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Indiana Woman Sentenced To 65 Years After Jealous Boyfriend Walked In On Her Threesome, Killing The Man And Raping The Woman
"Yes, I was living in sin. But did I commit any crimes? No," Heidi Carter told an Indiana court before she was sentenced to 65 years for aiding her lover in the murder of Tim Ivy and the rape of a female victim.
An Indiana woman accused of standing by and helping her boyfriend bind and torture a couple she had brought home for a threesome, as he murdered the man and repeatedly raped the woman, was sentenced to 65 years behind bars last Friday.
Heidi Kathleen Carter of Evansville, 37, was found guilty last month of murder, two counts of aiding or causing forcible rape and three counts of criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, according to court documents reviewed by Law & Crime.
Although Carter's romantic partner Carrey Hammond is accused of carrying out the murder of 50-year-old Tim Ivy and the assault of the female victim, he never stood trial. Police responded to the couple's Evansville home on Oct. 19, 2021, called there by a hired cleaner who discovered the bound woman and Ivy's corpse. Officers fatally shot Hammond when he walked aggressively toward them outside the home, clutching a selfie stick that they believed to be a gun at the time.
Evansville Police Department spokeswoman Sergeant Anna Gray said that detectives speculate Hammond intentionally appeared menacing at the time to commit "suicide by cop," according to the Evansville Courier
& Press.
Addressing the court at her sentencing hearing, Carter maintained that she, too, was a victim.
"Yes, I was living in sin. But did I commit any crimes? No," she said, according to the local outlet. "Under the circumstances, I did the best that I could. I'm a victim, too."
But Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge David Kiely didn't appreciate the sentiment, noting that Carter showed a "lack of concern that a human life has been lost," before handing down her sentence.
Carter intends to appeal her conviction, according to the local outlet. She will have 30 days to do so. Kiely said that the court would appoint her an attorney due to her lack of funds. The 505 days Carter spent awaiting trial in jail will count as time served toward her sentence, he said.
After the hearing, Stan Levco of the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office reportedly told the Courier & Press that the case was "one of the most sadistic — if not the most sadistic" he had ever prosecuted.
On Oct. 19 of 2021, Carter met Ivy and his girlfriend after the two women linked on an LGBTQ dating app. The three drank alcohol and took drugs before engaging in a threesome, according to court documents.
Hammond became enraged when he walked in on the group's activities, court documents state. The female victim told police that he grabbed a baseball bat and began beating Ivy before restraining the two victims with duct tape.
“The next thing I know there’s a man bursting through the door with a baseball bat attacking us,” she testified in court, according to earlier reporting by the Evansville Courier & Press.
Hammond tortured and beat the couple for hours, per the affidavit. Carter is accused of menacing the pair with a gun and repeatedly threatening to kill them, and allegedly encouraged her lover to "do anything he [wanted]" to the two victims.
But Carter reportedly told police that she only pretended to help Hammond, pointing the gun at the two victims to appease him and spare herself from harm.
While Carter was out of the house, the female victim testified, Hammond strangled Ivy to death with a belt because he caught him trying to slip his restraints.
According to police, Carter later ordered pizza and invited a woman over to the home to help clean the murder scene prior to a “landlord inspection.” The witness, who told police she observed blood on Carter's boots, helped clean two rooms before discovering the captive woman — as well as Ivy's body, which was hidden in a pile of laundry.
Before Carter's Friday sentencing, Ivy's daughter, mother and ex-wife submitted victim impact statements to Judge Kiely, according to Law & Crime.
“The only man to truly understand me is gone, and it feels like most of me went with him,” Ivy’s 24-year-old daughter wrote. ”I will never understand or recover from this.”
“My children no longer have their father,” wrote Ivy's ex-wife, Jamie Combs, according to the Courier & Press. “The only recourse left for Tim and our family is justice.”
Ivy's mother, Debbie Fink, reportedly wrote that she believes Carter deserves to "spend the rest of her life in prison." After Thursday's ruling, she told the Courier & Press that her family "might finally be able to get some peace."
