MUNCIE, IN — The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a Muncie man’s murder conviction.
A Delaware Circuit Court 3 jury in February 2025 found David Earl Bond Jr., now 46, guilty of murder in the August 2020 slaying of Ashley Marie Bennett.
A forensic pathologist testified that Bennett, a 36-year-old Muncie woman, was fatally strangled in her apartment in the 600 block of South Council Street.
At Bond’s sentencing hearing in March 2025, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Zach Craig said the slaying was the most disturbing, “as far as the brutality and complete disregard of human life,” that he had dealt with in 16 years as a prosecutor.
Judge Doug Mawhorr imposed a 60-year sentence for the murder conviction and added 20 years as a penalty for the defendant’s habitual offender status.
Four more years were added to the prison term for a pair of convictions — for resisting law enforcement and possession of meth — stemming from Bond’s arrest by a Daleville officer three days after the homicide.
In an appeal, Bond suggested prosecutors during his trial committed a “fundamental error” when they asked a Muncie police detective to recount an interview conducted with a potential witness.
“Even if Detective Lee’s testimony was inadmissible hearsay intended to unfairly prejudice the jury against Bond, we cannot conclude that any error in the admission of the testimony was fundamental,” Senior Judge Terry Crane wrote in the 3-0 decision upholding the Muncie man’s convictions.
The appeals court also found that prosecutors “presented substantial independent evidence of Bond’s guilt.”
The court concluded that Bond “failed to carry his burden of proving that the error, if any, was so prejudicial to his rights as to make a fair trial impossible.”
Bond, incarcerated at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, has a projected release date in August 2082, when he would be 102, according to state Department of Correction records.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Appeals court upholds Muncie man’s murder conviction
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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