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  • Mark Wisehart leaves the Madison County courtroom Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to the 1982 murder of Marjorie Johnson in a plea agreement. Wisehart has been on death row for 26 years but his conviction was overturned by a federal court. Don Knight / The Herald Bulletin

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Discussion

September 2, 2010

Wisehart investigator: No one called

Prosecutor: Police in 1982 murder case had no new evidence

By Dave Stafford The Herald Bulletin

ANDERSON, Ind. — A retired Anderson Police Department investigator who took the initial murder confession of Mark Wisehart 27 years ago said Thursday that he was puzzled why prosecutors didn’t contact him before granting a plea deal a day earlier that put an end to a long and costly legal fight.

Wisehart was sentenced to 75 years in prison in an agreement reached 15 months after a federal court ordered a new trial for the man convicted of the 1982 murder of Anderson resident Marjorie Johnson, 61.

The court sent the case back to Madison County because it ruled a juror might have been tainted by hearing that Wisehart was going to take a polygraph test. Such tests are typically inadmissible in court.

“When (the case) was sent back down, I called the prosecutor’s office and left my name and telephone number,” said Lloyd Brown, who retired from the force in 1995. “I would have thought I would have at least gotten a call.

“My input would have been just as valuable as anybody’s,” he said.

Madison County Prosecutor Tom Broderick said “as a general rule, we wouldn’t confide in anybody who no longer works in law enforcement.” He said Brown’s official record and that of other investigators stand in the case, and “they didn’t have any new information beyond that.”

Broderick said, “it’s really more about what’s happening in real time and trying to work on the information we have available to us.”

Brown said he remains convinced based on investigation of the crime that Wisehart took an active role in the killing. He said he did not object to the deal, and in disclosure, he acknowledged that he has contributed to the campaign of Broderick’s challenger, Rodney Cummings, in the fall election for prosecutor.

Brown said Thursday that he thinks there might be more that Wisehart isn’t telling authorities.

Brown said he believes based on the investigation that a man might have been involved in Marjorie Johnson’s killing who Wisehart apparently did not mention in his statement to authorities this week.

“I think (Wisehart) is just as involved an anybody else in that case. I believe one of his statements during trial was that (Gregory) Scott Johnson was there, and (Wisehart) recanted that” some time later, Brown said. “I always kind of felt Johnson was present.”

Before the murder, Brown said Wisehart and Gregory Scott Johnson had been in trouble with the law — often together — for a variety of crimes.

Gregory Scott Johnson testified against Wisehart during Wisehart’s 1983 murder trial. Broderick said Wednesday that he believes Wisehart implicated Johnson in the murder in retaliation.

Gregory Scott Johnson was executed in 1995, after his conviction for the 1985 murder of another woman, Ruby Hutslar, 82, of Anderson.

Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com

 

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Cops, courts and fires