Published: March 03, 2006 10:23 pm      

Jury holdouts could be slowing deliberations

BOONVILLE — A holdout or two on the David Camm jury could be the reason deliberations have now entered the fourth day — which rarely happens, Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said this afternoon.

“There may be a person or two who may not be in agreement, that they’re trying to convince. My guess is if they were just split down the middle, we’d have a hung jury already,” Henderson said during his first appearance at the Warrick County courthouse since Tuesday morning.

After meeting with court officials for a progress report this morning, Henderson said, “There are no problems, no indication of an impasse.”

On Wednesday, defense attorney Katharine “Kitty” Liell said she believed the jury was split.

Henderson also speculated that the jurors were “wanting to see what (Camm) said, his answers” when they requested to see copies of a transcript of a phone call he made to a former colleague with the Indiana State Police Sellersburg Post and of the second interview he had with two State Police detectives just before his arrest.

Camm, a former state trooper, is charged with triple homicide in the shootings of his wife, Kim, and children, 7-year-old Brad and 5-year-old Jill. The family was killed at their Georgetown home in September 2000.

Until now, the longest Henderson has ever seen a jury deliberate was three days, and they came back with a guilty verdict.

“I didn’t expect it to take four days, but I’m not surprised ... considering the type of jury we have and the length of the trial. ... We have a lot of professionals used to group dynamics, working things out.”

Despite the lengthy trial and deliberations, Henderson said it had not caused any delays in other Floyd County proceedings, including a trial he has starting Monday.

As for Kim Camm’s family, he said, “This is very excruciating for them ... they’re strong people, good people. They’re hanging in there.”

Her parents, Frank and Janice Renn, are staying at a nearby hotel awaiting the verdict. They haven’t appeared at the courthouse since Monday, although their son-in-law Greg Karem stopped in briefly Tuesday to comment on behalf of their family.

A few Camm family members were at the courthouse Thursday afternoon, but the defense attorneys hadn’t been seen since Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Henderson pointed out, it was exactly one year ago today the palm print found at the murder scene was traced to Charles Boney, Camm’s now-convicted co-defendant.