Jury views photos in double homicide

Judge overrules defense objection in Kerner trial in Porter County

Jurors in Connor Kerner’s murder trial were taken by a series of pictures through the burned-out Honda Civic that contained the bodies of his alleged victims as a crime scene investigator provided details about the sometimes grisly images, as well as the propane bottles and aerosol cans believed to have been used to set the car ablaze.

Thursday marked the second day of testimony in Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford’s courtroom. The trial, the first murder case tried in Porter County since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to take three weeks.

Kerner, 19, of the 100 block of Kinsale, has pleaded not guilty and remains in Porter County Jail without bond, held on two counts of murder and additional felony counts of intimidation, arson, murder in the perpetration of a robbery and attempted robbery.

Kerner was 17 when he allegedly killed Molley Lanham, 19, of St. John, and Thomas Grill, 18, of Cedar Lake, on Feb. 25, 2019, at his grandparents’ Hebron-area home after a drug deal went bad, then loaded their bodies into the Honda Civic they arrived in and set fire to the vehicle in a wooded area a couple miles away.

Kerner’s defense attorneys objected to showing the photos and said they were prejudicial but Bradford overruled their objection.

Cpl. Nathan Graf, a crime scene investigator with the Porter County Sheriff ’s Department, said he was called to the wooded area where the vehicle was located, near the intersection of County Roads 250 West and 550 South near Hebron, around 10

a.m. March 2, 2019.

He was met by other investigators at the intersection and led to the wooded area where the car was discovered. Trees and grass near the car were burned and scorched and the car itself was a shell, its windows and sunroof melted and the interior burned away to the metal frames of the seats.

Graf, who sometimes got up from the stand and used a pointer as he explained details in the pictures, said part of what was left of the license plate was visible, including its expiration date and that it was a Riley Hospital for Children plate. He also was able to recover part of the car’s vehicle identification number, f ound under melted glass, and identify an “H” on a hubcap that identified the car as a Honda.

Also depicted in photographs both in the car and after they had been removed as evidence were propane bottles and aerosol cans. According to c h a r g i n g d o c u me n t s , Kerner loaded the car, which belonged to Lanham’s stepfather, with flammables before setting it on fire.

Among other items located in the car, Graf said, were several metal buttons; a pair of eyeglasses in a case, a double-pronged belt buckle, a folding utility knife with a curved blade and veterinary identification tags for a dog from a Cedar Lake animal hospital.

Kerner looked through the photos with his attorneys before they were displayed on a video screen in the courtroom. One juror sighed audibly during a description of one of the more graphic photos submitted into evidence. Two women, in court for the v i c t i ms, sat together clutching hands and looking away when some of the photos were displayed.

C o - d e f e n d a n t Jo h n Silva II, of Hamlet, who has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of murder in the perpetration of a robbery, remains in Porter County Jail without bond. Silva was charged May 22 with the alleged crimes and is awaiting the scheduling of a trial date.

S i l va , a c c o r d i n g to charging documents, was in the basement of Kerner’s grandparents’ home at the time of the alleged murders and helped clean up the scene.

Silva’s DNA profile was present on a gun allegedly used in the shooting, documents said.

During opening arguments, Kerner’s defense team told the jury it would be up to them to decide whether Silva or Kerner killed Lanham and Grill.