Prosecutor: Digital evidence was key to Heidi Carter's conviction

EVANSVILLE — Just after 8:20 p.m. Wednesday, a 12-member jury announced they had found Heidi Kathleen Carter guilty of all charges she faced in connection with a 2021 homicide, rape and kidnapping on Evansville's West Side.

The conviction capped a months-long effort by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office to see Carter found guilty for her alleged role in the killing of 50-year-old Tim Ivy and the rape of a woman who was held captive inside Carter's Stinson Avenue residence.

"Did you reach a unanimous verdict on all counts?" Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge David Kiely asked jurors after they reentered the courtroom late Wednesday evening. "Yes," the jury's foreman said.

In all, jurors found Carter, 37, guilty of committing six offenses: aiding, inducing or causing murder, a Level 1 felony; two counts of aiding, inducing or causing rape, a Level 1 felony, and three counts of criminal confinement, a Level 3 felony.

Evansville police arrested Carter Oct. 19, 2021, after multiple law enforcement agencies surrounded her residence in the 1800 block of Stinson Avenue. Inside, officers found Ivy's lifeless body and the female victim, who said she had been restrained to a bed for hours.

More:Prosecutors rest case against Heidi Carter; Carter decides not to testify

The woman survived the ordeal and testified during Carter's trial. She accused Carter of holding a gun to her head while Carter's boyfriend, Carrey Hammond, raped her. The woman said Hammond strangled Ivy to death just feet away from where she lay tied to a bed.

Hammond was shot and killed by Evansville police Oct. 19, 2021, when he emerged from Carter's residence holding what authorities thought was a gun. An Evansville Police Department spokesperson later said Hammond likely committed "suicide by cop."

Newly elected Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers tapped Stan Levco to prosecute Carter a second time. Carter first stood trial in November, but a hung jury resulted in a mistrial.

Moers, a Republican, said she hired Levco, a Democrat who ran the prosecutor's office from 1991 to 2011, to try high-profile cases on behalf of her office.

More:Stan Levco to prosecute Heidi Carter at second trial

Levco told the Courier & Press he felt confident the state's case against Carter was solid. But, as deliberations began to stretch past the seven-hour mark Wednesday night, Levco feared the specter of a potential second mistrial.

"I was getting worried that it might be a hung jury again," Levco said. "Anything can happen, but I thought a not-guilty verdict was pretty unlikely; I thought a hung jury was certainly possible, and the later it went, the more I was concerned about that."

Vanderburgh County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Audrey Beckerle began Carter's second trial with the benefit of hindsight: She prosecuted Carter during her November trial alongside then-lead prosecutor Emily Hall.

"I'm not gonna lie, I was getting a little nervous," Beckerle said. "I expected it to take some time; (the jury) had a lot to chew on... I was hoping we were going to get a verdict, but I'm not gonna lie, about 7 p.m. hit, and I was really starting to get a little nervous."

Carter's first trial ended moments after Kiely blocked prosecutors from presenting key evidence to jurors — more than 600 pages of Carter’s Facebook correspondence with Hammond and others. Kiely said the records lacked certifications showing they had been accurately compiled by EPD Detective Steven Toney.

November Trial:Judge declares mistrial on four counts in Stinson Avenue death, rape and kidnapping trial

But on Monday, Levco and Beckerle entered the records into evidence without issue. The messages, it turns out, did not contain any admissions of guilt from Carter. They did, however, show Carter bragging about having violent sexual fantasies and hinting that she would like to act those fantasies out in real life.

The Facebook messages also contained a photo prosecutors said Carter took of herself. The image showed Carter sitting inside a vehicle with multiple semi-automatic handguns laid out on her lap. The photo helped explain a critical discrepancy between prosecutor's physical evidence and testimony from witnesses: Carter was found to be in possession of a revolver when she was arrested Oct. 19, 2021, but the female victim said Carter pointed a semi-automatic handgun at her during the attack.

Police never found the semi-automatic weapon, but the photograph showed Carter posing with multiple pistols that matched the victims' description.

"I think the biggest difference here that really helped us secure the conviction was refining the Facebook messages and getting those in," Beckerle said. "Those really spoke to her true intent in a way that we couldn't get through any of the other evidence."

More:Heidi Carter's second kidnapping, murder trial sees nine witnesses called in first day

Moers attended portions of Carter's trial and could be seen giving Levco a fist bump when he rested his case Tuesday afternoon. She said the trial was a top priority for the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office.

"Definitely a high-profile case; the facts are very serious, a lot of stuff was going on, salacious stuff, so we really took it seriously," Moers said. "Especially when we tried it one time and had a hung jury, we really wanted to make sure we weren't wasting our efforts in going after it again."

Kiely scheduled Carter to be sentenced March 9 at 10 a.m. Until then, the judge ordered Carter to be held without bond at the Vanderubrgh County jail.

Under Indiana law, Kiely has broad discretion to determine how long, or short, Carter's sentence will be. State guidelines, which are advisory and not legally binding, recommend a 30-year sentence for Level 1 felonies, such as aiding, inducing or causing rape and aiding, inducing or causing murder.

Level 3 felonies, such as criminal confinement, carry a recommended prison sentence of nine years under state sentencing guidelines.

Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Digital evidence key to Heidi Carter's conviction for Stinson killing