Opinion ID: 2243559
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Florida Murder

Text: We likewise affirm the trial court's decision to admit evidence about the killing of Jennifer Colhouer as a signature crime probative of identity. As we said recently in Lannan v. State (1992), Ind., 600 N.E.2d 1334, in a review of the various theories under which evidence of other crimes may be admitted: [T]he State may prove identity by showing that the similarities between the prior offense and the crime charged are so strong and the method so clearly unique that it is highly probable that the perpetrator of both is the same person. However, the repeated commission of similar crimes is not enough to qualify for the exception to the general rule. The acts or methods employed must be so similar, unusual, and distinctive as to earmark them as the acts of the accused. Id. at 1340 (citation omitted) (quoting Willis v. State (1978), 268 Ind. 269, 272, 374 N.E.2d 520, 522). Comparison of the Colhouer and Gallagher murders shows them to be earmarked as acts of the accused. Indeed, had Lake County investigators been on the scene in Florida, they no doubt would have concluded that the killer of Windy Gallagher had struck again a thousand miles away. They would have observed that both victims were teenage girls, killed in their own homes in the late afternoon hours after school. Neither case showed any signs of forced entry, suggesting the modus operandi of a criminal who enters a dwelling more through guile than strength. Both victims were found with their bras pushed up around the breasts. Both had their pants and underwear removed. Photographs show that a cloth strap has been placed around Gallagher's lower face, causing abrasions just at the chin and below; Colhouer has similarly suffered abrasions just under the chin. Both suffered large, deep abdominal wounds in the same area, inflicted with a large knife and with great force. Both suffered wounds with irregular edges caused by a horizontal cutting motion as the blade was removed, indicating particular ferocity and an intention to mutilate. Both suffered small, prickly puncture wounds about the breasts, not fatal in and of themselves, but a sign that the perpetrator tortured his victims. Both bodies were found in a bedroom; both had been moved after the stabbings. In each case, the killer fled with a picture of his victim. As the prosecuting attorney told the jury in final argument, Lockhart left a signature as it were with the point of a knife. (Record at 2306). There was no error in the admission of the Florida murder. It was truly a signature crime, highly probative of the identity of Windy Gallagher's killer.