Heidi Carter trial begins Monday following mixed verdict in November

EVANSVILLE — Just after 9:40 p.m. on Nov. 30, jurors filed into Vanderburgh Circuit Court to render their verdict against Heidi Kathleen Carter, who stood accused of aiding her romantic partner when he allegedly murdered a man and repeatedly raped a woman in 2021.

After nearly 12 hours of deliberation, the case ended in a partial mistrial: Jurors found Carter, 37, guilty of carrying a handgun without a license, but they could not reach a verdict on the multiple felonies she faced in connection with the killing of 50-year-old Timothy Scott Ivy and the kidnapping and rape of Ivy’s girlfriend, who survived.

Carter’s second trial is scheduled to begin Monday at 8 a.m., according to court records. Newly elected Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers tapped the county's former top prosecutor, Stan Levco, to try the case alongside deputy prosecutor Audrey Beckerle.

Just days before Carter’s second trial was set to being, Levco and Beckerle dropped the felony murder charge Carter faced in connection with the 2021 killing.

November Trial:Survivor in death, rape, kidnapping case describes 'sheer, blinding pain,' gruesome scene

Carter accused of helping boyfriend commit murder, assaults

Evansville police arrested Carter Oct. 19, 2021, after officers responded to the 1800 block of Stinson Avenue in reference to a possible murder-kidnapping.

Inside the home where Carter had reportedly taken up residence, police said they found Ivy's lifeless body buried under a pile of clutter and Ivy’s girlfriend, who was injured but alive, tied up in a bedroom.

Carter’s romantic partner, Carey David Hammond, is who police accuse of killing Ivy and repeatedly assaulting Ivy’s girlfriend. Hammond was shot and killed by officers when he emerged from the Stinson Avenue home holding what authorities thought was a gun.

It turned out to be an object twisted into the shape of gun. Authorities later said they believed Hammond committed "suicide by cop."

Prosecutors, alongside Ivy’s surviving girlfriend and other witnesses who testified during Carter’s first trial, accuse Carter of directly aiding, and at times encouraging, Hammond throughout the alleged murder-kidnapping.

November Trial:Heidi Carter will not testify, prosecutors and defense rest case

According to court records, Carter is charged with six counts ahead of Monday's trial: 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 aggravated criminal confinement, a Level 3 felony,

The list broadly lines up with the slate of charges Carter faced during her three-day trial in November, which ended moments after a judge blocked prosecutors from presenting key evidence to jurors — more than 600 pages of Carter’s Facebook correspondence with Hammond.

Those records could have pointed to Carter's culpability as Hammond's alleged accomplice, but Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge David Kiely ruled the documents inadmissible, a major blow to then-deputy prosecutor Emily Hall's case.

Kiely said there were too few certifications to show the records had been compiled accurately by Steven Toney, the Evansville Police Department detective who investigated the case.

More:Here's why a second Heidi Carter trial could be significantly different than the first

Carter’s defense attorney, Barry Blackard, also argued the records contained prejudicial information.

Levco hired to prosecute high-profile cases

In late December, Hall replaced Krista Hamby Weiberg as Magistrate of Vanderburgh County Superior Court. Moers tapped Levco, who served as Vanderburgh County Prosecutor for 20 years, to handle Carter's second trial.

Moers, a Republican, told the Courier & Press she hired Levco, a Democrat, to try major cases for the county on a part-time basis after Levco approached her about a potential role at the prosecutor's office.

"When we take cases to trial, I want to be knowing we have a team that’s well-prepared to do it, and Stan Levco is going to be an integral part of that," Moers said at the time.

More:Diana Moers is hiring Stan Levco for the prosecutor's office. Here's the backstory.

During Levco's tenure as Vanderburgh County Prosecutor from 1991 to 2011, he tried more than 200 cases, including 20 murder cases. In the years since, Levco acted as a special prosecutor throughout Indiana.

Algonside Beckerle, who became a deputy prosecutor in 2021, Levco could seek to present the Facebook records again during Carter’s second trial, in addition to the extensive eyewitness testimony, DNA evidence and video footage prosecutors presented to jurors in November.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday at 8 a.m. Kiely will address several pretrial motions filed by Levco and Beckerle Monday as well, according to court records. The filings seek to block certain pieces of evidence from being presented to a jury.

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

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Heidi Carter trial begins Monday following mixed verdict in November