Published: August 11, 2008 11:39 pm            

Kalvin Stitts a free man again

Stitts receives time served in 1999 slaying of Shaffer.

DELPHI — Kelly Shaffer doesn’t understand how one of the men found guilty in the 1999 murder of her father, Terrence Shaffer, is now a free man.

Shaffer, along with her brother, Scott, watched Monday in Carroll Circuit Court as Kalvin Stitts, who was originally convicted by a jury and sentenced to 86 years of murder, burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary, walked away a free man.

“I have a lot of unanswered questions,” Kelly told Judge Donald Currie at Stitts’ resentencing. “I’m confused on how a person found guilty of murder by a jury can be released because he was uninformed of a plea. Three others were given a plea. I don’t believe he was the only one not informed. It doesn’t seem likely.”

In 2001, Howard Superior Court 2 Judge Stephen Jessup sentenced Stitts to 86 years in prison after a jury convicted Stitts, who was 17 at the time.

Six years of appeals later, Jessup granted a post conviction relief motion and released Stitts from prison citing ineffective counsel at his first trial.

Howard County Prosecutor James Fleming had the charges reinstated, but without sufficient evidence elected to offer a plea bargain which allows Stitts to plead guilty to a B felony burglary in the Sept. 11, 1999, murder of Shaffer.

The case was moved to Carroll County due to pretrial publicity.

On Monday, Judge Currie heard evidence and sentenced Stitts, now 24, to 16 years and 4 months.

Stitts had already served eight years and two months prior to being released.

And with day-for-a-day credit for good behavior, Currie said Stitts has already served his time and ordered him released.

While in prison, Stitts earned his GED and associate degree through Ball State, said Stitts’ attorney Jay Hirschauer.

A Class B felony conviction carries between eight and 20 years in prison.

Even with a 20-year sentence, Stitts likely would have been released because he earned additional credit time for his schooling, Fleming said.

“This is a sad, disappointing case,” Fleming said. “I poured my heart out on this case.”

After the hearing, Stitts walked out of the courthouse a free man. He declined to be interviewed.

The case

Kalvin Stitts and three others, Mark Yown, Robert Mau and Kent Davis, were convicted of breaking into Terrence Shaffer’s home in Indian Heights and murdering the 62-year-old man in 1999.

Mau and Davis were sentenced to 10 and 15 years, respectively, for their roles in the break-in. With time off for good behavior, both were released from prison. Davis has since died.

Yown, who admitted to shooting Terrence Shaffer with Shaffer’s gun, is serving 125 years in the Indiana Department of Correction after entering a guilty plea to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit burglary and illegal possession of alcohol.

Yown admitted to hitting Shaffer with a tire iron and knocking him to the ground. Yown also said he shot and wounded Terrence’s wife, Roberta Shaffer, then shot Terrence Shaffer.

According to court records, the four went to Indian Heights, with a plan to break into the Shaffer home to retrieve some CDs from Shaffer’s adopted son.

Yown said the men parked one street over from the Shaffer home and Mau remained in the car. Davis, Stitts and Yown went to the Shaffer home, where they first knocked, then Yown used a tire tool to pry the door open.

Davis said he went inside, took a couple of CDs, and was then confronted by Terrence Shaffer, who walked him outside with a gun in his hand. Davis testified that Yown hit Shaffer in the head with the tire iron once, and all three of them ran towards the car.

Davis said he continued to the car, but Yown and Stitts went back to the house. He waited with Mau in the car until the other two returned, and they drove back to the Ramada Inn.

Davis said he heard one gunshot while waiting for the other two.

Yown and Davis both said Stitts told them he’d hit Shaffer with the tire iron.

Shaffer died later that morning.

A neighbor saw the teen’s car and reported the plate number to police, who arrested the four teens later that morning at the Ramada Inn.

Fleming said he couldn’t retry the case without more evidence.

Fleming’s main witness, Roberta Shaffer, has since passed away. Yown, who testified that Stitts also hit Terrence Shaffer in the head with the tire iron, refused to testify.

Neither Stitts’ fingerprints nor DNA were found on the tire iron.

“I have no evidence connecting him to the murder of Mr. Shaffer,” Fleming said in court. “I have no blood, no DNA.”

        

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