ROCKVILLE —
Testimony begins today in the Parke County murder trial of Jeremy Musall, 28, of Cloverdale, who stands accused in the August 2011 homicide of Joseph Snow.
Five days have been allotted for the trial. Jury selection began Monday morning and concluded shortly after 3 p.m. An evidentiary hearing followed to determine admissibility of some taped interviews conducted by police on the day Musall was arrested.
Judge Sam Swaim ruled that the interviews can be admitted, even though a 22-minute portion of the statement by Musall was not video recorded due to an error.
Musall has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of burglary resulting in bodily injury, rape and kidnapping.
The first murder charge alleges that Musall killed Snow at a woman’s home in southeastern Parke County. The second murder charge alleges that Musall killed Snow while in the act of committing another felony, such as burglary, rape or kidnapping.
The Parke County Sheriff’s Department has reported that on Aug. 13, 2011, a 911 call was received from a female at about 7:17 a.m. reporting a murder. The woman identified Musall as the suspect, and said that she was in a vehicle following Musall’s vehicle because the suspect had taken her 20-month-old child with him.
The woman told police that Musall intended to dump Snow’s body in a creek. Musall’s vehicle was located by police on West Walnut Street Road in Putnam County, but he evaded police. He was later located and arrested at his mother’s home near Cloverdale. The child was found unharmed in the car.
The body of Snow was found in a cornfield west of Greencastle.
According to court documents filed in the case, Musall went to the woman’s home around 1 a.m. on Aug. 13 and entered the dwelling while Snow and the woman were asleep in bed. The woman, who had a prior relationship with Musall, told police that the suspect beat her and Snow severely, and bound Snow with duct tape around his hands and feet, and wrapped an electrical cord around his ankles and beat him with various objects. The woman also stated that she saw Musall poke Snow several times with a knife, and she never saw Snow again regain consciousness.
The document states that the woman told police she had been beaten and raped by Musall, who then collected the cell phones in the home, wrapped Snow’s body in a blanket and put it in the trunk of his vehicle.
The woman also said that Musall placed a knife to her child’s throat and threatened to kill her child, then put the child in the vehicle and instructed her to follow them away from the scene in her own vehicle. The woman said she found Snow’s cell phone earlier and had hidden it in her pants. She was able to call police during the drive to Putnam County.
Musall is being represented by public defenders James Alan Bruner and Michael G. Stites, while the prosecution is being handled by Parke County Prosecutor Steven Cvengros and deputy prosecutors Kevin Stalker and James Hanner.
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