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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA northwest Indiana man convicted in the 2017 stabbing death of a bartender outside a bar where they both worked has filed an appeal.
Christopher Dillard of Hobart argued he didn’t get an impartial jury because of “extensive inflammatory pretrial publicity,” among other things, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports.
In January, Dillard was sentenced to a maximum of 65 years in the murder of 23-year-old Nicole Gland. The Portage woman was stabbed more than 20 times before her body was found in her SUV behind the Upper Deck Lounge in Chesterton in April 2017.
Prosecutors said Dillard, who worked as a bouncer, was frustrated that Gland rebuffed his sexual advances after he allegedly delivered drugs to her.
Dillard, 54, wants the Indiana Court of Appeals to reverse his conviction or reduce his sentence to 60 years.
Dillard argued Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer violated his constitutional rights by denying requests to move the trial to another county or have a jury brought in from elsewhere to avoid prejudicial influence from pretrial publicity.
Previously, the Court of Appeals denied Dillard’s interlocutory appeal challenging the partial denial of his motion to suppress incriminating statements.
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