Herald-Times articles
Oct. 23, 2006
IU looking at outsourcing services: Motor pool, bookstore operations among areas that could be contracted
By Steve Hinnefeld
October 23, 2006
Indiana University is testing the market to see if it can save money by contracting with a rental-car or fleet-operations company to run its Bloomington motor pool service.
It has issued a request for proposals for the operation, a step that university trustees pushed for at a meeting last month.
"There's a strong interest on the part of the board in doing this, so we're doing it," said Terry Clapacs, IU vice president for administration.
He said IU will also issue a request next month for proposals to operate campus bookstores.
The Bloomington motor pool maintains and services IU-owned vehicles and provides cars for employees who travel on university business. It also runs a motorist assistance service, a van service for students with disabilities and a student-staffed safety escort service.
It has 13 full-time employees, takes care of 600 vehicles and has a budget of just over $3 million.
Clapacs said he expects several companies to submit motor-pool proposals by the Dec. 1 deadline. The campus will submit its own proposal to continue operating the service, he said. IU administrators will analyze the proposals and make a recommendation to the trustees based on costs and service quality.
"My guess is there's strong interest out there, at least there seems to be," Clapacs said.
IU employee unions have objected to the outsourcing push, but some trustees urged the administration to move faster. Trustee Tom Reilly said in September that IU needs to do everything it can to cut costs before it can justify increased funding from state appropriations or student tuition.
Clapacs said current employees should be considered for jobs if IU does outsource the services.
"Watching out for our employee base is part of our interest here," he said.
The university employed Indianapolis consulting firm Crowe Chizek & Co. for $162,000 to advise it on the motor-pool request for proposals. Clapacs said officials hope to spend less on the bookstore request by following procedures used for the motor pool. But bookstore outsourcing is "a big one to get your arms around," he said, because the stores operate differently on IU's eight campuses.
The proposal, he said, will call for three alternative responses: one for only the IU Bloomington bookstore; one for stores at Bloomington and IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis; and one for stores on all eight IU campuses.
Officials have said they could look into outsourcing nine or 10 auxiliary operations, which include such areas as janitorial services, grounds maintenance and food services. But Clapacs said there's no schedule for more outsourcing proposals.
"A lot of it depends on how successful this first go-round is," he said.
Indiana University: McRobbie seeks to deepen connections with Japan
by Steve Hinnefeld
October 23, 2006
Michael McRobbie said his recent visit to Japan is one more sign of the growing importance of international partnerships for Indiana University.
And he said IU will need stronger relationships with more overseas universities as it implements a general-education requirement all students take that includes language or culture courses or study abroad.
"It's just natural that we're going to experience some increased interest," he said.
McRobbie, the interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at IU Bloomington, returned this week from an eight-day trip during which he visited Rikkyo, Waseda and Tokyo universities, half of the Japanese "Big Six," sometimes compared to Ivy League schools.
He said IU expects to formalize a relationship with Rikkyo University next month, and it's working to expand its involvement with the other institutions.
He also met with officials at Japan's National Institute of Informatics and its National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. They and IU are partners in operating a high-speed connection for research and education networks in the Asia-Pacific region and the U.S.
McRobbie went to China in July to expand IU's involvement with universities in that country.
He pointed out that two-thirds of the approximately 3,300 international students at IU Bloomington are from five Asian countries: South Korea, India, China, Taiwan and Japan, in that order.
For that reason, and because those nations have "dynamic, growing economies and expanding higher-education systems," it makes sense to expand partnerships with their universities, he said.
While McRobbie went to Japan, faculty and students from IU's Kelley School of Business spent the past week in India. Dan Smith, dean of the Kelley School, met with Indian business and university officials. And James Wimbush, dean of the university graduate school at IU, just returned from Shanghai, China.
McRobbie plans to travel to India next spring.
He said the universities he visited in Japan have the same eagerness for international partnerships that IU has.
"They see the world in exactly the same way, that it's vital in the future that their students really are trained for a global world," he said.
McRobbie also visited the ancient Japanese capital of Nara, which three years ago presented a collection of prints by Japanese photographer Taikichi Irie to the IU Art Museum.
"I'm hoping we can keep that relationship alive. The cultural richness of Nara is extraordinary," he said.
IU Jewish a cappella group invited to White House: Performance for president and first lady scheduled for Dec. 18
By Steve Hinnefeld
October 23, 2006
BLOOMINGTON - A singing group made up of IU students has been invited to sing at this year's White House Hanukkah party - not bad for a group that doesn't yet have a name and is just starting to build a song list.
"What other group's first performance is at the White House?" said Andrew Landau, an IU junior and the singing group's manager.
The 16-member group, associated with the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center at Indiana University, is part of a growing phenomenon of Jewish a cappella groups, most of them based on college campuses and singing a mix of music from traditional religious songs to vocals-only rock.
Rabbi Sue Shifron, who directs IU Hillel, the Jewish campus life organization, said plans were in the works for forming an unaccompanied harmony group when the White House called.
"This got us moving a little quicker," she said.
The sequence of events that led to the invitation started with Campus SuperStar, a statewide musical competition sponsored by Hillel.
IU students Stephani Parker, the 2005 winner, and Hannah Farahan, the 2006 runner-up, sang at an international Hillel event. They made such an impression, Shifron said, that when White House staff contacted Hillel about Hanukkah entertainment, they were referred to IU.
Shifron contacted Landau, who sings in and manages the popular IU men's a cappella group Straight No Chaser. Tryouts were held, singers were selected and the White House gig was on.
"We're very, very lucky and fortunate to have this opportunity," Landau said.
The group, which includes SuperStar finalist Farahan and four members of Straight No Chaser, will sing two songs - "Ma'Oz Tsur" and "Hatikvah" - Dec. 18 at a candle-lighting ceremony attended by President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and a few guests.
Later, it will sing at a White House party with several hundred people in the audience, performing three songs, including a do-wop arrangement of "I Have a Little Dreidel."
Advising the group is Judah M. Cohen, an IU professor of folklore and ethnomusicology and a specialist in Jewish music.
Cohen, who helped start an a cappella group at Yale University in the early 1990s, said Jewish a cappella incorporates elements of barbershop, Israeli and European choral music, liturgical songs, 1950s doo-wop and pop harmonies associated with such groups as Rockapella and Boyz II Men - and Straight No Chaser. The Web site www.HaBayit.com lists more than 50 Jewish a cappella groups.
"Part of the fun of this is, it really is an important form of collegiate music-making extended into the performance realm," Cohen said.
Cohen came to IU this fall for an endowed chair in the Jewish studies program, teaching and conducting research about Jewish culture in the arts. He said being involved with a group that's invited to the White House is a good start.
"To me," he said, "it's very exciting to be able to see this happen at IU as part of what I hope will be a real flowering of these kinds of groups."
New coach speaks at NAACP fundraiser
by Lanetta J. Williams
Hoosier Times
October 22, 2006
BLOOMINGTON — Members of the Monroe County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People celebrated the 28th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet Saturday night.
The event is the group's largest fundraiser of the year, bringing in money that will support community activities, scholarships, legal support and training. The evening's theme focused on voting as next month's midterm elections near.
Keynote speaker Felisha Legette-Jack, new head coach of the Indiana University women's basketball team, led with that theme, saying her mother instilled in her the value of being able to make her own choices.
She said she struggled with whether or not to attend her hometown school, Syracuse University, after a guidance counselor told her that wasn't the best place for her.
"Some people in your life may say things that don't make sense, but those are the choices you have to make," she said.
Legette-Jack did go on to attend Syracuse, becoming the second-leading scorer of all time, and leading rebounder in the school's history.
Today, she said, she brings that same enthusiasm and winning attitude to IU women's basketball, a program that hasn't won a championship since 1983.
"This team has been under a lot of duress," she said, noting the last three coaches the team went through in as many years. "I was asked earlier, 'When are you going to leave?' But I don't leave until the job gets done."
She said looking up into the empty rafters at Assembly Hall has given her all the reasons she needs to push hard.
"We're here to win championships," she said. "We don't know how to fail."
Run for the End Zone raises $12,000
by Lanetta J. Williams
Hoosier Times
October 22, 2006
BLOOMINGTON - The annual Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone 5K run/walk and 1-mile fun walk met its goal of raising more than $12,000 dollars Saturday, said race director Joanne Orrange.
The money will support Jill's House, a temporary residence for patients having cancer treatment at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, and the Jill Behrman Emerging Leadership Scholarship, which helps students who exhibit leadership, character and ethical values through their work with recreational sports.
More than 1,350 participants signed up in advance for the event, and hundreds more showed up at IU's Mellencamp Pavilion.
"We were shooting for 1,300, so we were very pleased that we were able to get in a few more than that," Orrange said. "It was amazing. It was such a wonderful morning."
She said a free health and wellness fair offering health-related information and screenings from 40 organizations and businesses was an attraction for the crowd.
"The wellness fair was truly wonderful, (with) over 40 different vendors there, and all the participants looked like they were having fun," she said.
5K results
1. Jimmy Grimes, 23, Bloomington: 16:32
2. Kyle Stansbury, 20, Springville: 17:16
3. Anthony Hilb, 19, Bloomington: 17:33
4. Kevin Devine, 21, Bloomington: 17:40
5. Chris Crans, 36: 18:06
6. Samuel Kaiser, 22, Bloomington: 18:26
7. Anderson Norton, 32, Bloomington: 18:38
8. Kevin Minard, 19, Bloomington: 18:44
9. Jeff Mires, 43, Greeneville: 18:50
10. Brian Obery, 36, Bloomington: 18:54
11. Jason May, 22, Bloomington: 18:58
Our opinions: One idea, one story strengthen community
October 21, 2006
This is an example of what strengthens communities.
Longtime Bloomington resident Ann St. John is running in her first Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone 5K today. In fact, she's never run an organized race. She didn't know Jill, who disappeared in 2000, and doesn't know Jill's parents, Eric and Marilyn Behrman. But she has children the same age as Jill and some of them participated in deCycles, the same cycling group Jill Behrman was involved with.
So she and her sister Jane, who has been a runner for many years, are running today and raising money for the Jill Behrman Emerging Leader Scholarship and Jill's House, which will be a residential center for patients of the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. They bought plain T-shirts and have let people sign them for $20. And guess what? No one has refused to sign and pay.
They hope to raise more than $1,000 for scholarships and Jill's House.
The race has become even more meaningful for the St. Johns, because three weeks into fundraising, Ann's son, Zachary May, was diagnosed with cancer. That has added to the motivation to help Jill's House in particular.
"The people who would go to Jill's House are not only ill - they're scared," she said in a news release. "Now I have an understanding of what that fear feels like, and I want to help make that place for them to get well."
It's individual stories like this that help communities to grow, prosper and unite. We all should figure out how we can help in our own way.
Registration for today's Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone begins at 8 a.m. at the IU Mellencamp Pavilion. The 5K run starts at 10 a.m. Registration is $20.
Former girlfriend: Myers drove her to spot where Behrman's bones were found
by Laura Lane
Oct. 23, 2006
MARTINSVILLE - Two months before Jill Behrman disappeared, John R. Myers II drove his then-girlfriend to the very site where 19-year-old Behrman's remains were found by hunters three years later.
She identified the area from a photograph and also pointed to it on a map with a laser printer.
"That's where John took me," she said, unwavering.
Carly Goodman, who was a 17-year-old Edgewood High School senior at the time, said she was scared when Myers took her to the remote wooded area near Paragon, where they argued. She asked him to take her home, and he would not.
Goodman was not allowed to testify about the violent dispute, during which Myers confined and threatened to kill her, that led to their break-up a month before Berhman disappeared. Morgan Superior Court Judge Christopher Burnham earlier in the morning upheld his ruling that prior bad acts committed by Myers could not be entered into evidence.
Richard Swinney, whose wife is Myers' cousin, testified that during a conversation about Berhman's disappearance around November or December 2001, Myers said, "I'll bet she's found in the woods." Swinney testified that "it struck me weird that comment was coming out of his mouth."
Swinney also said Myers was familiar with the terrain around Paragon and that he had talked about hunting at the Horseshoe Bend area, a few miles west of the spot where Behrman's bones were discovered in March 2003. He said that Myers, like many hunters, used a .12-gauge shotgun to hunt deer, rabbit and squirrel.
Behrman was shot with a 12-gauge shotgun, which has not been recovered.
First week of Myers trial brings tears, revelations
by Laura Lane
October 23, 2006
MARTINSVILLE — The lives of Jill Behrman and John Myers II — a 19-year old bicyclist looking forward to being a summer camp counselor and the troubled 31-year-old handyman accused of shooting her in the back of the head with a shotgun — collided last week in a Morgan County courtroom.
There were tears from the witness stand during the first week of Myers' trial for murder: from Jodie Myers, the defendant's mother; from Betty Swaffard, his grandmother and a witness against him; from Brian Behrman, the victim's older brother; and from Eric Behrman, a man who searched years for his daughter.
Myers, charged with killing the Indiana University student May 31, 2000, shed a tear, dabbing a tissue to his eyes as his mother described his father's lost battle with cancer. A few jurors tried to fight back tears as Eric Behrman described hearing that hunters had found his child's bones.
There were revelations in a case that has been cloaked in secrecy since a grand jury indicted Myers on a murder charge earlier this year.
For instance, a 12-gauge shotgun like the murder weapon was missing from Myers' parents' Delap Road home a month after Behrman was killed. Defense allegations that Behrman might have been pregnant or dating a married co-worker when she was killed. Myers' call to the FBI in 2001 to report finding a bone and a pair of panties in a tree while fishing. His incriminating statements to family members, and their concern he might have been involved. News that five long-distance phone calls were made from Myers' mobile home around the time Behrman is thought to have disappeared less than a mile away.
'A dirty shame'
The allegations about Behrman's personal life angered her parents, and others. "I think it's a dirty shame they can bring up things about the girl's past and yet they won't bring up nothing Myers has done in the past," said Owen County resident Jerry Lane. Trial rules prohibit the prosecution from telling jurors about Myers' criminal record and past violence against women.
"The lawyers are allowed to bring up these things about her that might not even be true, and she can't defend herself," Lane continued. "Then they hide all he's done. I don't think it's right. I don't think it's fair."
The Rev. George Purnell from Bloomington's First United Methodist Church, where the Behrmans are members and their daughter's memorial service was held, addressed the family's pain over the allegations during Sunday morning's service. He prayed that defense attorney Patrick Baker "recognize the harm caused by his words, and cease from this day forward."
Evidence and witnesses
The prosecution has presented more than 30 witnesses; jurors likely will hear from nearly 150 before the trial ends. It is expected to last three more weeks or so; jurors are sequestered at a Martinsville hotel.
Evidence has ranged from pictures of Behrman's skull — reconstructed from dozens of pieces and glued together — to her prized Cannondale R500 bicycle, missing its seat.
Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega said two Myers family members who testified Saturday represented the heart of his case against Myers. Swaffard and her daughter, Debbie Bell, struggled with emotion as they recalled conversations with Myers and their suspicions and fears about him. "Obviously, these are people who come in with heavy hearts," the prosecutor said later. "It was not easy for them to come forward. They are probably our two strongest witnesses."
Sonnega admits his case against Myers is circumstantial — there is no murder weapon, no witness, no DNA tying Myers to Behrman. He said the case will be proven by "the totality of the evidence."
Baker speaks confidently to the media about his client being the victim of an ineffective investigation by police under pressure to charge someone with Behrman's murder. "Their case is based on innuendo and circumstantial evidence attached to speculation," he told a horde of reporters after court adjourned Saturday.
Community support
Eric and Marilyn Behrman both testified this week; neither can sit in the courtroom during the trial because they may be recalled by the defense. But their son Brian has been attending portions of the proceedings, as have Eric Behrman's parents, other relatives and a handful of church and family friends. Jill Behrman's friends come, too. "We think it's really important to support her family," Jillian Richards said.
Saturday, former IU Jacobs School of Music Dean Charles Webb and faculty member Sylvia McNair drove straight from the Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone charity fundraiser to the courthouse in Martinsville to view the trial. The state's victim assistance coordinator asked them to change out of their official race T-shirts, with Behrman's name printed on the front, to keep from causing a stir.
Eric Behrman said his family appreciates the presence and thoughts of others. "Everybody in Bloomington has been very supportive," he said. "It helps us get through this."
Ex-girlfriend to testify
Myers' former girlfriend broke off her relationship with him about two months before Behrman disappeared, alleging he stripped, confined and threatened her. She is expected to testify today. Indiana State Police Detective Rick Lang said Myers once drove her to the spot where Behrman's remains were discovered. Lang said Myers' reaction to the breakup fueled what happened to Behrman.
Relatives suspected Myers: Myers' grandmother felt compelled to call police; aunt and brother also testify
By Laura Lane
October 22, 2006
MARTINSVILLE — A tearful Betty Swaffard told jurors Saturday that despite her love for her grandson, John R. Myers II, she felt compelled to tell police about her suspicions that he might have been involved in the slaying of Jill Behrman.
Late in November 2004, she had a discussion with Myers when he asked her to watch his daughter overnight. He said he needed to be by himself, that he had a lot on his mind.
Swaffard held her head and shed tears before continuing, and told Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega, "I don't want to do this." Then she testified to what her grandson said that night.
"He said, 'Grandma, if you knew the things I have on my mind ... if the police knew, I'd go to prison for the rest of my life. My dad knew it, and he took it to the grave with him.'"
There was more, Swaffard said. "He said, 'Grandma, I wish I wasn't a bad person. I wish I hadn't done these bad things.' I put my arms around him."
Then she gave her oldest grandson some advice. She told him he would have to face up to whatever he had done or he would never have any peace.
"Why did you report this?" Sonnega asked Swaffard. "My conscience demanded it," the 79-year-old Bloomington woman responded. "I could not live with the fact that he had said something like this to me. I struggled with it. Prayed about it."
In the end, she took her information to Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzmann, whom she knew from attending Ellettsville Christian Church. He passed the information along to investigators.
That, and other evidence, was presented earlier this year to a grand jury, which indicted Myers, now 31, on one count of murder. His trial started Monday and is expected to last a month.
'Ready to burst'
Earlier Saturday, jurors heard from Debbie Bell, Myers' mother's sister, who lives in Tennessee. Bell testified that she was concerned after conversations she had with Myers in the spring of 2000. Myers had asked if his daughter could come and live with her, and they were making arrangements for that to happen.
He told her he was having problems with his girlfriend and "said he was like a balloon full of hot air ready to burst," Bell said, adding that he seemed "very depressed."
She said she called her sister, Jodie Myers, John Myers II's mother, on May 31 to talk about the plans for Myers' then-5-year-old daughter to move to Tennessee. "She was upset," Bell testified. "She said he (Myers) said that night he was leaving town and never coming back. She said he was crying and distraught and almost hysterical."
Jill Behrman disappeared on that day, and her bike was found tossed in a cornfield less than a mile from Myers' mobile home on Maple Grove Road.
When Bell talked to her nephew by phone a few days later, June 5, he said he was scared. He told her, "There was a girl who was abducted up here and I'm afraid they are going to blame me." When she asked why he thought that, he responded that it was "because they found her bicycle a mile from my house and they blame me for everything."
"She's still missing?" the aunt asked. "Yeah, they haven't found her body yet," Myers said.
"You mean she's dead?" the aunt responded. "Well, yeah, I guess," he said.
At that point, six days after Behrman had disappeared, police and volunteers were conducting far-ranging searches, hoping to find her alive.
"I was very suspicious," Bell testified. She said she discussed her concerns with Jodie Myers, who discouraged her from telling police about the conversations.
Guns sold, gun missing
Bell also recalled her nephew selling her husband, David, two guns — a shotgun and a rifle — in the parking lot of Chandler Funeral Home during the calling hours before John Myers Sr.'s funeral in December 2000.
Swaffard, the grandmother, also testified that on June 27, 2000 — the day police talked to Myers' parents for three hours about his possible involvement in Behrman's disappearance — her grandson called and wanted to borrow $200. She said she only had $10, and he said he'd take that, but did not want to come and get it because of police roadblocks in the area stopping motorists to ask if they had seen anything suspicious on May 31.
Sam Myers, the defendant's 28-year-old brother, testified Saturday that when he came back home from college in the spring of 2000, his 12-gauge shotgun was missing from his parents' house. Family members said they didn't know where it was, and it was never found. Myers had access to the house and had borrowed guns for hunting.
Behrman, whose remains were found in March 2003 in a wooded area near Paragon, was killed by a 12-gauge shotgun blast to the back of the head. The murder weapon was never recovered.
The trial continues Monday.
Detective: Myers an early focus: E-mail that put Rick Crussen on the trail not revealed in court; judge rejects repeated mistrial requests by defense
By James Boyd
October 21, 2006
MARTINSVILLE — Police identified John R. Myers II as a person of interest in the Jill Behrman case within a month of her disappearance, but the detective who interviewed him wrote a case report that was ignored for more than four years.
Bloomington Police Department Detective Rick Crussen testified in court Friday that he interviewed Myers in late June 2000, after receiving an e-mail from a friend of Myers' aunt in Tennessee.
Myers, charged with murder in Behrman's killing, was "flippant" during his interview with Crussen, the detective said on the witness stand Friday morning.
"I'd been interviewing (Behrman's) co-workers, but once I received the e-mail, my focus shifted to John Myers II," Crussen said.
That e-mail, sent in mid-June 2000, wasn't entered into evidence, and its contents were not revealed Friday.
But Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega implied that it contained enough information to put Crussen on Myers' trail.
Crussen and two other people testified that when they came into contact with Myers in the days and weeks following Behrman's disappearance, the windows of his Ellettsville mobile home were covered with blankets. And a neighbor, Billy Dodd, said Myers told him he had moved his car away from his driveway because he "didn't want anyone knowing he was home."
Sonnega asked Crussen point-blank if Myers became a suspect following his interview, a question defense attorney Patrick Baker immediately objected to. He didn't get a chance to answer.
Crussen did say Myers was unable to provide a viable alibi for the week that Behrman disappeared.
Myers told the detective he'd been "here and there" the week of May 31, saying he'd mostly stayed home.
"He seemed surprised, like he didn't have any idea I was coming," Crussen said of the interview. "He basically said he'd been at home all week, but didn't even have time to go fishing."
Crussen painted a picture of an investigation that suffered communication problems.
Immediately after talking with Myers, Crussen wrote a case report and summary of the interview. But it went untouched for four years.
"Detectives talked to Myers on June 27, 2000, but the report wasn't picked up on until (Indiana State Police Detective) Rick Lang talked to other witnesses in September 2004," Sonnega said.
Sonnega said the sheer volume of information and case reports being generated by tips proved to be almost too much for investigators to sift through.
But further questioning revealed an investigation with a clear chain of command, and a system that may not have been the most effective way to handle the case.
When Baker grilled him on why he hadn't checked Myers' phone records, Crussen replied it would have "violated the command structure. We were simply given assignments. Once we finished them, we were given others."
Asked if the focus of his investigation shifted after talking to Myers, Crussen said no.
"As far as my understanding goes, the focus at that time was on three other people."
Other testimony
Earlier in the day, Indiana University forensic pathologist Dr. Stephen Radentz said the finding of Behrman's remains, in March 2003 in Morgan County, suggested a "classic rape-homicide scenario."
Though he found no physical proof of sexual assault, Radentz said Behrman was most likely face down when she was shot to death, with the muzzle of a 12-gauge shotgun fired within an inch of the back of her skull.
"Do you believe she was raped before she was shot?" a deputy prosecutor asked.
"Yes," Radentz replied.
After testifying, he addressed media members outside the courthouse.
Killers will typically disfigure their victims' faces in order to rid themselves of a personal connection to them, he said.
"It's no longer a person," Radentz said. "It's just a crime."
One of Myers' former girlfriends, Kanya Bailey, told jury members that while on a car ride in 2000 or 2001, Myers told her he had found Behrman's Cannondale bicycle.
Bailey, stricken with a medical condition that prohibited her from testifying in person, told investigators that Myers pointed to an area off Delap Road and said "that's where I found Behrman's bike," according to a sworn disposition read aloud in court.
Baker made three separate mistrial requests throughout the day, two for witnesses speaking to the media, and one for Crussen's use of the word "polygraph" — lie detector — tests during his testimony. Any mention of polygraphs is inadmissible under state law. All three mistrial requests were denied.
Throughout it all, Myers appeared optimistic, even laughing at humorous exchanges between the attorneys and witnesses.
Trial developments
- Three mistrial requests by the defense team were turned down.
- Detective Rick Crussen said Myers was unable to provide a viable alibi for the week that Behrman disappeared in May 2000.
- He and two others testified that when they came into contact with Myers in the days and weeks following Behrman's disappearance, the windows of his Ellettsville mobile home were covered with blankets. Crussen's report on Myers went untouched for four years, he said.
- Indiana University forensic pathologist Dr. Stephen Radentz said the finding of Behrman's remains, in March 2003, suggested a "classic rape-homicide scenario." When asked by the prosecution, he answered that he believed the 19-year-old cyclist was raped before she was shot.
