Hilma Marie Witte was convicted of two murders in two Indiana counties. Her husband, Paul Witte, died in 1981, and her mother-in-law, Elaine Witte, died in January 1984. In each case one of her teenage sons carried out the killing at her urging, and in each case a jury found her guilty. The Indiana Supreme Court upheld both convictions, in 1987 and in 1990.
By the early 1980s the Witte family was under strain. The family had a long history of trouble at home, including money problems. Hilma Witte and her husband had two sons. In 1981 she was 37, her husband was 43, and the sons were in their mid-teens: the younger was 15 and the elder 16.
Hilma Witte wanted to be free of her husband and, in the summer of 1981, decided that he should be killed. She pressed her younger son to do it, through repeated demands and threats.
Paul Witte died on December 1, 1981 (also given as September 1). Her younger son carried out the killing, acting on his mother's demands. Hilma Witte was not present.
The inquiry into Paul Witte's death was closed at that time. It was reopened on November 14, 1984, as a result of the investigation into the death of his mother, Elaine Witte, in LaPorte County. Hilma Witte's elder son admitted his part in the 1984 killing, saying he acted at his mother's urging.
Elaine Witte was 74. In 1982 the family moved in with her. Hilma Witte and her sons then discussed killing her, and the family wanted her money. Hilma Witte also forged Elaine Witte's signature on social security checks and cashed them. The conspiracy to commit murder was charged as running from September 1983 to January 10, 1984; the murder itself was dated January 8, 1984. Her elder son carried out the killing at Hilma Witte's direction.
A jury in LaPorte County convicted Hilma Witte of murder and of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Elaine Witte. She was sentenced to 60 years for the murder and 30 years for the conspiracy, the terms to run consecutively. The date of the trial is not on record.
She appealed to the Supreme Court of Indiana, which decided the case on February 12, 1990. Justice Givan wrote the opinion for the court. It rejected each of her claims. It held that evidence of her husband's death was admissible under the common scheme or plan exception to the rule against other-crime evidence, that the prosecutor's remark to the jury was cured by an admonition, that correcting the dates of the conspiracy charge did not prejudice her defense, that charging and convicting her of both murder and conspiracy did not place her in double jeopardy, and that the trial court had given proper reasons for consecutive sentences. The court affirmed the convictions and sentences.
Justice DeBruler, joined by Chief Justice Shepard, dissented. He would have held that the evidence about the death of her husband should not have been admitted and that its admission was not harmless. He would have ordered a new trial or, as an alternative, vacated the conspiracy conviction and sentence.
Hilma Witte was also tried before a jury over her husband's death, in a case that went to the Supreme Court of Indiana from Porter County. She was found guilty of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to concurrent terms of 50 years. The trial court raised the presumptive sentence of 40 years to 50 years and ordered it served consecutively to the sentences she was already serving from LaPorte County. Her appeal was heard on five points: limits on cross-examination of State witnesses, an alleged supplemental jury instruction during deliberations, the refusal of a defense instruction, sentencing, and the sufficiency of the evidence.
On December 8, 1987, the Supreme Court of Indiana, in an opinion by Justice Pivarnik, rejected the first, second, third and fifth points. On the third it held that the evidence, which showed that she was not present, did not support the instruction she wanted. On sentencing the court found that the trial court had given sufficient reasons for raising the term but none for making it consecutive, and it remanded the case with instructions to correct the sentencing: either to state reasons or to strike the consecutive provision. It affirmed the case in all other respects. The result of the remand is not on record. One of her arguments was that the LaPorte County crimes were committed after the crime for which she was being sentenced in the Porter County case, so that the mandatory consecutive sentence statute did not apply to her.
Both sons were teenagers at the time of the killings, and one was a juvenile. Her younger son carried out the 1981 killing and her elder son the 1984 killing, each at her urging. The outcomes of their own cases are not on record.
The date on which she was sentenced in each case and the later history of her sentences are not on record. Her present status, including any release, is not on record.
Both convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court of Indiana. The date of Paul Witte's death is also given as September 1, 1981. The sentences she is serving are not on record beyond the terms imposed at trial, and the result of the 1987 remand is not on record.
1981: Hilma Marie Witte, then 37, decides her husband should be killed and presses her younger son to carry it out.
December 1, 1981: Paul Witte, 43, dies (also given as September 1, 1981).
1982: The family moves in with Elaine Witte, 74.
September 1983 to January 10, 1984: the period of the conspiracy charged in LaPorte County.
January 8, 1984: Elaine Witte dies; her elder son carries out the killing at his mother's urging.
November 14, 1984: the inquiry into Paul Witte's death is reopened.
Date not on record: LaPorte County jury convicts her of murder and conspiracy to commit murder; 60 years and 30 years, consecutive.
Date not on record: Porter County jury convicts her of murder and attempted murder; concurrent terms of 50 years.
December 8, 1987: the Supreme Court of Indiana remands the Porter County case on sentencing and affirms it otherwise.
February 12, 1990: the Supreme Court of Indiana affirms the LaPorte County convictions and sentences, with two justices dissenting.