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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA man convicted of two murders failed in his appeal to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which ruled Monday that a Lake Superior Court did not err in allowing testimony about conflicting statements in reference to the fatal shootings.
In Shepell Orr v. State of Indiana, Orr argued that the court should not have allowed testimony from a witness who testified about another witness’s inconsistent statements.
The appeals court disagreed, ruling in a unanimous opinion by Margret Robb that “Orr has failed to demonstrate the trial court committed an error which made a fair trial impossible or constitutes clearly blatant violations of basic and elementary principles of due process.”
Orr was convicted of the Dec. 30, 2009, shooting deaths of Steven Williams and Joshua Haywood. He was sentenced to two consecutive 55-year prison sentences for a total of 110 years.
The shootings happened after Orr and Williams became involved in an argument, and Orr retrieved a gun from his truck and began firing. Orr’s appeal focused on the testimony of a person about what she was told by a witness on the night of the shootings.
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