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Bill pushes death penalty in some child murders

Jan 3, 2007

Indianapolis(AP) - A state lawmaker from the southern Indiana town where a 10-year-old girl was abducted and killed is renewing a push for legislation making it mandatory for prosecutors to seek the death penalty in some child murders.

The proposal by Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Crothersville, would require prosecutors to pursue the death penalty when someone is charged with murdering someone younger than 18 while attempting or trying to commit certain other crimes. Those include child molesting, criminal deviate conduct, rape, kidnapping or criminal confinement.

Similar legislation was overwhelmingly approved by the House in 2005 but it was not considered by the Senate. Goodin is hoping for a better fate in the session that begins Monday, although the idea is opposed by the Indiana Public Defender Council and the Prosecuting Attorney's Council.

"I think crimes committed against children are particularly hideous because they deprive us of something that is so precious: the hopes and dreams of the future," Goodin said.

"Anyone who willfully and purposefully murders a child shows that they have absolutely no regard for life," he said. "I feel that a person who demonstrates this type of behavior should be given the most severe punishment possible under state law."

The legislation stems largely from the highly publicized death of Katlyn Collman, a fourth-grader who was missing for five days before her body was found Jan. 30, 2005, in a creek about 15 miles from her home in Crothersville, about midway between Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky.

Anthony Ray Stockelman of Seymour pleaded guilty to murder and child molestation in the case in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Stockelman, who was 39 at the time of his plea, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole instead.

Goodin's twin brother, Jerry, is an Indiana State Police sergeant and was among those who investigated Collman's death.

Terry Goodin is also superintendent of Crothersville Community Schools, of which the girl was a student.

Although the bill would require prosecutors to seek the death penalty in certain child murder cases, Goodin said juries could still recommend against capital punishment. Under a state Supreme Court ruling, Indiana judges cannot impose the death penalty if juries recommend against it.

But Steve Johnson, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney's Council, said the legislation would still tie the hands of prosecutors. Every case is different, he said, and prosecutors review all the facts and weigh the strength of evidence and should continue to have discretion on whether to seek the death penalty.

Killing someone under age 12 already is an aggravating factor that allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty, and Johnson said the most common capital cases in Indiana involve the murder of a child, police officer or multiple or serial murders.

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Crothersville girl's killer gets life sentence

Indianapolis Star
April 21, 2006
Author: RICHARD D. WALTON

Anthony Ray Stockelman will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the molestation and murder of a 10-year-old Crothersville girl.

Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance handed down the sentence Thursday in Seymour after family members of Katlyn "Katie" Collman told how much they miss her.

Stockelman, 39, Seymour, apologized to the family, vowing to write a children's book and give half of the profits to Katie's survivors.

Vance was incredulous, said Jackson County Prosecutor Stephen Pierson.

"Half the profits?" the judge responded.

Stockelman abducted Katie in January 2005 after she picked up items for her family at a Dollar General store in Crothersville, a small community roughly halfway between Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky.

Taking a shortcut home, Katie passed near a residence from which Stockelman's mother was moving. Stockelman got Katie into the house and, authorities believe, molested her on the floor in a back bedroom.

In a case that drew national attention, Katie's body was found five days later in a creek. Her hands were bound.

Pierson said Katie drowned and probably experienced an excruciating death, sinking into the cold water.

The defense portrayed Stockelman as a man still grieving over the recent death of his father. There also was testimony about what a good father he was.

Pierson, in his presentation, said: "But how little love, how little regard he had for the children of others."

Above all else, Stockelman was selfish, Pierson said.

"He molested her; he sodomized her. And then he drove her up to the (water). And, to cover up for himself . . . murdered her."

DNA left on a cigarette butt found at the scene helped convict Stockelman.

Pierson believes Stockelman smoked it while he watched Katie die.

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Man pleads guilty in girl's death -
Suspect avoids death penalty, faces life sentence in molestation, killing

Indianapolis Star
March 25, 2006
Author: RICHARD D. WALTON

A Seymour man accused of molesting and killing a 10-year-old Crothersville girl has escaped a possible death sentence but may still face life in prison without parole.

Anthony Ray Stockelman, 39, pleaded guilty Friday to murder and child molestation in exchange for prosecutors' agreement not to seek the death penalty.

Authorities say Stockelman abducted Katlyn "Katie" Collman in January 2005 after she picked up items for her family at a Dollar General Store in Crothersville, a community of about 1,500 people about halfway between Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky.

Taking a shortcut home, the girl passed near a residence that Stockelman's mother was moving from, said Jackson County Prosecutor Stephen Pierson.

"One way or the other, he got her inside the house," he said. "The evidence would indicate that she was molested in a back bedroom on the floor with red carpet, because there were red fibers on her body."

Katie's body was found in a creek about 15 miles from her home.

The slaying shocked the community. No one could recall a murder of a child, said Curt Kovener, editor and publisher of the Crothersville Times.

A murder charge was first brought against a man who confessed, but his story did not add up.

DNA evidence drawn from a cigarette near the girl's body then drew police to Stockelman.

The former factory worker was to stand trial in June, but prosecutors -- after talking to the girl's relatives -- decided not to seek the death penalty if Stockelman pleaded guilty. One reason was that capital cases sometimes stretch out 15 years.

Prosecutors will now seek life without parole, though Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance could give Stockelman a fixed period of prison time. But even under that scenario, he faces up to 50 years on the molestation charge and a maximum of 65 for murder, Pierson said.

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Girl who was slain was molested - Seymour man arrested based on DNA evidence; theory that meth played a role is less certain.

Indianapolis Star, The (IN)
April 8, 2005
Author: TOM SPALDING

CROTHERSVILLE, Ind. -- Police have arrested a Seymour factory worker on charges he molested Katlyn "Katie" Collman either shortly before, or after, she was pushed into a stream and drowned earlier this year.

The latest development in the death of the 10-year-old girl horrified residents here Thursday and forced investigators to reconsider their original theory of why she was killed. They initially believed she died after witnessing adults involved in methamphetamine use or production.

Anthony R. Stockelman, 38, Seymour, who was arrested at his job Wednesday, had no comment after appearing Thursday before a Circuit Court judge in Brownstown on a felony child molesting charge.

Katie's body was discovered in a Jackson County stream Jan. 30, five days after the start of a massive search that involved many Crothersville residents. An autopsy determined she drowned. The girl's death led to a call for anti-meth legislation, which is pending in the Indiana General Assembly.

Stockelman is the fourth person charged in connection with Katie's death. His arrest was "not a surprise" to investigators, said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin, who addressed a roomful of reporters before the court hearing Thursday. He said Stockelman had been a "person of interest" early in the investigation because he was in the area when Katie was abducted.

But officials also acknowledged repeatedly Thursday that they were unsure of what link, if any, existed between Stockelman and the man charged with the girl's slay ing, Charles Hickman, 21, Crothersville.

A connection between Stockelman and Katie wasn't established until a DNA match was made recently between the factory worker and DNA found on the girl. Stockelman has refused to explain his involvement.

"We don't know if they (Hickman and Stockelman) knew each other or not," Goodin said. "We don't know if he (Stockelman) knew Katie."

Police say someone abducted Katie on Jan. 25 and drove her to Hickman's trailer. Hickman told investigators he wanted to scare the girl because she had seen his friends with methamphetamine, and they were worried she would tell someone.

Hickman and others hatched a plan to bind Katie's hands and drive her to Cypress Lake, about 20 miles from her home. But once there, Hickman, who was arrested Feb. 2, allegedly pushed her into the water and watched her drown.

"Our entire theory of the case was developed early, mostly with the help of Mr. Hickman," said Jackson County Prosecutor Steve Pierson. "I am going to review it."

"I am not going to speculate why she was killed," Pierson added.

The news Thursday was upsetting to a community where there are still visible reminders of Katie -- including fliers promoting an April 16 dance and May 21 motorcycle ride in the girl's honor.

"It just makes me ill," said Donna Reynolds, 45, a human resources assistant who was picking up lunch at a Subway in downtown Crothersville. "You just want to string them up. It makes you want to bring back public hangings."

Alisa Sweazy, 44, a Crothersville clerk, said residents want closure to what seems like a complex mystery.

"What a lot of people still wonder about is, in the confession of Chuckie (Hickman), he kept saying 'they' and that 'they made a plan' and 'they did this.' The community wants to know who 'they' are," said Sweazy.

In addition to Hickman, police arrested Timothy C. O'Sullivan II, 22, and a 17-year-old boy on charges that they misled police.

A judge set bond for Stockelman, who has a relatively minor criminal history, at $500,000 cash and set a February 2006 trial date. If Stockelman is convicted, he would face a 20- to 50-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors say the charges filed against Hickman will be reviewed. They did not elaborate.

The Collman family attended the court hearing and the news conference but declined to comment.

"This is a big development for us," said Goodin of the State Police. "We're getting closer. Early on in the investigation, I told you we (were) like 10 percent through with it. Right now I'd say we're on the downhill side. I hope we're picking up steam."

More arrests are possible, said Crothersville Police Chief Norman Ford.

"Not only are we seeking the killer," Ford said, "but we are also seeking the truth."

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Girl left to drown, FBI says -
According to affidavit, suspect says he meant to scare child into silence after she saw drug use.

Indianapolis Star
February 5, 2005
Author: DAN MCFEELY

Charles James Hickman told investigators he just wanted to scare 10-year-old Katie Collman when he drove her on a cold January night to a lake north of Crothersville with her arms tied behind her back.

Hickman's friends were worried she'd seen them handling methamphetamine. They wanted Hickman, known around town as "Chuckie," to persuade the girl to keep quiet, according to court documents released Friday.

Hickman's plans changed, according to the statement he gave police, when he got to the lake. He told authorities he might have "bumped" Katie into an adjacent creek, then did nothing to save her, the document stated.

Five days later, after a massive search throughout Jackson County, the girl's body was found "mostly submerged" with her "hands bound behind her," the document said. An autopsy confirmed the girl had drowned.

On Friday, Hickman was charged in Jackson County with murder and confinement. Prosecutors for the first time released details about the crime, which has gripped much of southern Indiana for the past 10 days.

Circuit Judge William Vance set Hickman's trial for Oct. 26. No bond was set, and Hickman was taken back to the county jail in Brownstown.

FBI Agent James Douglas Kouns filed a probable cause affidavit laying out the case against Hickman.

Katlyn Marie Collman disappeared about 4 p.m. Jan. 25 after running an errand to the Dollar General store in Crothersville.

The FBI assigned Kouns to the case the next day, and almost immediately attention focused on Hickman, who lived near the store and reportedly had been seen in the area at the time Katie disappeared, the affidavit said.

Hickman was questioned during a neighborhood canvass but denied he was in the area. Because several witnesses told police they saw him, the FBI brought Hickman in for another interview.

Wednesday morning, Kouns and Sgt. Vurlin McIntosh of the Crothersville Police Department questioned Hickman again.

"During the course of the interview, Hickman confessed to being involved in the events leading to Collman's death," the affidavit said.

Those events centered on the Penn Villa Apartment building in Crothersville near the Dollar General store, where residents apparently were "producing and/or using methamphetamine," the court document said.

Meth abuse is a growing problem among teens and young adults throughout rural Indiana, particularly in the southwestern parts of the state.

Jackson County Sheriff Jerry Hounshel said Crothersville has been prone to meth abuse because a local Farm Bureau Co-op has a large storage facility with anhydrous ammonia, one of the key ingredients in the production of the drug. The tanks have been broken into several times, Hounshel said.

The affidavit said Collman had seen residents at the apartment complex making or using the drug. Those residents, who were not identified, apparently became concerned the girl would tell someone.

"So they decided to scare her with the hope that she would be intimidated enough to keep her observations to herself," the FBI's Kouns wrote in his affidavit.

Hickman told investigators that Collman was brought to his home -- a trailer on U.S. 31, across the street from the store -- in a white Ford F-150 pickup truck, which had been borrowed from Tim O'Sullivan.

The affidavit does not indicate that O'Sullivan had direct involvement in the crime.

However, he was arrested on charges of lying to investigators. He was being held Friday in the Jackson County Jail on two counts of false informing. He could not be reached for comment.

Police also arrested a 17-year-old Crothersville boy, whose name was not released by authorities, on charges of false informing Friday evening. He was taken to the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Center in Brownstown. Further details weren't released.

The affidavit said, "A plan was formulated to take her to Cypress Lake to scare her into silence. Collman's hands were tied behind her back and Collman was taken to the lake after dark. Collman was forced out of the vehicle to the side of a creek, which runs southward out of Cypress into the creek."

At first Hickman told police the girl tried to run away and "fell into the creek." But he then said "he might have 'bumped' her into the water" and left the area with the girl's body in the creek, the affidavit said.

A Collman family spokesman could not be reached for comment on the court documents.

Earlier, the girl's father said in an interview that he wanted the community to remember Katie as a bright child who was always helping people around the town about 40 miles north of Louisville, Ky.

"She's changed this community and other communities," John Neace said. "You can tell a big difference in this community. My wife and I are very proud that my little girl could touch so many people and bring them together."

Sheriff Hounshel said Hickman, who did not speak during his court appearance, is being kept separate from other prisoners at the jail.

"He is just real quiet and calm," Hounshel said. "He does not say much."

Collman will be buried Sunday after a two-day calling and funeral to be held at the Crothersville school complex.

Calling is 4 to 8 p.m. today and noon until the 2 p.m. funeral Sunday.

[Admin]

Small town shocked by slaying
Police say 20-year-old Crothersville resident has admitted to killing Katlyn Collman, 10.

Indianapolis Star
February 4, 2005
Author: DAN MCFEELY AND TOM SPALDING

CROTHERSVILLE, Ind. -- Most people here say Charles James "Chuckie" Hickman was always a pretty good guy.

Maybe he hosted a few too many late-night parties. And his habit of spending long periods of time in his front yard doing nothing was a bit odd.

But murder?

"I do not see how he could do this," said Cristy Bush, 20, Crothersville. "I didn't think he had that in him."

Hickman, 20, was arrested Wednesday in the death of 10-year-old Katlyn Collman, whose body was found last weekend near a lake about 20 miles from town.

Police said Thursday that Hickman had confessed to the crime, but they released few other details.

The turn of events shocked this quiet, southern Indiana community, about 40 miles north of Louisville, Ky.

"I about puked," said Rachel Bradley, 16, who described herself as a good friend and a former girlfriend of the suspect's.

"I've kissed him before," she added. "To think I've kissed a killer."

While police offered few details, residents filled in some of the gaps. Hickman fits the police description of the man wanted last week when they were still searching for Katie.

He lives in a trailer on U.S. 31, across the street from the Dollar General Store where Katie had run an errand just before her disappearance.

Friends say he didn't own a white truck fitting the description of the vehicle included in the Amber Alert issued after Katie went missing. But they say one of his friends had one.

Tina Barger, 42, lives next door to Hickman with her 11-year-old daughter, Patricia. They said late-night parties occurred nearly every night.

"I'd open the door and holler out the window for them to be quiet because it's 3 or 4 in the morning and my kid had to sleep," Barger said.

Barger noticed, however, things changed in the past week -- since Katie's disappearance. "Since that day, I haven't seen him one time."

Hickman is being held without bond in the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown. He is charged with murder, felony murder and criminal confinement. Neighbors said he lived with his mother in the trailer, but no one answered the door Thursday.

Bradley was walking around the neighborhood Thursday afternoon when she spoke to reporters. Other Hickman acquaintances confirmed she was close to the suspect.

Bradley, who said she dropped out of high school last fall, said Hickman did not have a job, a vehicle or a driver's license. All he did, she said, was sit around and watch people go by the house and throw parties.

Bush and others said Hickman was involved in a serious car accident years ago and had received some kind of settlement.

"Chuckie was one of my best friends," Bradley said. "He was in love with me, but I have a boyfriend. Lately he'd been acting weird, picking fights with my boyfriend."

Bradley said she answered questions Wednesday night from FBI investigators. She said she told them about a friend of Hickman's who owns a white truck -- the type of vehicle Katie was last seen in.

Police would not answer any detailed questions about the investigation Thursday and have not said how Katie died. Officers did say the investigation is on going.

"We are only 10 to 15 percent through," said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin. "We are speaking to people of interest. The case is nowhere near being closed."

It seems everyone in town knew Hickman or his family.

Rhonda Hutchinson, 22, a gasoline station clerk, said Hickman's family were "good people."

"I was absolutely shocked," Hutchinson said. "I never would have dreamed (the suspect) would be from Crothersville. And I was even more shocked to find out it was Chuckie."

Hickman's grandmother lives about a mile west of town. He has an aunt who is a sixth-grade schoolteacher. Along with his mother, they all looked for Katie -- except for him.

"This is just devastating for them," Hutchinson said. "For both families."

Margaret Street, who is Hickman's grandmother, was reluctant to speak with reporters but did confirm that her grandson did little more than sit in his front yard.

"(His arrest) shocked me," said Street while standing on the back porch of her two-story brick home. "He sits in the yard. That is all I know. He sits there in the yard so everyone can see him."

Street also said Hickman did not own a vehicle, nor did he have a driver's license.

Jackson County Sheriff Jerry Hounshel said Thursday that Hickman did not appear to have an adult arrest record but might have had a juvenile record.

Katie was a fourth-grader at Crothersville Elementary School, where her funeral is set for Sunday.

Terry Gray, a spokesman for the girl's family and chief of the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department, said Hickman's arrest was a bittersweet moment for Katie's family.

"Everybody is trying to make sense of it," Gray said Thursday night. "The biggest question is why? What did this girl do to deserve what she got?"

Katie's father, John Neace, works at a factory, and his wife, Angie, is a stay-at-home mom. Katie has a half sister who doesn't live at home.

Gray said the family was asking the community to refrain from taking any kind of hostile action against the Hickman family, maintaining that family members have been supportive during this ordeal.

Katie's family has been unavailable for comment since State Police found the girl's body Sunday near Cypress Lake, 20 miles away.

"It's disheartening," said Alisa Sweazy, 44, who has lived in Crothersville all her life. "It's a small community, and someone we all know. It's hard to accept. There are only 1,500 people who live here, and the adults know everybody."

[Admin]

Arrest made in girl's slaying -
Crothersville man is accused of killing 10-year-old who lived in same small town.

Indianapolis Star
February 3, 2005
Author: KEVIN O'NEAL

Eight days after a 10-year-old Crothersville girl disappeared, a man from that small southern Indiana town was arrested in her slaying.

Charles James Hickman, 25, was arrested on Wednesday on preliminary charges of murder and criminal confinement, according to Crothersville police. He was being held without bond at the Jackson County Jail.

The arrest came after days of fear, worry and then sadness in Crothersville, a community of nearly 1,600 people located about 15 miles south of Seymour.

Katlyn Collman, the little girl known as Katie, was a fourth-grader at Crothersville Elementary School. She was last seen running an errand to a store near her home the night of Jan. 25.

Asked about the arrest Wednesday night, Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin started to say "I'm glad," then said, "We're not finished yet."

No date for an initial court appearance had been set as of late Wednesday. Police did not say what led them to make the arrest. They did say in a printed statement that earlier Wednesday, they had "developed information" that implicated Hickman as "having involvement in the abduction and murder."

When an Amber Alert was issued after Katie's disappearance, police said a man in a Ford F-150 pickup truck might be responsible. Investigators Wednesday night did not say whether the report of the truck had been confirmed by Hickman's arrest.

The search for Katie ended on Sunday when State Police found the girl's body near Cypress Lake, 20 miles away. Police said that the homicide was the first in three decades in the town about an hour's drive south of Indianapolis, where U.S. 31 is the main street but most traffic speeds by on I-65, a mile to the east.

The girl's death was said to have been the first time since the creation of the Amber Alert in Indiana that the use of that notification system had not led to the safe recovery of a missing child. The results of an autopsy indicating the exact cause of Katie's death had not been announced as of Wednesday.

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Missing child's body is found -
Cops seek man seen driving away with girl; case is 1st failure of Indiana Amber Alert.

Indianapolis Star, The (IN)
January 31, 2005
Author: CATHY KIGHTLINGER

A State Police trooper found the body of a missing 10-year-old girl Sunday, the first time an Indiana Amber Alert failed to lead to a missing child's safe recovery.

The three-day alert came to an end Sunday after Trooper Marty Mead found Katlyn Collman's body in a southern Indiana creek just west of I-65, 20 miles north of the girl's hometown of Crothersville.

Katlyn's friends and relatives had remained hopeful the Amber Alert would make a difference when Katlyn disappeared last week near her home, about 40 miles north of Louisville, Ky.

But Sunday, authorities instead began a homicide investigation, seeking the man witnesses say drove away with Katlyn on Tuesday evening.

"This was the 21st Amber Alert," State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin said. "We were 20 for 20 on the successful side before this one."

With its broadcast across tele vision, radio and the Internet, Amber Alerts -- started in Indiana in 2002 -- have played a key role in missing-children cases. The results can be dramatic, as in a South Bend incident last month. Less than three hours after an alert had been sounded in the abduction of an 8-month-old baby, the infant was found, alive and safe.

And when authorities failed to put out an Amber Alert in an Indianapolis case last month -- in the disappearance of 12-year-old Christina Tedder -- her family was quick to express outrage, an anger that only grew when the girl was found dead. A suspect in that case is in custody.

Authorities did not disclose how Katlyn died, the condition of her body or how long it may have been in the stream.

An autopsy is scheduled for today in Louisville, Ky.

Katlyn, known as Katie, was reported missing by her parents Tuesday evening. The girl's family last saw her about 4 p.m. Tuesday, police said, as she walked to a Dollar General store about three blocks from her home to buy toilet paper.

A clerk told investigators that the girl bought the toilet paper, and an acquaintance talked to her about a block away as she headed home.

A witness reported seeing the girl in a truck after she disappeared and said Katlyn appeared to be a normal passenger.

That would not be out of character for the girl, Goodin said.

"One thing you have to remember, this was a very friendly girl," Goodin said. "She never knew a stranger."

A friend of Katlyn's family said her father, John Neace, hopes authorities will find whoever is responsible for her disappearance and death.

"His comment was that we now have Katie home, and it's time to look for the person who is responsible for this," said Terry Gray, an assistant fire chief at the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department.

The girl's disappearance and death put an air of fear in the town, Gray said.

"You can never prepare for this, and if anybody sits back and thinks it's not going to happen to them, or it's not going to happen to me, then they are foolish for thinking that," Gray said.

Authorities waited two days to issue the alert for Katlyn because they needed a lead in her disappearance, Goodin said. Guidelines for issuing an alert say authorities must have a lead on a missing child's whereabouts before one can be issued.

Authorities think that Katlyn may have been abducted by an 18- to 20-year-old white male who last was seen driving a late 1980s to early 1990s Ford F-150 pickup, described as being very clean. The suspect was described as being thin, 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet 1 inch tall, with short dark hair.

Katlyn, a fourth-grader at Crothersville Elementary, "always had a smile on her face," said Terry Goodin, superintendent of the Crothersville Schools.

Counselors would be available at Katlyn's school today, said Terry Goodin, who also is a Democratic state representative and the brother of Sgt. Goodin.