True Crime Stories

This is a case where it seems apparent that someone “dropped the ball.” Whether that someone was a specific person, an entity or an entire system could be left up for debate. What is not up for debate is the fact that two innocent people lost their lives. For many years Christopher Perrien had been in and out of jail on a variety of charges that at the time ranged from fraud to theft. It appears as if in late 2011 he was doing some time for a charge of financial fraud but on September 1, 2011 he had been released through a work release program. This meant that he could leave the jail to work and would be required to return to the jail at night. He had provided the jail with information that he worked for a place called Advanced Building Contractors. He provided a phone number and a letter supplied by the employer. It is not completely clear if any of this was ever followed up on. Instead he was allowed out of custody from the hours of 8:00 in the morning to 7:00 ...

In keeping with my recent trend of blogging about past cases from the area in which I currently live I came upon this case.  Unlike many of the others, this one is rather short and to the point.  There really is a lot less, in the legal sense, going on with this case and yet I still found it quite interesting and leaves us with some legalities to ponder.   While the last case that I discussed, the John Matthew Stephenson case, was considered to be the longest in Indiana history, this case surely is not.  The trial lasted two days and the total time between when the murder occurred and the defendant was sentenced for the crime was less than five months.  To be honest, my first thought when beginning my research and discovering this was worry at just how fast this case was concluded. In the end that was not a concern as I realized that the defendant had admitted to the crime, but of course as defendants often do, claimed he did not intend to murder anyone. ...