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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a man’s abuse of a corpse conviction, finding his confession was admissible without independent evidence because there was independent evidence to support his other confession in the same case.
In March 2017, Terrence Roach confessed to police that in July 2016 he had kidnapped severely disabled 19-year-old A.B. from her bedroom window, carried her to an abandoned house, taken her to the attic and duct-taped her mouth to silence her.
Roach told police he returned to find her dead, believing the duct tape had suffocated her. He also admitted to having sexual intercourse with A.B.’s corpse. His DNA was found on duct tape discovered next to A.B.’s body and on a cigarette butt found in the attic. Roach was convicted with Level 3 felony confinement and Level 6 felony abuse of a corpse.
On appeal, Roach argued that the Vanderburgh Superior Court erred when it admitted into evidence his confession to abuse of a corpse because there was an insufficient corpus delicti. Finding Roach waived appellate review of his argument when he did not object at trial to the admission of his confession, the appellate court concluded he failed to establish fundamental error.
The appellate court noted that evidence does not have to prove that a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt, but merely provide an inference that a crime was committed. Thus, the inference of a crime may be established by circumstantial evidence, and a confession to other crimes in the same episode can be admissible if there is independent evidence of the principal offense.
“Here, Roach confessed to both confinement and abuse of a corpse. He does not contest the corpus delicti to support his confinement confession,” Judge Rudolph R. Pyle wrote for the panel.
“Further, our review of the evidence reveals that Roach’s DNA was found on duct tape and on a cigarette butt collected from the abandoned attic room where A.B.’s mummified body was discovered,” Pyle continued. “Because there is independent evidence of confinement, Roach’s confession to abuse of a corpse was admissible without independent evidence of that crime.”
The appellate court thus affirmed his conviction in Terrence Wayne Roach v. State of Indiana,18A-CR-1767.
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