The Indiana Supreme Court overturned the conviction of David Camm in the deaths of his wife and two children and ordered a third trial.
Camm, 45, was convicted in 2002 and again in 2006 of murdering his wife Kimberly, 35, and their children, Bradley, 7, and Jill, 5, at their Georgetown home in 2000.
Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson will now have to decide whether to try Camm — at one time an Indiana State Police trooper — again.
The Supreme Court ruled 4-1 that the prosecution should not have been allowed to claim at the second trial that Camm molested his daughter without presenting evidence to support that claim.
“The erroneous admission of speculative evidence and argument that the defendant molested his daughter, combined with the State’s use of this evidence as the foundation of its case, requires that the convictions be reversed,” Justice Brent Dickson wrote in the majority opinion.
The Supreme Court also ruled that the trial court erred in allowing the jury to hear testimony from a friend of Camm’s wife about when he was expected to be home. Cindy Mattingly testified that Kimberly told her she was expecting her husband to arrive home between 7 and 7:30 p.m. The murders occurred at abound 7:30 p.m.
The Supreme Court said Mattingly’s statements were hearsay and did not go toward establishing state of mind, so they should not have been allowed.
Witnesses testified that Camm was playing basketball at a nearby gymnasium from about 7 to 9:22 p.m., but the prosecution has argued that he snuck home, murdered his family and then returned to the gym.
The prosecution had offered as a motive for murder that Camm had molested his daughter, and she had or was going to tell her mother what happened.
Experts testified that the daughter had injuries consistent with sexual abuse, but did not provide evidence to show that Camm was the one who molested her, the Supreme Court found.
“Missing from this record is any competent evidence of the premise that the defendant molested the child, a hole in the proof the State admits,” the justices wrote.
Camm was first convicted by a Floyd County jury in 2002. The Court of Appeals reversed the decision finding that the prosecution’s evidence of his poor character, such as extramarital conduct, prejudiced the jury.
After further investigation, DNA evidence linked Charles Boney to the murder. A sweatshirt with Boney’s DNA was found under the son’s body, and his palm print was found at the scene.
Boney claimed he provided Camm a gun and was present at the murder.
Boney was convicted in 2006 of three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 225 years in prison.
A second trial for Camm was held in Warrick County in 2006. The defense argued that Boney was solely responsible for the murders, but the jury convicted Camm of three counts of murder and sentenced him to life without parole.
The Supreme Court argued that the judge in the second trial should have been more careful in allowing mention of the alleged molestation.
After the first trial, the Court of Appeals wrote that the trial court should “carefully consider whether the highly inflammatory nature of this evidence substantially outweighs the probative value of any evidence” that Camm molested his daughter.
Chief Justice Randall Shepard wrote in a dissenting opinion that there is “no entitlement to a perfect trial.”
Shepard wrote that he believes the reversal is “unwarranted” because of the rest of the evidence. He noted that Camm allegedly confessed guilt to three different inmates.
He also notes suspicious behavior by Camm — calling a distant police agency and turning down three suggestions that medical help be sent before administering CPR; calling the morning after the murder to request about his wife’s employment benefits; and requesting a crime-scene cleaning business clean out the vehicle with evidence of the murders that same day.
Henderson scheduled a 3:30 p.m. press conference today to discuss the matter.
Check back to the Web site and in Saturday's editions for more coverage.
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