ANDERSON, Ind. — Mark Allen Wisehart on Wednesday put an end to the 27-year-old murder case against him. He pleaded guilty to the 1982 murder of Marjorie Johnson after he gave a statement saying a man who wasn’t charged in her killing stabbed to death the 61-year-old Anderson woman.

Wisehart was sentenced to 75 years in prison on charges of murder, robbery, burglary and theft on Wednesday by Madison County Superior Court 1 Judge Dennis Carroll in a hearing that last little more than half an hour.

“We do not see any advantage to Mr. Wisehart going to trial given the plea agreement,” defense attorney Jeff Lockwood said before Carroll accepted the plea.  

For Wisehart, the plea agreement means he could be freed in about 20 years from the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he has been on death row for more than 26 years. The Indiana Department of Correction credits Wisehart with about 55 years served, Lockwood said after the hearing.

For prosecutors and defense attorneys, the agreement eliminates the need for a costly and protracted retrial of a case that federal courts had overturned. They say it also gives them what they believe is Wisehart’s most truthful account of what happened in Johnson’s apartment on Oct. 9, 1982.

Madison County Prosecutor Tom Broderick told Carroll that Wisehart gave a videotaped statement earlier Wednesday in which he said two other men — Robert Disney and Anthony Fuqua — went to Johnson’s apartment with the intent to burglarize her home and take money.

Broderick told the court that Wisehart said in his statement on Wednesday that he “grabbed Miss Johnson from behind and Tony Fuqua ultimately stabbed” her. Broderick said Wisehart admitted to choking Johnson during the attack.

Fuqua and Disney could not be located for comment on Wednesday.

Wisehart’s statement parallels one given by Disney, which some Anderson police investigators have since testified that they came to believe, Broderick said.

Wearing a red prison inmate uniform, dark glasses and shackled at the wrists and ankles, Wisehart affirmed that he agreed with Broderick’s description of his statement.

“We want the truth, and he’s given four or five statements over the years to different people at different times that varied in different degrees,” Broderick said in a telephone interview.

“This was our last opportunity to try to get to the truth of what really happened,” he said after the plea agreement was accepted.

Without an agreement, Lockwood said the court would have had to appoint defense experts that could have cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars if the case had proceeded to trial. “I don’t think anyone’s anxious to go through another trial,” he said.

In 1983, Wisehart was convicted of Johnson’s murder. Police had found her body in a pool of blood inside the since-demolished Brock Apartments on 11th Street just east of Jackson Street.

The case against Wisehart relied heavily on a confession that he gave to police after his arrest. He had called police to report Johnson’s body, disguising his voice as a woman’s, authorities said.

According to the confession, Wisehart, 19 years old at the time, told investigators that he had stabbed Johnson multiple times, punched her and struck her in the head with a whisky bottle. He said he took $14 from her.

“His original statement in ’82 was more of his taking responsibility for doing everything,” Broderick said. He said it was a story that investigators came to doubt.

After the hearing, Lockwood said Wisehart “originally believed he had to take responsibility for everything and not be extremely truthful about what other people did.”

Asked if other people named by Wisehart could face charges, Broderick said, “it’s possible. ... This gives us some framework to use.” He said investigators plan to follow leads from Wisehart’s statement and corroborate what they can before decisions are made about other possible prosecutions.

He acknowledged Wisehart’s credibility is also a factor that prosecutors would have to consider in light of varying statements he’s given.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May 2009 threw out Wisehart’s conviction and sent the case back to Madison County for a new trial. The Chicago court ruled that a juror might have been tainted when she heard that Wisehart was taking a polygraph test, the results of which typically are not admissible in court.  

Carroll said he would request the Department of Correction consider requests from Wisehart that when he is moved from death row at Michigan City that he be placed in a cell block for inmates over 40 years old. At Wisehart’s request, Carroll also recommended that prison officials evaluate and treat Wisehart for a hernia.

As he was led from the courtroom, Wisehart was asked if he cared to comment about the case.

“I’m good, thanks,” he said.

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