A change of plea hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday in Bartholomew Superior Court 1 for a man accused of raping and murdering his great aunt in her Waynesville home.
Bobby Neil Truitt II, 19, is accused of first sexually assaulting Sharon Lovins, 64, before killing her in late September of last year.
An autopsy revealed Lovins died from blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxia due to manual strangulation, Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting said.
Truitt, who had been staying at different addresses prior to his arrest, is charged with murder, rape as a Level 1 felony and auto theft as a Level 6 felony, online court records state. If found guilty on all charges, the defendant could face a prison term of over 100 years.
As of Friday, there was no indication that a plea bargain has been — or will be — extended to Truitt, according to Teresa Million, office manager for Superior Court 1 Judge James Worton.
However, it would not be unusual if such an agreement were introduced on Monday, she said. While Million confirmed the hearing was still scheduled as of Friday, court hearings can be delayed or changed at the last minute.
During an initial court hearing on Nov. 9, Truitt immediately inquired what a plea bargain would consist of. A few moments later, the defendant asked Worton whether he will be allowed to call a witness to testify about his mental state.
The day before she was killed, Lovins had paid a $300 bond to get Truitt released from the Johnson County Jail, where he was being held on a Level 6 felony charge of sexual battery.
The alleged victim in Franklin suffered a mild mental impairment that, according to her case worker, made it difficult for her to communicate and left her easily exploited by others. The sexual battery was stopped after the victim ran to her boyfriend, who escorted Truitt out of the home and drove him to a relative’s apartment in Columbus, according to an affidavit written by a Johnson County police officer.
While the crime in Franklin occurred in May of last year, charges were not filed until four months later. Johnson Superior Court 3 Judge Lance Hamner has scheduled Truitt to stand trial for that crime in late September.
After bonding Truitt out of jail on Sept. 26, 2020, Lovins invited her great-nephew to stay with her, a probable cause affidavit stated. But investigators believe Lovins was raped and killed by Truitt the next day in her bedroom on Sept. 27. The suspect then allegedly stole the victim’s 1995 Ford Explorer and drove it to Indianapolis, court documents state.
After finding the SUV, investigators talked with a Greyhound bus employee in Indianapolis on Sept. 28, who identified Truitt as an individual who had inquired a short time earlier about buying a ticket to New York City.
Truitt was finally taken into custody in the area of 200 E. Washington St. in Indianapolis on Sept. 29. At the time of his arrest, he was among a group of homeless individuals, according to the sheriff’s department.
During questioning at the jail in Columbus, Truitt admitted to Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Lt. Chad Swank that he hit Lovins in the face with a hammer, and then sexually assaulted her before choking her, the affidavit states. The hammer was located by investigators in the home, along with evidence of the sexual assault, according to the court document.
