Patrick Doyle
Patrick Doyle
Copyright, The Republic, Columbus
COLUMBUS, Ind. — A Bartholomew Circuit Court jury brought in from Shelbyville found Patrick Doyle guilty of the murder of 37-year-old Heather Ann Steuver after deliberating about an hour Friday morning at the Bartholomew County Courthouse.
The jury went into deliberations at 9:25 a.m. and issued the guilty verdict at 10:35 a.m. Sentencing is set for 10:15 a.m. March 23 in Bartholomew Circuit Court.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
CORRECTION
Because of a Republic error, two items in a Friday story about the Patrick Doyle murder trial were incorrect. Court reporters who made daily trips to Shelbyville to bring in jurors for the Patrick Doyle murder trial will be given compensatory time, rather than overtime pay, for any time they worked over 40 hours a week. Those who drove the jurors were correctional and transport officers employed by the county.
ORIGINAL STORY
Jury deliberations are likely to begin today in Bartholomew Circuit Court in the murder trial of Patrick Doyle, following closing statements by attorneys.
The 40-year-old Columbus resident has been standing trial for the August 2021 murder of his live-in girlfriend, 37-year-old Heather Ann Steuver.
Bartholomew County Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay completed her questioning with testimony from lead investigator Bartholomew County Sheriff Department Detective Kevin Abner on Thursday morning.
Thursday morning’s court session was interrupted multiple times by objections and legal matters that resulted in the jury being sent to their chambers for lengthy periods of time.
Before the jury from Shelby County was brought in Thursday afternoon, public defender Don Edwards had his client sworn in. However, the only information Doyle gave to the court was that he was declining to take the stand in his own defense.
The defense rested its case without calling any witnesses.
But as prosecutors were preparing to make their final statements, Edwards introduced five proposed jury instructions that Holden-Kay and Judge Kelly Benjamin said they needed to study before the jury could be brought in.
Holden-Kay submitted one proposed jury instruction that she said dealt with a potential option of finding the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter.
After the jury spent much of the morning secluded, Benjamin decided to allow the jurors to be driven back to Shelbyville while she, Edwards and Holden-Kay discussed proposed jury instructions.
Doyle is accused of murdering Steuver in the bedroom they shared in the victim’s father home near St. Louis Crossing. While a coroner’s report states Heather died of blunt force trauma to the head, Doyle maintains he was so intoxicated that he couldn’t remember how she was killed.
Court records state Doyle said he took the victim’s body to Nugent Sand and Gravel Co., where she was buried in a grave so shallow that Doyle came out two more times to cover it back up.
At the same time, he continued to live with Steuver’s father while creating the illusion the victim was still alive for 18 days after her death by sending out text messages that appeared to be from his girlfriend, according to court records.
It was after detectives found blood in the couple’s bedroom that they felt they had enough evidence to arrest Doyle, Abner said. The detective said Doyle then led authorities to where the victim was buried.
The jury is being driven in daily from Shelbyville to Columbus after Benjamin concluded pre-trial publicity prevented Doyle from getting an impartial jury in Bartholomew County.
The county rented vans with professional drivers to transport the jurors, as well as paying overtime for court reporters to ride in the vans. Their responsibility was to ensure jurors did not discuss the case among themselves while travelling back and forth.
This week, the Bartholomew County Council appropriated $6,000 to pay for the added expenses of bringing in the out-of-county jurors.
