Murder conviction, sentence upheld for Lake County man in woman’s disappearance

A Lake County man accused of killing a mother of three after they attended a concert in Chicago cannot be rid of his murder conviction, the Court of Appeals of Indiana has ruled.

The incident dates back to July 2019 when James Edward McGhee Jr. attended a concert with Sidne Buchanan. The two got into an altercation at the event, and after McGhee took Buchanan back to his apartment instead of her home he beat her to death.

McGhee, with the help of a friend, then stuffed Buchanan’s body in a suitcase and dumped her at a forest preserve in Illinois.

At the time of Buchanan’s death, McGhee was on probation for criminal confinement. He already had a record for domestic battery and had pleaded guilty to intimidation in 2018. He was also charged with kidnapping and criminal confinement in a separate instance in 2017, but those charges were later dismissed.

Buchanan’s mother filed a missing-persons report after McGhee told her that he had dropped Buchanan off at her own home that night. When officers asked McGhee what happened, he reiterated the same story.

After the FBI got involved, CSLI records were requested to both Buchanan’s and McGhee’s cellphone providers. According to those CSLI records, the last location of Buchanan’s cell phone was at McGhee’s apartment, and both Buchanan’s and McGhee’s cell phones pinged near the apartment during the overnight hours following the concert.

While executing a search warrant for McGhee’s apartment and cell phone records at the apartment, the FBI noticed that it smelled strongly of carpet cleaner and that some of the carpet was still wet. Several samples of the carpet were taken, which later tested positive for Buchanan’s blood.

McGhee was charged with murder and for being a habitual offender. He requested a speedy trial and unsuccessfully moved to suppress the CSLI records obtained by the FBI prior to the issuance of the search warrants.

McGhee also filed a motion for discharge, which he later renewed and the trial court ultimately denied, arguing that his right to a speedy trial under Indiana Criminal Rule 4(B) had been violated.

McGhee was ultimately found guilty of murder and sentenced by the Lake Superior Court to 60 years in prison with a 20-year enhancement for his habitual offender adjudication.

The Court of Appeals affirmed on Wednesday, holding that exigent circumstances justified the warrantless acquisition of McGhee’s CSLI records. It concluded with Buchanan’s uncharacteristic silence for more than 48-hours, McGhee’s violent criminal history with women and the unpersuasive evidence provided by McGhee that he had dropped Buchanan off after the concert, “officers reasonably believed that, if they wanted to find Buchanan alive, they did not have time to wait for a warrant to obtain McGhee’s CSLI records.”

“Accordingly, McGhee’s argument that the FBI’s conduct was not justified by exigent circumstances is unavailing,” Judge Paul D. Mathias wrote. “The totality of circumstances show that Buchanan’s disappearance created an exigent circumstance, and officers reasonably believed that the immediate acquisition of Buchanan’s and McGhee’s CSLI records was essential to resolving the exigency.

“Thus, the warrantless search and seizure of McGhee’s CSLI records did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights, and trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting those records into evidence,” the court concluded.

Neither warrantless search and seizure of McGhee’s CSLI records violate McGhee’s rights under Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution, judges concluded.

The appellate court also found that the continuance of McGhee’s trial date to just more than 30 days beyond the 70-day period, rather than the 90 days permitted by Rule 4(D), did not violate McGhee’s right to a speedy trial. It was also well within the trial court’s discretion to grant the continuance even if the state failed to comply with each technical aspect of Indiana Code section 35-36-7-2, it concluded.

“For all of these reasons, we hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted McGhee’s CSLI records into evidence or when it granted the State’s motion to continue,” Mathias wrote. “We affirm McGhee’s conviction for murder and his adjudication as a habitual offender.”

The case is James Edward McGhee, Jr. v. State of Indiana, 22A-CR-152.