Darren Vann Pleads Guilty to Murdering Seven Women in Gary and Hammond, Indiana
The former Marine said the word guilty seven times in a deal that spared him the death penalty and called for life without parole.
Published
He said the word seven times. On Friday, May 4, 2018, in a Lake County courtroom in Crown Point, Indiana, Darren Vann answered "guilty" once for each murder count Judge Samuel Cappas read aloud, while the families of the women he killed watched in silence. The plea came as a surprise: his lawyers had filed the motion for a change-of-plea hearing only the day before. In exchange, prosecutors gave up their pursuit of the death penalty, and the agreement called for life in prison without parole, with formal sentencing set for May 25.
Vann, 47, a former Marine from Gary, had been arrested in October 2014 when Hammond police investigated the death of Afrikka Hardy, 19, whose body was found in a bathtub in a Hammond motel room. Once in custody he told officers he had killed six women in Gary within the previous year. A probable cause affidavit said he called the women "mistakes," and over the next several days he led investigators to their bodies, hidden in abandoned buildings across the city.
They were Anith Jones, 35, of Merrillville; Teaira Batey, 28, of Gary; Tracy Martin, 41; Kristine Williams, 36; Sonya Billingsley, 53; and Tanya Gatlin, 27. Court documents filed in 2016 said Vann targeted women who lived near an area of Gary where women gathered for sex work or to use drugs. Asked by Hammond detectives why he had started killing, he answered, according to the affidavit, "Just I guess, anger. 'Cause I feel I shouldn't have went to prison the first time." He had moved back to Gary after his release from a Texas prison in July 2013, where he had served time on a sexual assault charge.
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said he hoped the agreement would bring the families closure. Outside the courtroom, Marvin Clinton, Teaira Batey's longtime boyfriend and the father of her six-year-old son, wiped away tears and said he was relieved that Vann had finally admitted it, and relieved too that he would live. "These women will haunt him for the rest of his life," he told The Times of Northwest Indiana.
What this story covers. It draws on the Associated Press report of the plea published on May 4, 2018; no record from the Lake County court or prosecutor's office was opened. Outlets gave different ages for Teaira Batey; the age here is the AP's.
Sources
- Indiana man pleads guilty to serial killing of 7 women, The Associated Press (via KUTV)