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The Court of Appeals of Indiana granted a rehearing Tuesday and corrected a factual error in an opinion issued in April, but the court otherwise reaffirmed its ruling that there was sufficient evidence to support a conspiracy to commit murder conviction.
Katrina Fouts was charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, failure to report human remains and false informing in September 2020 for the death of her husband, David.
The husband’s body was found in a ditch in April 2020.
After an autopsy, police went to Fouts’ home and informed her of her husband’s death and then obtained and executed search warrants for numerous cell phones, vehicles and computers.
Police found through cell phone analysis that Terry Hopkins was Fouts’ top contact, with Fouts contacting the man 734 times.
DNA testing on a hydraulic lift mat found in the trunk of a Nissan Rogue at Fouts’ garage contained samples of David Fouts’ DNA.
Cardboard found in the truck also contained blood and DNA from Hopkins and Fouts.
In its April opinion, the appellate court ruled that the pathologist’s inability to determine whether David Fouts died from mushroom poisoning or asphyxia also did not prove there was insufficient evidence.
The judge noted the court had held in numerous cases that medical testimony wasn’t an absolute requirement to establishing cause of death in a murder case.
The autopsy on David Fouts’ body found poisonous mushrooms in his stomach, but a forensic pathologist testified that he could not rule out between poisoning and asphyxia and concluded the man died of “homicide by unspecified means.”
There were also several items of interest found in the Nissan Rogue, including a variety of tools, a box cutter knife and zip ties.
A jury found Katrina Fouts not guilty of murder but guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and failure to report human remains.
The trial court sentenced Fouts to an aggregate term of 34 years.
She appealed the sentence, alleging insufficient evidence for her charges and challenging the admissibility of evidence from a detective’s testimony in the case.
Fouts also claimed prosecutorial misconduct in her appeal.
The appellate court rejected Fouts’ appeal and affirmed the state provided sufficient evidence to support Fouts’ convictions.
The court also found the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence and the state did not commit fundamental error in affirming the lower court decision.
Judge Margret Robb wrote the opinion on rehearing for the court.
The appellate court’s opinion issued in April stated that police found “multiple items of interest” in a Nissan Rouge that was located in Fouts’ garage.
Fouts pointed out that the Rogue was found in her co-conspirator’s garage.
“We agree and hereby correct that misstatement,” Robb wrote.
Robb noted that Fouts raised several issues on appeal, including whether the evidence “of both the requisite intent to commit murder and of an agreement” was sufficient to support her conviction of conspiracy.
“After careful reconsideration of the issues raised with this correction in mind, we reaffirm our original decision that there was sufficient evidence to support Fouts’ conspiracy to commit murder conviction,” Robb wrote.
Judges Patricia Riley and Elizabeth Tavitas concurred.
The case is Katrina Louise Fouts v. State of Indiana, 22A-CR-917.
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