Former trooper found not guilty of murder

LEBANON, IND. — After 13 years behind bars, David Camm walked out of court a free man Thursday when a jury acquitted him of the slayings of his wife and two young children.

The verdict, the stunning ending to one of the most notorious murder cases in Indiana history, was immediately hailed by some as vindication for a wrongly accused man — and condemned by others as a shocking failure to bring a monster to justice.

“We have been confident that David was innocent and soon would be vindicated, and this needs to be seen as a vindication for David,” defense attorney Richard Kammen said outside the courthouse Thursday.

Camm, a 49-year-old former Indiana state trooper who has always maintained his innocence, had been convicted twice before of ambushing and gunning down his wife Kim, 35, their 7-year-old son Brad and 5-year-old daughter Jill as they came home one night in 2000 from swim practice to their southern Indiana home in Georgetown. Both decisions were later overturned due to prosecution error.

The torturous road to Thursday’s decision forced Camm’s family, as well as the family of his slain wife, to relive the murders three times in three different courtrooms. Frank and Janice Renn, Kim Camm’s parents, have remained steadfast in their belief that David Camm slaughtered their daughter and only grandchildren. Camm’s family has insisted that David was an innocent man who had lost both his family and his freedom.

Floyd County, meanwhile, has waited more than a decade for a final resolution to the case. The repeated prosecutions of Camm have cost the local government more than $4 million, creating budget shortfalls that have raised fears of county employee layoffs.
When the verdicts were read aloud in court, Camm bowed his head and wept while his family embraced in the gallery.

“There are still going to be people who think he did it, and that’s OK, you can’t control that, but he has now been vindicated in a lot of people’s eyes,” Camm’s uncle, Sam Lockhart, said after the verdict was read.

After multiple death threats against the accused, security was heightened, and the courthouse was cleared of all bystanders. For his own protection, Camm was escorted from the building by a circle of guards armed with assault rifles and rushed into a waiting sheriff’s department SUV. The vehicle’s destination was not disclosed, but the officers were delivering Camm back to his family to begin his new life.

***

The case began on the night of September 28, 2000, when Kim Camm and the two children were shot moments after they pulled into the family’s garage. Camm told police that he had been playing basketball at a nearby gym and came home to find his wife’s body sprawled on the garage floor. The children’s bodies were in the backseat of the Ford Bronco. Jill was still strapped in by her seatbelt. Brad had been shot as he tried to escape by climbing over the back seat.

Camm told police that he pulled Brad out of the SUV to try to resuscitate the boy. When that failed, he said, he called his former state police post for help.

Eleven men who had been playing basketball with Camm that night corroborated his alibi, insisting that he had never left the court until after the murders. Even so, prosecutors arrested Camm four days later. Charged with three counts of first-degree murder, he was not allowed to attend his family’s funeral.

In the years afterward, the state based much of its case on bloodstains found on a T-shirt Camm was wearing that night. The prosecutors called it “area 30,” the section of the shirt marked with eight drops of what proved to be Jill’s blood. The state’s experts testified that the pattern of the stains indicated high velocity impact spatter, caused by blowback from a close-range gun shot. Defense attorneys argued that the pattern was “blood transfer,” consistent with Camm’s story that his body had brushed against Jill’s bloody hair while pulling Brad from the Bronco to perform CPR.

The verdict in the first trial was overturned after the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the prosecutors had improperly called nearly a dozen women to testify that Camm had repeatedly been unfaithful to his wife. Damning as it may have been to Camm’s reputation as a husband, the high court pointed out that the state had failed to establish that the infidelities were connected to the murders.

The state continued to press charges against Camm after a “fresh eyes” investigation uncovered two pieces of evidence — an unidentified handprint and an Indiana Department of Corrections sweatshirt — that had never been tested for DNA. Both were quickly matched to Charles Boney, an 11-time convicted felon who had been dubbed the “shoe bandit” for assaulting women in Bloomington and stealing their shoes while he was a student at IU in the late 1980s.

Boney was arrested and charged with the murders in 2005. The prosecutors said that Camm had conspired with the felon, asking him to supply the gun. Boney, who insisted he had not shot the family, was convicted and sentenced to 225 years in prison. Camm was found guilty, too, but then the Indiana Supreme Court stepped in again and overturned the second verdict due to the prosecution telling the jury that Camm had molested his daughter and murdered his family so no one would discover the abuse. Though the autopsy revealed that Jill had injuries consistent with molestation, the court noted there was no evidence to support the claim that Camm was the one who had molested her.

As the years passed, the mystery of the case haunted everyone involved. Due to extensive publicity, the third trial was moved to Lebanon, a small town in Boone County, two hours north of where the murders took place. Eager to avoid another reversal, Special Judge Jon Dartt took extreme caution as he ruled on what evidence he would allow the jury to hear. The judge prohibited the lawyers from bringing up Camm’s affairs, the molestation allegations or Boney’s criminal fascination with women’s feet. The defense protested the exclusion of the foot fetish testimony, noting that Kim Camm’s shoes had been removed at the murder scene and neatly placed on the roof of the Bronco.

As the third trial began this August, the most crucial addition to the prosecution’s case was their decision to include Boney in their theory of the how the homicide had unfolded. The prosecution contended that Boney was a patsy, someone whose violent criminal record made it easy for Camm to frame. But the defense countered with testimony from a Dutch DNA analyst, Richard Eikelenboom, who used a relatively new area of forensics — called “touch DNA” — to place Boney at the scene and to show that his DNA had been found on Jill’s shirt and Kim’s underwear.

Through the weeks of testimony, the Renns — Kim’s family — listened quietly from their seats directly behind the prosecution’s table.

“I don’t want to believe he did it,” said Janice Renn, Kim’s mother, after a long day of testimony. “But I do.”

Camm maintained his composure, too. When photos of his wife’s and children’s bodies were shown to the jury, his eyes filled with tears. But most of the time, his face showed little emotion. All of that changed when the prosecution called Boney to testify. Face to face with the man convicted in the murders of his family, Camm locked eyes with Boney. In a stare-down that lasted several minutes, neither man blinked.

Boney told the jury that he had met Camm at a pick-up basketball game a couple months before the murders. The two talked briefly and a few months later had a chance meeting at a convenience store in downtown New Albany. There, Boney testified that Camm “probed” him for information about his criminal history and asked if Boney could get Camm an untraceable gun. Boney said he made the first sale, but Camm wanted another. The two arranged to meet at Camm’s rural Georgetown home so Boney could deliver the gun.

Boney testified that as he handed the gun — wrapped in his DOC sweatshirt — to Camm in the family’s driveway, the Bronco pulled into the garage. Camm, Boney said, entered the garage and argued with his wife. Boney said he heard a popping sound, then heard a little boy yell “Daddy!,” then a second pop, then a third.

***

During closing arguments Tuesday, the prosecution and defense offered competing narratives to explain the murders.

Prosecutor Todd Meyer told the jury that Camm had left the church gym during the second game of the night, quickly drove home when he knew Kim would be arriving with the children, then shot them before returning to play in the third basketball game.
Defense attorney Stacy Uliana gave an impassioned explanation as to why the jury should believe it impossible for Camm to have slain his wife and children. Uliana argued that if Camm had wanted to kill his family, it would have made no sense to involve an 11-time convicted felon. The attorney pointed out that even if her client had plotted out the attack, he could not have known how many men would show up at the basketball gym and provide him an alibi.

The jurors began their deliberations late Tuesday afternoon, deliberated all day Wednesday, then announced that they’d reached a verdict late Thursday morning. Once the decision was read aloud to the court, a handful of family members were allowed to see Camm directly afterward. Among them were his siblings Donnie Camm and Julie Blankenbaker, his uncle, Sam Lockhart, and father Don Camm.

Nick Stein, a representative for Frank and Janice Renn, exited the courtroom first and spoke on behalf of the family.

“They’d like to convey that what they lost, they lost 13 years ago,” Stein said.
He said the Renns wanted to thank friends, family and the prosecution for their continued support.

“And they want to thank the man upstairs, as Janice always says,” Stein added.
Before the verdict came down, Janice Renn said no matter what the jury decided, she had already made her peace with God.

Camm’s father told reporters he was thankful his son could live a free man again, and when asked what he was going to do next, he said he wanted a cup of coffee as he stood beside family in the brisk wind.

Once his son was driven away from the courthouse under guard, he and other members of the Camm family retreated to a restaurant across the street. Someone called for a prayer. The gathering of nearly 20 people reached out and grabbed hands and cried together.

“Amen and pass the potatoes,” someone said.

Follow reporter Katie Mettler @kemettler.