WINCHESTER, Ind. (AP) – The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the murder convictions of an eastern Indiana man convicted of killing his parents.
Brian Scott Hartman was sentenced to 120 years in prison last year in the fatal shooting of his father and the fatal drug overdose of his mother.
The bodies of 53-year-old Brian Hartman and 52-year-old Cheri Hartman were found in February 2010 at the couple's Randolph County home about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
Their 37-year-old son had contended in his appeal that the murder charge stemming from his mother's death was filed against him based on “a desire to punish the defendant.”
But The Star Press reports the appeals court ruled in Friday's 3-0 opinion upholding Hartman's conviction that there was no evidence the murder charge was “punishment.”
