By RYAN LENZ
Associated Press Writer
BOONVILLE, Indiana -- A judge sentenced a former Indiana state police officer to life in prison Tuesday for the murders of his wife and two young children.
Jurors earlier this month convicted David Camm of three counts of murder for the September 2000 slayings of Kimberly Camm, 35, 7-year-old Bradley and 5-year-old Jill.
“I am innocent; I did not do this,” Camm said before the judge announced his sentence. “Another tragic mistake has been made.”
Prosecutors said Camm and another man conspired to carry out the shootings. Camm was first convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 195 years in prison, but the state appeals court overturned the verdict, ruling that testimony about Camm’s extramarital affairs had unfairly biased jurors.
The prosecution’s case centered on tiny bloodstains found on a T-shirt he wore the night of killings. Crime scene experts testified those stains placed him within feet of his daughter when she was shot while strapped into a seat of Kimberly Camm’s car.
Defense attorneys argued that the stains got on Camm’s shirt when he found the bodies. They called witnesses who said Camm was playing basketball that night, but prosecutors contended Camm left the game, killed his family, then returned. He reported the deaths when he returned home.
Ex-convict Charles Boney, 36, was charged with conspiring with Camm, convicted on three counts of murder and sentenced to 225 years in prison. Camm’s attorneys have said Boney was solely responsible for the deaths.
Prosecutors alleged in their closing arguments that Camm killed his family because his wife discovered he had molested their daughter. They also maintained that Kimberly Camm planned to leave her husband and that Camm was motivated to kill her to cash in on insurance policies worth nearly $300,000.