INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A former Indiana state trooper accused of killing his wife and two young children 12 years ago has lost his bid to get out of jail while he awaits a third murder trial.
The Indiana Supreme Court denied David Camm's request late Monday afternoon. Camm's lawyers argued that he should be released because of a two-year delay in the trial they say was sparked by Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson's failure to recognize a conflict of interest in signing a deal to write a book about the case. The book deal has since been dropped.
But the justices said in a three-page order that the delay was Camm's own doing because he obtained a stay during the legal battle over the prosecutor's role.
"We are pleased that the Court saw that this filing was a needless delay in the case," Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for the Indiana attorney general's office, said in an email Tuesday.
Corbin said that state attorneys would assist the special prosecutor as needed.
Camm's defense attorney and Henderson didn't immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday.
The Indiana Court of Appeals removed Henderson from the case in November, and Special Judge Jonathan Dartt appointed former Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco as a special prosecutor in February.
Camm was a state trooper for more than a decade. He left the force about four months before his wife, Kimberly, was shot to death along with their children, 7-year-old Bradley and 5-year-old Jill. The three were found in the garage of the family's home near Georgetown in southern Indiana.
Appeals courts overturned jury verdicts that convicted Camm of murder in 2002 and 2006. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed to move the third trial to a county north of Indianapolis because of extensive local news coverage.
Camm has maintained his innocence, saying 11 people testified that he was playing basketball with them in a church gymnasium at the time of the slayings.
Another man, Charles Boney, is serving 225 years in prison after a 2006 trial in which DNA tests linked him to the crime scene. Prosecutors contend Boney was Camm's accomplice.
