Karem wasn’t ready to think about an appeal, saying, “I just want to hold on to this day.”
