Former State Trooper Wrongfully Convicted Twice Of Killing Wife, Children Wins Settlement

A former Indiana State Trooper has settled a lawsuit against the state for millions after he was wrongfully convicted twice for the murders of his wife and children.

David Camm was awarded $4.6 million from the state of Indiana to settle his malicious prosecution and wrongful conviction lawsuit. Camm, who was ultimately exonerated in a third trial, had twice been found guilty of his family’s 2000 murders, according to the  Louisville Courier-Journal.

He'd previously settled a lawsuit against Floyd County for $450,000, the paper reported, and reportedly received compensation from the insurance companies covering the expert witnesses who testified against him at trial. 

He'd sued claiming that he was framed by state, local and court-level officials who botched the triple homicide investigation. Camm previously sought $30 million in a 2014 lawsuit, but it was dismissed earlier this year because of what his attorneys claimed was a “cap and nothing else."

"Although no amount of money will ever compensate David Camm for what he went through, when the opposition offers millions of dollars to avoid trial in any case, you have to listen," Camm’s attorney, Garry Adams, said in a statement to Oxygen.com. 

Camm spent a total of 13 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Kim Camm, 35, their son, Bradley, 7, and their daughter Jill, 5. He found them shot to death in the garage of their Georgetown, Indiana home on Sept. 28, 2000.

He has consistently maintained that he was playing basketball with friends at a local church when someone gunned down his wife and children that evening. When he arrived home shortly before 9:30 p.m., he found a half-naked Kim dead on the garage floor.

The children were dead in the backseat of the family’s Ford Bronco, though Camm had attempted to resuscitate his son, who was still warm to the touch.

He was arrested three days later and charged with his family’s murders. Though 11 witnesses testified that Camm was at the game, prosecutors claimed that he'd raced home, killed his family and returned to the game without those witnesses noticing.

During the first trial in 2002, a string of Camm’s extramarital flings took the stand — something his defense attorney would later refer to as “character assassination.”

Prosecutors also brought in blood spatter expert Rob Stites, who testified that blood found on Camm’s shirt could have only been there if Camm had been present for the shooting. Prosecutors later accused Stites of being an “absolute idiot” and having no formal training as a crime scene reconstructionist, court records show.

At trial, Camm's attorneys tried building their defense around a prison-issue sweatshirt that was apparently overlooked at the crime scene but later found inside the body bag with Bradley Camm’s body. On the collar was handwriting that read “Backbone.”

A complete DNA profile was created from the sweatshirt, but it yielded no results when reportedly submitted to the FBI’s DNA database.

In March 2002, Camm was found guilty and sentenced to 195 years imprisonment.

Two years later, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned Camm’s conviction, ruling that the testimony by his paramours biased the jury.

Following the ruling, defense attorneys had the sweatshirt DNA submitted and it was found to match 11-time convicted felon Charles Boney, also known as “Backbone.” Boney had a criminal history that included attacking women and stealing their shoes as part of a sexualized foot fetish.

Kim Camm’s shoes had been placed on top of the car on the night of the murder.

Boney was arrested in 2005, after it was also determined that his bloody handprint was found inside Kim Camm’s vehicle. He was convicted in February 2006 and sentenced to 225 years in prison for the crime; he remains at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, prison records show.

Despite the revelation, Camm was arrested again and charged as a co-conspirator of Boney’s, according to the News and Tribune.

Boney, who has maintained his innocence (including in his 2018 interview with Fox Louisville affiliate WDRB), claimed he and Camm knew one another, and that he gave an “untraceable” gun wrapped in the sweatshirt to Camm shortly before the murder.

Boney said he watched Camm follow his family into the garage after they pulled into the driveway before hearing shots ring out and claims he only went in after the murders. Boney also claimed Camm tried to shoot him.

“I’m not the one who pulled the trigger,” Boney told WDRB in 2018. “So I don’t feel responsible for anyone’s deaths.”

In March 2006, Camm was convicted again, based in part on Boney's allegations and the prosecutor's theory that Camm had molested his daughter (which he denied), according to the News and Tribune; he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Camm’s second conviction was overturned in 2012 after courts ruled that prosecutors had offered no evidence of the alleged molestation, according to the paper.

Camm was charged with murder a third time and went to trial again in 2013, with prosecutors then arguing that Camm had killed his wife and kids for her life insurance policy, according to Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB. Camm's defense provided new DNA evidence showing that Boney’s DNA was found on Kim Camm’s sleeve, her underwear and under her fingernails, as well as on their daughters' shirt, according to Louisville news station WAVE.

David Camm was acquitted in the murders in October 2013.

Kim Camm’s family has reportedly held onto the belief that David Camm is guilty of the murders, according to the Courier-Journal. They could not be reached for comment.