Steven Judy was executed by the State of Indiana for the murders of a mother and her children. According to court documents Steven Judy would murder Terry Lee Chasteen and her three children, Misty Ann, Steve and Mark, on April 28, 1979. Steven Judy would confess to his foster mother while he was on Indiana death row that he was responsible for a number of other murders of women across the USA. Steven Judy would be executed by electric chair on March 9, 1981.
Steven Judy More News
Terry Lee Chasteen started her work day April 28, 1979, with her normal routine of taking her three young children to their baby sitter’s house. Along the way, Chasteen had car trouble. The single mom pulled to the side of the road and readily accepted help from a man who she thought was simply being a Good Samaritan.
Steven Judy was anything but a Good Samaritan.
After fixing her tire but disabling her car, Judy offered Chasteen and her children a ride.
Within an hour, Terry and her children were dead. Judy savagely raped and strangled Chasteen and threw her three children into White Lick Creek near Mooresville. The children — Misty Ann, 5; Steve, 4; and Mark, 2 — drowned.
Judy was tried in Martinsville in January 1980 and initially maintained his innocence. He later confessed and was sentenced to the electric chair.
Steven T. Judy was executed March 9, 1981. He ordered prime rib and lobster for his last meal. His final words before execution were, “I don’t hold no grudges. This is my doing. Sorry it happened.”
State death penalty laws were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. Many states, including Indiana, passed new laws that met the criteria outlined by the high court. Indiana’s death penalty was reinstated in 1977, and Judy was the first to go to the electric chair after that.
Indiana Death Row for Men is located at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The Indiana Death Row for Women is located at the Indiana’s Woman Prison in Indianapolis. The primary method of execution in Indiana is lethal injection. The Indiana Department of Corrections list its death row inmates by how long they have spent on death row.
Jeffrey Weisheit was sentenced to death by the State of Indiana for the murders of two children. According to court documents Jeffrey Weisheit was mad at his girlfriend so he bound her two children with duct tape and set the house on fire. Autopsies would show the two young children died of smoke inhalation. Jeffrey Weisheit was arrested in Kentucky where he was extradited back to Indiana where he would later be convicted and sentenced to death.
Earliest Possible Release Date * *Offenders scheduled for release on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are released on Monday. Offenders scheduled for release on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday are released on Thursday. Offenders whose release date falls on a Holiday are released on the first working day prior to the Holiday.
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Jeffrey Weisheit More News
Lisa Lynch took longs breaks to fight back tears during her testimony Monday in a trial where her ex-boyfriend could be sentenced to death for the murder of her two children.
Jeffrey Weisheit, 37, is charged with setting fire to the Evansville home he shared with Lynch and her two children, Caleb Lynch, 5, and Alyssa Lynch, 8, in 2010 while the children were inside.
The case is being tried in Clark County because of the media attention it has received in Vanderburgh County where the alleged crime was committed.
Lynch, 30, testified that during a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. work shift she had received a phone call after midnight from her neighbor that her home was on fire. She said Weisheit, who was watching the children, did not respond to her calls and text messages as she tried to find out if her children were safe.
The frantic mother was given ride from a co-worker to her burning home nearly 45 minutes away.
Lynch said from the witness stand that her neighbor had informed her that Weisheit’s Camaro was not at the home, and she went as far as contacting OnStar customer service to track down Weisheit in the vehicle. She said after several phone calls, an OnStar representative reached Weisheit, but her then-boyfriend declined to take the call from her.
At about 7:45 a.m. April 10, hours after Lynch reached the home, emergency response officials located Caleb Lynch’s remains in the burning rubble. It wasn’t until after 3 p.m. when Alyssa Lynch’s body was found huddled in what had been a closet.
Pictures of the children’s charred remains were shown to jurors Monday, after attorneys had presented their opening arguments earlier in the day.
Vanderburgh County Deputy Prosecutors Charles Berger and Gary Shutte are representing the state. Weisheit is represented by court-appointed attorneys Mike McDaniel, of New Albany, and Steve Owens, of Vanderburgh County.
After a week of jury selection, the trial continued Monday in Judge Daniel Moore’s Circuit Court No. 1.
Prosecutors called five witnesses to testify on its first day of presenting the case. Along with Lynch, her neighbor, two Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department deputies and German Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief David Bretz also testified.
Lynch testified that she became involved with Weisheit, a co-worker at a plastics plant, during her divorce with her children’s father, in 2008. She said they had a good relationship and had even talked about getting married and gone ring shopping, but the two were never officially engaged.
During Bretz’s testimony — who was German Township VFD’s assistant chief at the time of the 2010 house fire — he said that when Caleb Lynch’s remains were found, a road flare and a partial road flare were located in the immediate area.
When Bretz was cross-examined by the defense, however, he could not say how the fire was started or where in the home the blaze had originated.
During the trial’s afternoon break, McDaniel said he was pleased to have the long jury-selection process behind him and to be moving onto the arguments.
“It is good to get started, and I think it is going to move pretty quickly,” McDaniel said.
He said it remains unresolved if the fatal fire resulted from arson or another more benign cause.
McDaniel told the jurors earlier in the day to not let the emotional impact of the case sway their decision-making during the trial, adding that the photographs of the deceased children are some of the most unsettling images he has come across in his 45 years attending autopsies.
“When you are dealing with kids who have been burned, that’s as bad as it gets,” McDaniel said.
He said the defense plans to show that Weisheit did not set out to murder the Lynch children.
“I am hoping they will find that there was not an intentionally set fire,” he said. “I told the jury this morning: This is a fellow who should have been convicted of felonious neglect of children resulting in their death.”
The trial was scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.
Roy Ward was sentenced to death by the State of Indiana for the sexual assault and murder of a teenager. According to court documents Roy Ward entered a home and attacked the fifteen year old girl with a knife, while he was sexually assaulting her, the victims fourteen year old sister phoned 911. Roy Ward would stab the fifteen year old to death before the police arrived. Roy Ward was arrested at the scene, later convicted and sentenced to death.
Earliest Possible Release Date * *Offenders scheduled for release on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are released on Monday. Offenders scheduled for release on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday are released on Thursday. Offenders whose release date falls on a Holiday are released on the first working day prior to the Holiday.
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Roy Ward More News
The folks in Dale, Indiana are shocked by the news that a death row inmate will get a new trial for the brutal murder of 15-year-old Stacey Payne.
The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Roy Lee Ward’s trial should have been venue out of Spencer County. Or the jurors should have been brought in, because of pretrial publicity prevented him from getting a fair trial.
Obviously, the Payne family is very disappointed with not only the Supreme Court’s decision, but also the legal system in general. They say they are being victimized all over again, by a system set up to protect them.
The Payne family has met with the prosecutor. They told him if the state felt it was appropriate to seek death in the first trial, it’s their feeling it should be appropriate in the second. They are also extremely frustrated, when from the very beginning the defense admitted he did it.
It’s now in the hands of the prosecutor, who has some time to respond. He has to decided on what action the state will take and whether they will again seek the death penalty.
Newswatch spent the day with Stacy’s aunt, and found out just how the family feels about this.
She worries for Stacy’s younger sister, Melissa. She was at home when her sister was brutally attacked, and was the one who called 911.
“For a 15-year-old to see the judicial system working like this, and to feel the devastation of Wednesday, and saying I went through this once and I have to do it again. Can I do it again, is hard. And can the family do it again? I don’t know.”
The family is facing old emotions that never completely left.
“There’s the anger that only comes out to Roy Lee Ward and the question why did he do this to our child, why did he do this.”
But with that comes additional anger the second time around.
“That the system cares more about him and values him more than the law abiding citizens, and put so much into raising a child that is good and he can take it, and we protect him.”
“The huge hole that never completely heals is just gaping again.”
A Tri-State man sentenced to death for killing a Dale, Indiana teenager will get a new trial.
In a unanimous decision, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that Roy Lee Ward’s trial should not have taken place in Spencer County because of pre-trial publicity. The court says Ward’s trial should have been moved or jurors should have been taken from another county. The court says that half the twelve jurors said before the trial that they believed Ward was guilty.
Defense Attorney Barbara Williams says the court’s decision means the case against Ward will have to start from scratch with Ward being returned to Spencer County for arraignment. No dates have been set.
Benjamin Ritchie was sentenced to death by the State of Indiana for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Officers noticed a stolen van and a chase began. Benjamin Ritchie would crash the vehicle and take off running followed by Officer William Toney. Benjamin Ritchie would turn around and fire striking the Officer and killing him. Benjamin Ritchie would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
Earliest Possible Release Date * *Offenders scheduled for release on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are released on Monday. Offenders scheduled for release on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday are released on Thursday. Offenders whose release date falls on a Holiday are released on the first working day prior to the Holiday.
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Benjamin Ritchie More News
Indiana has ten men on death row at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Some of those convicted killers are featured in a documentary about Indiana’s death row that airs on ITV in the United Kingdom February 1.
Repeated television exposure upsets the widow of fallen Beech Grove police officer Bill Toney
Dee Dee Horen was recently informed that her late husband’s killer is going to be on TV again. She wants people to see the other side of death row, the side of the victim’s family that has survived and thrived despite tragedy.
“It angers me, because he’s still sitting there, and I know that his case is still sitting on a judge’s desk somewhere,” said Horen. “He doesn’t have a date that I’m aware of. I don’t sit around and think about, ‘I can’t wait until the day when Benjamin Ritchie is put to death.’ I don’t give him my time for that.”
Horen is upset that ITV will air a follow-up program Thursday in the United Kingdom to a documentary that aired five years ago and featured the man who killed her husband.
“Gosh, there’s so much more to this story. Why does this story have to keep going back to him? There’s a family that survived this tragedy,” she said.
Over 17 years have passed since Officer Toney was shot and killed during a foot pursuit of Ritchie. The officer was shot in the neck.
His daughters were just four and 18 months old when he died. Now both in college, Jess and Emily Toney have limited memories of their father.
“I thought by the time that the girls were old enough to start asking questions, I could say, ‘The man that killed your dad was executed 10 years ago, five years ago.’ Now I have to explain it to my 12-year-old son,” said Horen.
Dee Dee married a family friend, Ryan Horen, who knew Bill. Dee Dee and Ryan have been married 15 years with a 12-year-old son together, Rylan.
“Somebody stepped up when Benjamin Ritchie took my girls’ dad and my husband,” said Dee Dee. “Somebody else stood up and took on the responsibility of us.”
Dee Dee remains close to Bill’s family and they honor his memory with an annual cornhole tournament.
Meanwhile, his killer has exhausted his appeals while living on death row over 15 years.
“As a Christian, I have forgiven him,” Dee Dee said. “It’s not going to do me any good whatsoever to go and watch a man die. But I do want justice for him. I do believe in the death penalty. I do believe he deserves the death penalty.”
Ritchie’s eventual execution will bring Dee Dee no joy.
“I’m going to get a…” Dee took a deep sigh. “It’s over. It’s done. There’s justice for Bill and my daughters. Bill’s mom, little sister and brothers don’t have to see his face again or hear about him again.”
Dee Dee admits she will probably watch the new documentary eventually, but she does not believe inmates on death row should be allowed to give media interviews.
Indiana last carried out the death penalty by lethal injection in 2009. The execution of Matthew Eric Wrinkles came 14 years after his sentencing.
The Indiana Supreme Court denied Ritchie’s appeal in 2014. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal in April 2017. The Indiana Department of Correction says Ritchie has exhausted his appeals. The Indiana Supreme Court must issue the execution order.
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