Tippecanoe County prosecutor: Murder case against Holmes is filled with 'smoking guns'

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Tianna Holmes dabbed her eyes a few times Thursday morning during closing arguments describing Deron Keaton's killing, for which Holmes is charged with murder.

It was the first time in her three-day bench trial that she hinted at any emotion.

Tippecanoe County Deputy Prosecutor Cassidy Laux began his closing arguments saying, "This is a smoking gun type of case."

Evidence all point to Holmes stabbing Keaton to death inside his apartment the night of Nov. 8, 2020, Laux said.

Keaton, 29, had a pacemaker, and it recorded any time his heart rate exceeded 150 beats per minute, and also recorded when the heart rate dropped below 70 beats per minute, at which time it would administer a shock.

According to that data, Keaton died between 10:07 and 10:14 p.m. Nov. 8, 2020, according to testimony.

Yet Laux pointed out Holme's contradiction through her phone records before and after that time.

Between 5 p.m. and 9:25 p.m. Nov. 8, 2020, Holmes did not use her phone. Then there was a flurry of text messages and phone calls running up to 12:40 a.m. Nov. 9, 2020. After her last call, she waited another 70 minutes before she called 911, Laux said.

Holmes gave police a confusing account of what happened to Keaton, most of which was contradicted by testimony on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8.

"The only witness to the murder, the only direct evidence to the murder is Tianna Holmes," Laux said about Holmes' shifting statements of the events of that night.

"The pacemaker data blows up her timeline," Laux said during closing. "He'd been dead for hours."

Laux played the recording of Holmes' 911 call, during which she contradicted herself several times.

The 911 dispatcher asked if he was breathing.

"Yes. He's responding to me," Holmes said.

Asked again if he's breathing, Holmes said, "He's not breathing. He'll respond, but I have to shake him."

Evidence in the trial from a paramedic indicated that rigor mortis had set in on Keaton's fingers and jaw and his wounds were not bleeding. This was evidence that Keaton had died hours before the 911 call.

Holmes said she left the apartment after Keaton's friends came over and began eating her tacos and drinking her liquor, Laux pointed out. But on her text messages, Holmes indicated Keaton kicked her out, and she was in the hallway.

Neither story was true, Laux said, noting prosecutors believe Holmes was creating an alibi through her text messages and phone calls.

Holmes told police she argued with Keaton and left the apartment when his friends — two men, two women and three children — came over.

Holmes claimed she walked to the park in the apartment complex, and when she returned to the apartment, Keaton's friends were leaving in a hurry.

But witnesses who stopped by Keaton's apartment to socialize testified there were a total of three men who showed up, drank a beer, smoke cigarettes and talked. Holmes, according to the testimony, was there, too.

In closing, Holmes attorney, Chris Phillips, said, "This case is based on assumptions and guess work.

"The state wants you to convict Miss Holmes because they said so."

Phillips noted that the pacemaker data was manipulated by the engineer, who testified he found an error in his earlier report pegging Keaton's time of death.

The engineer testified he found an error in his calculation and when he corrected the error, the pacemaker data indicated Keaton died between 10:07 and 10:14 p.m. Nov. 8, 2020.

Phillips said the two men, two women and three children who stopped by to visit are unknown.

"We don't know who these people are," Phillips said. "It's just as likely what Miss Holmes is saying is true."

But at least two of the people who stopped by testified. There were no children or women in the small group of friends who stopped by Keaton's apartment the night he was killed.

Phillips points to DNA testing of swabs from the apartment that indicated other people's DNA, but Laux countered in rebuttal that only Holmes' DNA was found on the murder knife's handle, and Keaton's DNA was found on the blade.

"Being in the house that night is all the evidence the court has to connect Tianna Holmes," Phillips said.

At the conclusion of closing arguments, Tippecanoe Superior 2 Judge Steve Meyer said he will review the evidence and announce his verdict during a hearing at 3:30 p.m. Monday.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Deron Keaton murder case against Lafayette woman sees final arguments