The David Camm case is one of the most protracted wrongful conviction sagas in American legal history: a former Indiana State Trooper was tried three separate times over 13 years for the September 2000 murders of his wife and two young children in Georgetown, Indiana, before a jury finally acquitted him in October 2013. The prosecution’s case leaned heavily on a blood-spatter expert whose credentials turned out to be fabricated, and DNA testing eventually tied a convicted felon named Charles Boney to the crime scene and to the victims themselves.
The Murders in Georgetown, Indiana
On the evening of September 28, 2000, David Camm called his former Indiana State Police post at 9:29 p.m. He said he had just come home from playing basketball at a nearby church and found his wife Kim, 35, and their two children, Brad, 7, and Jill, 5, shot to death in the family’s garage. Camm told investigators he had been at the church gym with about ten other players from roughly 7:00 to 9:25 p.m., and multiple witnesses supported that account.
Within hours, investigators focused on Camm. He was the sole surviving family member, and something about his demeanor during and after the call drew their attention. What sealed his fate as the prime suspect, though, was what a crime-scene examiner claimed to find on his T-shirt.
Why Camm Became the Suspect
A crime scene examiner named Robert Stites identified tiny stains on Camm’s T-shirt as “high-velocity impact spatter,” meaning blood cast off at the moment a bullet struck a victim. That single opinion became the foundation of the prosecution’s case for more than a decade.1Justia. Camm v Faith, No 18-1440 (7th Cir 2019)
Stites had almost no qualifications to make that call. He had never taken a bloodstain-analysis course. His scientific background consisted of an economics degree and a single college chemistry course that he failed. He told investigators he was a crime-scene reconstructionist working on advanced degrees in fluid dynamics. None of that was true. He had never processed a homicide scene before this one, and the lead investigator had to walk him through the scientific method before trial. Of the stains he flagged throughout the crime scene as high-velocity blood spatter, only the ones on Camm’s shirt turned out to actually be blood.1Justia. Camm v Faith, No 18-1440 (7th Cir 2019)
The First Trial and Its Reversal
At trial in 2002, prosecutors argued that the stains on Camm’s shirt placed him next to Kim when she was shot. To supply motive, they introduced testimony about his extramarital affairs. They also presented evidence suggesting he may have molested his daughter Jill, including testimony from a medical examiner about trauma to the child’s genital area that could have been consistent with molestation or with a common childhood injury.2Justia. David Camm v State of Indiana, 2004
The jury convicted Camm, and the court sentenced him to 195 years in prison.3United States Court of Appeals. No 18-1440 David R Camm v Stanley O Faith et al
In 2004, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed. The court found that testimony about Camm’s affairs was unduly prejudicial and more likely to inflame the jury than to prove any motive for murder. It also raised serious concerns about the molestation evidence, noting that the medical findings were ambiguous and that the “highly inflammatory nature” of such evidence could substantially outweigh its probative value. The case went back for retrial.2Justia. David Camm v State of Indiana, 2004
Charles Boney Enters the Case
Before the retrial, DNA testing produced a result that should have upended everything. A gray sweatshirt found at the crime scene carried the DNA of Charles Boney, a convicted felon. The shirt had Boney’s prison nickname, “Backbone,” and his Department of Corrections inmate number written inside the collar. Had investigators inspected the sweatshirt carefully back in 2000, a single phone call to the DOC could have identified him without any DNA testing at all.
Boney was arrested in March 2005 and charged with the murders. Rather than reconsider Camm’s guilt, prosecutors charged both men as co-conspirators.
The Second Trial and Second Reversal
At Camm’s 2006 retrial, Boney testified that he had only supplied the murder weapon to Camm. Camm’s defense argued that Boney was the actual killer and that the physical evidence, including DNA and a palm print on the family vehicle, pointed at Boney alone. The jury convicted Camm a second time.3United States Court of Appeals. No 18-1440 David R Camm v Stanley O Faith et al
In 2009, the Indiana Supreme Court threw out the second conviction, finding that prosecutors had again introduced the same prejudicial evidence about affairs and molestation that had doomed the first trial. The state asked for a rehearing. The court denied that request by a 3-2 vote, and a third trial was ordered.
The Third Trial and the Acquittal
By 2013, the defense had far stronger forensic evidence. Advances in DNA science allowed analysts to recover “touch DNA,” the microscopic skin cells a person leaves behind simply by handling something. Traditional testing needed a visible sample like blood or saliva; touch DNA can identify someone who briefly touched a surface without leaving any visible trace.4National Institute of Justice. Persistence of Touch DNA for Analysis
A forensic expert testified that Boney’s DNA was found on Kim Camm’s shirt and on Jill’s clothing, directly contradicting Boney’s repeated claims that he never touched the victims. Boney’s palm print was confirmed on the family’s Ford Bronco. The prosecution shifted to a life-insurance motive, and the defense methodically dismantled Boney’s accounts, which had shifted across the three trials.
On October 24, 2013, the jury found Camm not guilty. He walked out of the courtroom that same day, after 13 years in custody.3United States Court of Appeals. No 18-1440 David R Camm v Stanley O Faith et al
What Happened to Charles Boney
Boney was tried separately and convicted in January 2006 on three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. He received consecutive terms of 65 years on each murder count, with the third enhanced by 30 years based on a habitual-offender finding. He also received 50 years for conspiracy, run concurrently with the murder sentences, for an aggregate sentence of 225 years.5FindLaw. Boney v State, 2008
What Went Wrong with the Forensics
The prosecution’s theory rested on Stites’s blood-spatter interpretation, and Stites was not qualified to give it. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals later found that investigators had suppressed evidence about his lack of credentials, meaning the defense and jury never knew how thinly qualified he was.1Justia. Camm v Faith, No 18-1440 (7th Cir 2019)
The broader concerns about bloodstain analysis were not unique to this case. A 2009 report by the National Research Council found that “the uncertainties associated with bloodstain pattern analysis are enormous” and that “the opinions of bloodstain pattern analysts are more subjective than scientific.” The report called for research to establish the scientific validity of forensic methods and to produce quantifiable measures of their reliability.6National Institute of Justice. Study Assesses the Accuracy and Reproducibility of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
Compensation and Civil Claims After Exoneration
After the acquittal, Camm filed a federal lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. ยง 1983 against the investigators and Floyd County, alleging malicious prosecution and the suppression of evidence about Stites’s qualifications. In 2019, the 7th Circuit revived portions of that lawsuit, ruling that Camm could pursue claims that officials had violated his constitutional rights by concealing how unqualified their forensic witness was.3United States Court of Appeals. No 18-1440 David R Camm v Stanley O Faith et al
Camm also sought compensation from the state. Indiana’s wrongful-incarceration statute provides $50,000 for each year a person was imprisoned on a conviction later vacated, paid in equal installments over five years.7Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 5-2-23-3 – Compensation for Wrongful Incarceration Amount For 13 years, that formula alone would come to $650,000. Reports indicate Camm ultimately settled with the state for $4.6 million and was awarded an additional $3 million in a civil judgment against Boney.
No settlement gives back 13 years. Camm entered prison as a state trooper and a father. He left it acquitted but permanently altered, into a community where many people still argued about his guilt even after three juries had heard the evidence and the last one cleared him.