Judge: No re-trial for David Camm

By JENNIFER RIGG
Jennifer.Rigg@newsandtribune.com

November 16, 2006 11:02 am

— A Warrick County judge has denied David Camm’s request for a new trial. His lawyers now will appeal his conviction to the Indiana Supreme Court.
The former Indiana state trooper was found guilty for a second time earlier this year of murdering his wife and two small children. His first conviction was overturned in Floyd County.
Keith Henderson, Floyd County’s prosecutor, said Camm’s lawyers filed the motion for an appeal based on their belief that several jurors conducted themselves inappropriately during the trial in Boonville.
Camm’s lawyers also said Henderson should not have been allowed to argue in court that Camm possibly molested his 5-year-old daughter, Jill, and killed his family to cover it up. Camm was never charged with sexual abuse.
In his order denying Camm’s motion, Warrick County Superior Judge Robert Aylsworth disagreed with Camm’s lawyers saying “the record in this case is extraordinarily and remarkably clean.”
Regarding him allowing Henderson to enter evidence that Camm possibly molested his daughter, Aylsworth said, “The state was free to comment or argue the evidence as it saw fit, and the defense was likewise to do the same, leaving it to the (jury) to reject or accept such arguments as it saw fit. There was no error committed in this.”
The judge also said there was no evidence of juror misconduct.
“The defendant received a fair trial,” Aylsworth wrote. “This order should not be further disturbed by this court.”
Henderson expressed his pleasure with the ruling saying he believed the trial to be “clean with no reversible error.”
“I’m confident upon the review by the Indiana Supreme Court that they’ll agree with Judge Aylsworth,” Henderson said.