Joseph Oberhansley and Tammy Jo Blanton.Photo: Tyler Stewart/News and Tribune via AP; Facebook
Joseph Oberhansley, 38, faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted in connection with the 2014 stabbing death of Tammy Jo Blanton, 46, in her Jeffersonville home.
Opening statements in the trial took place Wednesday. As the third witness on the stand Thursday, Blanton’s friend Donna Victoria testified that Blanton had not called police after an incident between the couple because she “didn’t want [Oberhansley] to go back to prison,” reports theCourier Journal.
Victoria also spoke about Oberhansley’s prior drug use, according toWLKY.
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Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said he agreed with the judge’s decision to void the trial, and he hoped to revive the case and start again as soon as possible.
After Oberhansley’s arrest in the case, he allegedly confessed to consuming parts of Blanton’s brain, heart, and lungs after her killing,Mull previously told PEOPLE.At the time of his arrest, Oberhansley was on parole following a conviction for a previous killing that occurred when he was a teenager.
Oberhansleyhad been ruled mentally unfit to stand trialfor Blanton’s death. But that decision later was overturned after a psychiatrist wrote the judge to saythe suspect’s competency had been restoredduring Oberhansley’s court-ordered stay at Logansport State Hospital.
Before the murder trial was halted, two of Blanton’s friends testified that her fear of Oberhansley after a break-up caused her to briefly move out of her home and ask her father to change the locks before she would return, reports WLKY. Even so, one of the friends said Blanton kept police on “speed dial.”
Two more charges pending in Clark County accuse Oberhansley of the strangulation of a man in 2013, and subsequent criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon in 2014, according to the newspaper. Both incidents resulted in additional allegations of resisting arrest.
source: people.com
