by Kevin Lilly
The woman convicted of killing a former Evansville mayor three decades ago will remain in custody after a judge rejected the appeal of her conviction in the stabbing of a Logansport State Hospital worker.
The Indiana Court of Appeals his week turned down arguments from 65-year-old Julie Van Orden that prosecutors acted improperly during her trial and that the jury should have determined she was insane during the Aug. 22, 2006, attack of Ted Shriver at Logansport State Hospital.
Last year, a Cass County jury found Van Orden guilty but mentally ill of attempted murder. A judge sentenced her to 50 years in prison.
Van Orden has a long history of mental illness and had spent most of her life institutionalized after the shooting death of former Evansville Mayor Russell Lloyd Sr. in 1980.
Van Orden had served 20 years of her 40-year sentence for murder, but while up for parole in 2000, a judge ordered her committed to a mental hospital until she was safe to be released.
Police say the 2006 stabbing occurred as Van Orden resided in the minimal transitional unit, a part of the state hospital for patients who will be released within 30 days.
Court records say that on the day of the attack Van Orden became angry over a misunderstanding about whether she would be written up. As Shriver supervised Van Orden until she could be moved from the transitional unit, she grabbed two kitchen knives and stabbed him repeatedly in the face and torso.
“I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you,” she reportedly said.
Van Orden reportedly bit Shriver’s arm hard enough to loosen her teeth, but when help arrived, she reportedly stopped the attack and said, “I’m done.”
Van Orden reportedly laughed after telling another attendant that Shriver was lucky the knife bent.
Shriver received numerous stitches, a puncture wound that nearly hit his spleen and scratches on his face and glasses. He has since fully recovered.
A series of evaluations while facing the attempted murder charge showed Van Orden suffering from paranoid schizophrenia with intermittent bouts of insanity.
In an appeal, Logansport attorney Matthew Barrett argued his client presented sufficient evidence to prove she was insane at the time of the attack.
The court found “the evidence supports the jury’s conclusion that Van Orden was not insane, but mentally ill when she committed her crime.”
Barrett also raised questions of self-incrimination, failure to call witnesses, facts not in evidence and passions of the jury in determining whether there was any misconduct on the part of then deputy prosecutor Randy Head.
The appeals court concluded the prosecution committed no misconduct.
Van Orden is now housed in the Indiana Women’s Prison in Indianapolis. Her earliest possible release date is 2033, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
• Kevin Lilly is news editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at 574-732-5117 or kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com.
