A star witness who flipped against his co-defendant in a 1998 Hammond triple homicide was sentenced to 45 years Friday — in line with the deal he struck with prosecutors.
David L. Copley, 47, of Franklin, Indiana, admitted a role in the slaying, according to court documents filed in September 2021. He agreed to testify in exchange for limiting his prison sentence for murder to a single term.
Prosecutors alleged James Higgason III, 52, and Copley beat Elva Tamez, then 36, Jerod Hodge, 18, and Timothy Ross, 16 to death on Jan. 18, 1998, with pieces of wood or metal pipes, records state. They were trying to get drugs and cash in Tamez’s home, a suspected “crack house” on the 4600 block of Torrence Avenue in Hammond, according to court documents.
David Copley secretly taped two phone conversations with Higgason, of Whiting, in May 1998 where the latter man both denied and vaguely alluded to possible involvement, an affidavit stated.
Higgason said he was haunted, too, by what happened, without explicitly saying it was murder.
“The only way out is to get away with it,” Higgason allegedly told Copley in one recording.
During Higgason’s trial, defense lawyers Mark Gruenhagen and Matthew Fech said the evidence against their client was thin and Copley wasn’t credible because he flipped in exchange for his testimony.
Witnesses said Tamez had let Hodge and Ross move in shortly before the murders to sell drugs there.
Both Copley and Higgason were among a handful of early suspects, but were not charged at the time. Back then, DNA tests turned up inconclusive.
Decades later in 2020, as technology became more sophisticated, Indiana State Police linked DNA from Tamez’s fingernail clippings to Copley. A secondary, but much more limited hit came from Higgason, court records show.
Both men were charged in January 2021.
Copley had gone to the police in 1998 alleging Higgason instigated the murders, threatening to kill him if he did not cooperate, court records show.
Charges were presented against Higgason and Copley at the time of the original incident but due to the evidence that could be obtained at that time, charges were not accepted, a Hammond Police news release said previously.
At the time, police said they had no suspects or a motive in the slayings.
