650 year sentence of serial home-invasion rapist upheld by Court of Appeals

650-year-sentence-of-serial-home-invasion-rapist-upheld-by-court-of-appeals

The Indiana Court of Appeals Monday issued an opinion upholding all convictions and the 650 year sentence for Steven Ray Hessler – the serial home-invasion rapist who terrorized Shelbyville in the early-mid 1980s. 

Hessler was sentenced on April 1, 2022, to 650 years in prison for two counts of Rape, six counts of Unlawful Deviate Conduct, seven counts of Burglary Resulting In Bodily Injury, three counts of Criminal Deviate Conduct, and one count of Robbery – each as a Class A Felony. The charges stem from a series of home-invasion sexual assaults from 1982-1985. He was convicted on March 3, 2022, after an 8-day trial.

Hessler’s appeal focused on three issues: alleged prosecutorial misconduct, double jeopardy, and a claim that the 650-year sentence was too long considering his offenses and his character. Of the 32 instances of what the defense claimed were prosecutorial misconduct, the Court found that the claims were unsupported by the facts, and that they did not place the defendant in grave legal peril. 

As to the double jeopardy claim, the defense claimed that the same injury could not be used to elevate the level of offense for the sex crimes he committed and also the burglary counts. Two of the 3-judge panel of the Court of Appeals disagreed with this claim, while one judge sided with the defense. But all three judges agreed that the aggravate sentence of 650 years was justified.

Hessler can now ask the Supreme Court to take a look at the case, which the Supreme Court can either accept or decline. 

Hessler terrorized the Shelby County area between August 14, 1982, and August 17, 1985 - breaking into several homes in the middle of the night while armed and wearing a mask, and attacking, raping, binding, threatening, and sexually torturing several local women and one 16-year-old child. Many of the victims were tied up – others were not – as he stole cash and other certain items before sexually brutalizing the women. 

In his final local assault, he struck a male victim several times after he had handcuffed and hog-tied the victim, resulting in that victim being in a coma for months, and then a rehab facility for several more months, learning again to talk, and to walk with two canes. He fell daily, and for years now has been confined to a wheelchair. 

The local attacks stopped in the late 1980s. Authorities found that Hessler had been convicted of a rape in another county in the late 1980s when the Shelby County attacks stopped. He received a 20-year sentence. Hessler was eventually released from the Department Of Corrections about two months before a requirement took effect that requires inmates to submit a DNA sample, or that DNA would have resulted in a match to the Shelby County crimes years ago.

Shelby County Prosecutor Brad Landwerlen says Hessler was generally very cautious, wiping down the scene and taking items that he had touched with him. Fortunately, he left some DNA at one scene though DNA was not then yet used for forensic investigations. 

At the recommendation of retired Indiana State Trooper Mike Kolls (who worked with the original task force investigating the attacks), authorities then sent some of the DNA to Parabon Nanolabs, who specializes in geneological DNA identification.  Parabon also solved the Golden State Killer case with this technology. Parabon sent back results that caused Shelby County investigators to focus on Hessler and one other person. Eventually, they were able to obtain Hessler’s DNA sample from an envelope he licked to send in a utility payment, and it matched the DNA from the scene. 

The prosecution was made more difficult because a previous task force had arrested and charged another local man with the first few of the attacks in 1983. In an odd turn of events, that man turned out to be Hessler’s cousin. Further investigation confirmed that person’s alibis for the evenings of certain attacks, as well as other information that led to dismissal of the case. Still, this created an additional hurdle to address in this trial. 

Another suspect came up in trial as well – Michael Kenyan (aka – the “Illinois Enema Bandit”), who had committed a series of home-invasion sexual attacks in the late 1970s similar to those in Shelby County and who had been released from prison before the county’s attacks began. The Shelby County Prosecutor’s Office sent officers out to Arizona in 2004, where Kenyan lives now, to obtain DNA, interview Kenyan, and perform a forensic examination of his computer. That eliminated him as a suspect.

After receiving the DNA results matching Hessler to the DNA at one scene, we executed a search warrant at Hessler’s residence in the early morning hours on August 17, 2020, where we hit a bit of a gold mine.  We located photographs stolen from one local victim, and computers which showed that he had been researching and tracking down the two victims from that attack as well as two of our other victims (he had even downloaded a Google Earth streetview photo of one victim’s house in Georgia). 

He had also been similarly cyberstalking the victim from his previous attempted rape conviction. We also located certain coats that matched coats described by some of the victims, with ski masks in the pockets, and various specific items that matched items used in various of the attacks, such as handcuffs, enema bags, multiple containers of Vaseline, etc. We located other items of interest – such as about 30 women’s panties, each individually baggied. He stole panties in some of our local attacks, though after this passage of time, none could be identified by our victims as being theirs.

The most recent detectives to work and solve the investigation are Shelby County Sheriff’s Detective David Tilford and Indiana State Police Detective Paul Baker, but without several prior investigators doing things correctly, they would have still been unable to prove the case. Huge credit also goes out to the Indiana State Police Crime Laboratory, who allowed exceptions to their evidence submission limits and conducted a mountain of DNA analysis and forensic computer/digital media examinations – both leading to some truly damning evidence.

Prosecutor Landwerlen was assisted in the prosecution of the case by Chief Deputy Prosecutor Scott Spears and Deputy Prosecutor Brandon Robinson. Landwerlen said it took everything they had, plus the detectives and the coordinated assistance of many others to complete the investigation and prosecute the case, which had been investigated by various officers, agencies, and task forces throughout the years.

Coordinating the trial also proved to be quite a task, as the prosecution called 27 witnesses – some repeatedly (up to six times), and whittled thousands of pieces of possible evidence down to just over 300 exhibits actually admitted. Witnesses were brought in from Florida, Georgia, and Ohio, as well as a Secret Service computer technician from the east coast. 

Various other agencies played varying roles to solve and to bring this case to trial as well (including but not limited to Shelbyville Police Department, Rush County Sheriff’s Department, Rushville Police Department, Secret Service, various FBI agents, Greensburg PD, Decatur County Sheriff’s Dept., Decatur County Prosecutor’s Office, a detective with San Antonio Police Department, an officer with the Canton, Ohio Police Department, police officers in Arizona and Illinois, etc.).  Huge credit also goes out to the Indiana State Police Crime Lab, who, in an extremely rare move, lifted the restrictions on the number of exhibits that they would accept for DNA analysis and forensic computer analysis.

Landwerlen calls Steven Ray Hessler one of the most evil, dangerous, sadistic predators that he’s had the pleasure of prosecuting in his 30-plus-year career. 

Landwerlen notes that he has contacted the victims that he could to notify them that the Court of Appeals ruled against Hessler, and they are very happy with the news. 

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