COLUMBUS, Ind. — A Bartholomew County man who admitted to murdering his great aunt and abusing her corpse was sentenced Tuesday to serve 67 years in prison.
During a change of plea hearing on March 29, Bobby Neal Truitt II admitted in Bartholomew Superior Court 1 that he killed and assaulted his 64-year-old great aunt, Sharon Lovins on Sept. 27, 2020 at her home in Waynesville.
Beside murder, Truitt, 20, was originally charged with rape as a Level 1 felony. But as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to a far lesser charge of abuse of a corpse as a Level 6 crime. In addition, a third charge of auto theft was dropped as part of the agreement.
Truitt received 65 years in prison for murder and an additional two years for the abuse of a corpse, a sentence given by Bartholomew Superior Court 1 Judge James Worton.
Nevertheless, the defendant faced a potential sentence of 45 to 65 years without the possibility of parole for murder. The plea agreement specifically stated Worton would not be bound by any pre-determined prison time. In addition, Truitt is not eligible for any treatment programs with the Indiana Department of Correction, Worton said.
Lovins, who worked at Applied Laboratories, was killed one day after bailing Truitt out of the Johnson County Jail, where he was being held on charges of sexual battery. She provided him a ride back to Columbus, and offered to let him stay temporarily with her.
While being questioned for the killing, Truitt admitted that he first hit his great-aunt in the face with a hammer before a sexual assault and finally choking her, court documents state. The victim died of blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation, Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting determined.
After Lovins was killed, Truitt stole her 1995 Ford Explorer and drove it to Indianapolis, where surveillance equipment showed him inquiring about buying a bus ticket to New York City, according to court documents.
Two days after the murder, Truitt was arrested after being found on an Indianapolis street among a group of panhandling homeless individuals, the affidavit states.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
