Melinda Loveless
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Melinda Loveless (born October, 1975) was convicted of the January 10, 1992 murder of Shanda Renee Sharer in Jefferson County, Indiana. She is currently serving concurrent twenty and sixty-year terms for criminal confinement and murder in the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. According to online prison records, her earliest possible release date is November 21, 2020. The murder attracted intense public attention due to the gruesome nature of the sex-related crime and the youth of the perpetrators and victim. The season-five Law and Order SVU episode "Mean" was loosely based on this case.
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[edit] Early life
Loveless's early life included what the prosecution in her murder case described as "bad family dynamics and an unorthodox childhood." Her early years included being molested by her father as an infant. She also watched helplessly as her father, a transvestite who several times attempted suicide, molested her sisters, cousin, and other young girls. On one occasion her father attempted to kill her mother in front of the children. Despite her two older sisters' homosexuality, Loveless was also rejected by her mother due to her lesbianism which was taboo in the small southern Indiana town.
"These sorts of experiences tended to produce in the developing and dependent child a perverse view of human relationships which made her incapable of recognizing or responding to the pain of others," the Supreme Court of Indiana wrote in 1994 referring to Loveless's childhood.
[edit] Murder of Shanda Sharer
According to evidence presented in court, on January 10, 1992 Loveless and acquaintances Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence picked up Shanda Sharer at her father's home in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Shanda had been dating Amanda Heavrin, Loveless's girlfriend. Loveless, a New Albany resident, wanted to frighten Shanda so that she would have no further contact with Amanda, who was unaware of the threat to Shanda and who played no part in the plot.
Shortly after Shanda got into their car, Loveless, who had been hiding beneath a blanket in the backseat, pulled Shanda's head back and put a knife to her throat in order to scare her. Then the girls took her to an abandoned house, the Witches Castle, in Madison, Indiana. While at the house, the group teased and scared the 12-year-old girl, but she was essentially unharmed when they left this house.
The girls went to Tackett's house, where Loveless and Tackett battered Shanda. Loveless punched her victim in the stomach and kneed her in the mouth. Tackett choked and stabbed Shanda, then locked her in the car's trunk. There was evidence presented in court that when Shanda began screaming, Tackett took a paring knife and cut her again. Loveless and Tackett drove around most of the night, stopping periodically so that Tackett could beat Shanda with a tire iron.
After they thought Shanda was dead, the two girls returned to Tackett's house to pick up Rippey and Lawrence. They decided to dispose of her body by burning it, apparently unaware of the fact that she was still alive. Rippey suggested a good location in the country for burning the body and they drove there. Lawrence remained in the car. After Rippey poured gasoline on the victim and they set her on fire, Loveless returned to the body to pour the remaining gasoline on it. The girls left the scene and went to a McDonalds restaurant in Madison for breakfast.
The body was discovered that morning by a hunter who immediately called the police. An autopsy established that Shanda had died from smoke inhalation and burns, though there were a variety of other injuries, including sodomization.
[edit] Conviction and sentencing
Police quickly broke the case when in the company of her parents, Lawrence, 15 years old at the time, came to the Madison police station at 9 pm that evening in a state of hysteria wanting to talk about the case. She told authorities that the four teenagers went to hear a punk-rock group at a nightclub in Louisville, across the river from New Albany. After the performance, Loveless started complaining that Shanda was "trying to steal her girlfriend."
After Loveless suggested killing Shanda, the group headed back to New Albany and picked up their victim at her father's home. Lawrence and Rippey were friends with Tackett, but neither had met Loveless or Shanda before the night of January 10, 1992. Around 3 a.m. on January 12, 1992, police received warrants to arrest Loveless and Tackett and they were taken to the Madison jail.
Jefferson County prosecutor Guy Townsend reserved the right to seek the death penalty against Loveless and Tackett, 16 and 17, respectively, at the time of the murder. Rippey, who turned 16 six months after the murder, was too young under Indiana law for capital punishment. Lawrence agreed in April 1992 to plead guilty to criminal confinement and testify against the others. In return, prosecutors agreed to drop six charges against her, including murder.
In a plea bargain that took the death penalty off the table, Tackett and Loveless pleaded guilty in January 1993 to murder and two lesser charges. They both received 60-year terms and will be eligible for parole in 2020. Toni Lawrence completed nearly nine years of her 20-year sentence for a criminal confinement conviction and was released in 2000. In April 1993, Rippey pleaded guilty to murder. She was sentenced to 50 years in prison. She was released in 2006 after serving 13 years of her sentence that had been reduced by a judge to 35 years.
[edit] References
- Loveless v. State, 642 N.E.2d 974 (1994).
- "Charges Against Girls in Torture Slaying Stun Town in Indiana," Associated Press, June 21, 1992
- "As 4 teenage girls face trial, an Indiana town waits to learn who killed Shanda Renee Sharer - and why," Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1992, Tempo Section p.1
- "Girl, 16, Formally Pleads Guilty in Torture Slaying of 12-Year-Old Girl," Associated Press, December 11, 1992.
- "Jealous rage led to 12-year-old's death: prosecutor," United Press International, December 15, 1992
[edit] External links
- Deadly Love Triangle from The Malefactor's Register (this Wikipedia entry incorporates material by the author of that article, who licenses it here under the GFDL)
- Shanda Sharer case website at Court TV's Crime Library
- Indiana Department of Corrections offender data on Melinda Loveless
