Brian Scott Hartman is a killer from Indiana who was convicted of the murders of his parents
According to court documents Brian Scott Hartman decided to murder his parents and make it look like a murder suicide. Hartman would fatally shoot his father Brian Hartman and then give his mother a fatal overdose.
Brian Scott Hartman would tell police that his mother begged him to kill his father so he would not suffer when she would pass away. Hartman mother Cheri Hartman was dying from cancer at the time of her death
Brian Scott Hartman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to 120 years in prison
Brian Scott Hartman Now
| DOC Number | 243090 | |
| First Name | BRIAN | |
| Middle Name | S | |
| Last Name | HARTMAN | |
| Suffix | ||
| Date of Birth | 10/1976 | |
| Gender | Male | |
| Race | White | |
| Facility/Location | Indiana State Prison | |
| Earliest Possible Release Date* * Incarcerated individuals scheduled for release on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are released on Monday. Incarcerated individuals scheduled for release on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday are released on Thursday. Incarcerated individuals whose release date falls on a Holiday are released on the first working day prior to the Holiday. | 02/24/2070 | |
Brian Scott Hartman Case
A judge sentenced an eastern Indiana man to 120 years in prison Thursday for the murders of his parents, calling the defendant “the definition of a cold-blooded killer.”
Brian Scott Hartman did not speak at his sentencing by Randolph Circuit Judge Jay Toney for the February 2010 slayings of Brian Hartman, 53, and Cheri Hartman, 52, The Star Press reported.
A jury deliberated only an hour Oct. 10 before convicting Hartman, 37, in the fatal shooting of his father and the fatal overdose of his mother at the couple’s southwestern Randolph County home, about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis. Cheri Hartman suffered from cancer and emphysema, and her remains were cremated at her son’s direction before authorities realized her husband had been slain.
Testimony during the trial showed that the father was killed with a shotgun blast and his body stuffed into a plastic container where it was found 11 days later.
Randolph County Prosecutor David Daly said Hartman that same day caused his mother’s death, likely with a fatal overdose of prescription medication that was missing.
The start of the trial faced many delays as the defense fought to block statements in which police said Hartman told investigators he had killed his father at his mother’s request in order to spare the elder Hartman the pain of losing his wife, and then helped his mother commit suicide with an overdose. In June, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled those statements could not be used as evidence.
Brian Scott Hartman News
The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the convictions of a Randolph County man who killed his parents.
A Randolph Circuit Court jury last October found Brian Scott Hartman, now 37, guilty of two counts of murder in the February 2010 slayings. Judge Jay Toney later imposed a 120-year sentence, calling Hartman “the definition of a cold-blooded killer.”
Prosecutor David Daly said Hartman fatally shot his 53-year-old father, also named Brian Hartman, in the family’s southwestern Randolph County home. He then caused the death of his 52-year-old mother, Cheri Ann, likely with a fatal overdose of her prescription medication.
Cheri Hartman had suffered from cancer and emphysema, and her remains were cremated — at her son’s direction — before authorities learned her husband had been slain.
In an appeal, Hartman contended:
- The murder charge stemming from his mother’s death was filed against him based on “a desire to punish the defendant for something the law allowed him to do.”
Hartman had at first been charged with assisting a suicide in his mother’s death. After the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that a statement the defendant gave to police — in which he admitted to shooting his father and giving his mother a fatal overdose — could not be used as evidence, Daly filed the murder count in Cheri’s Hartman’s death.
The three-member appeals panel ruled there was no evidence that charge was “punishment for (Hartman’s) pre-trial motion to suppress.”
- He should have been tried separately on each murder count.
“Acknowledging the overwhelming evidence against him in the death of his father, Hartman argues he was only convicted of killing his mother because the evidence showed that he killed his father … (creating) an improper inference of guilt,” Judge Margret Robb wrote in the 3-0 opinion.
Robb wrote there was no evidence “the jury had difficulty in distinguishing the evidence at is related to (the elder Brian Hartman) or Cheri Ann, or that the jury had difficulty applying the law to each offense.”
Hartman is incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. His projected release date is in February 2070, when he would be 93, according to a state Department of Correction website.
https://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/11/parent-killers-convictions-upheld/15467303/
