Joseph Corcoran was sentenced to death by the State of Indiana for four murders
According to court documents Joseph Corcoran thought people were talking behind his back so he would go to a home and murder four people: His brother James Corcoran, 30; his sister’s fiancé, Robert Scott Turner, 32; and two of his brother’s friends, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30,
Joseph Corcoran would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
While on death row Joseph Corcoran would brag that he had murdered his parents with a shotgun, a crime he was tried for and found not guilty
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Where Is Joseph Corcoran Now
Joseph Corcoran is incarcerated at Indiana State Prison
Joseph Corcoran Case
Joseph Corcoran, a former Hamilton resident, hopes Friday was his last birthday.
The convicted quadruple murderer and acquitted suspect in his parents’ murders in 1992 at their Ball Lake home, turned 28. And he said he does not want to spend another year on death row at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. He thinks he should die.
“I believe the death penalty is a just punishment for murder,” Corcoran wrote in a letter to a Fort Wayne newspaper. “I’m guilty of murder, therefore I should be executed.”
His four victims were killed in July 1997 at the Fort Wayne home Corcoran shared with his brother, James, 30, who was killed, and his sister, Kelly Nieto.
In an Allen County trial
which used jurors from Porter County due to the heavy publicity the case received, in part due to the Steuben County acquittal several years earlier
Corcoran described waking from a nap in his upstairs bedroom and thinking he heard the men downstairs talking about him. After telling his 7-year-old niece, Nieto’s daughter, to stay in her room, Corcoran loaded his Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle with 28 rounds of high-velocity military-style .223 cartridges designed to penetrate a steel helmet at 600 yards. Then he went downstairs.
Within about six seconds, Corcoran shot his brother three times, 30-year-old Timothy Bricker twice and put four bullets into 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, Nieto’s fiance, as they sat on the couch. The men died almost instantly. Douglas Stillwell, 30, bolted from the couch and ran into the kitchen, where Corcoran chased him down and shot him four times, the last in the head as Stillwell lay helpless on the floor.
On Nov. 16, 1992, a Steuben County jury acquitted Corcoran of the shotgun slayings of his parents, Jack, 54, and Kathryn, 48. A lack of solid evidence and doubts raised by defense attorney Allen Stout of Angola were cited as reasons for the acquittal.
Corcoran attended Hamilton High School at the time his parents were murdered, and was arrested at school after his sister found them murdered at their Ball Lake residence. Testimony presented at the Steuben County trial seemed to reveal a preoccupation with guns and murder. Corcoran had allegedly offered people money, some believed jokingly, to kill his parents prior to their shootings.
Although Corcoran wants to die, state-appointed public defenders are preparing another appeal in his case.
“Why give such a person life in prison?” he wrote. “If they kill someone, they’ve won the lottery; they get free room and board for the rest of their life. Therefore, it is my opinion that the death penalty is a just punishment for murder.”
Corcoran made it clear from the time he was convicted that he wanted to die, saying then: “Do I have the right to waive my appeal?” he asked. “I wish to waive my appeals.”
Corcoran might have little to say about his appeals, though, at least until they reach the federal courts, where his signature will be required to file them.
At that point, if Corcoran does not sign the papers, the likelihood of him being put to death will become more certain. That’s what happened with Gerald Bivins of Terre Haute, executed in March 2001 for the murder of a minister at a highway rest stop. Bivins, who said he had become frustrated and tired of prison life, refused to sign the appellate documents and died by lethal injection.
As he awaits execution, Corcoran said he has “become quite a boring individual.”
He spends his days reading the Bible and watching television, especially shows featuring his favorite preachers. He is also a fan of the soap opera “Days of Our Lives.”
He said he does not consider prison to be that bad. “It’s not like you’re starved and beaten. No, when I say I deserve to die, I say so because I am guilty of murder, and I believe a murderer should be executed.”MICHIGAN CITY, Ind.
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