By Jessica Schmidt and Ken Brown
Published: Jun. 6, 2024 at 11:38 PM EDT|Updated: Jun. 7, 2024 at 11:27 AM EDT
HAMILTON, Ohio (WXIX) - John Carter has pleaded guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 killing of Katelyn Markham.
Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Daniel Haughey accepted the plea during a brief hearing Friday and set Carter’s sentencing for July 18.
Other charges including two counts of murder are being dropped in a deal with prosecutors just weeks before his June 24 trial.
The judge granted Carter’'s defense team’s request that he remain out of jail on his $1 million bond.
He left the courtroom sobbing.
This is a huge about-face in a missing person’s case that turned into a cold murder file until prosecutors resurrected the investigation and unveiled a secret indictment against Carter last year.
Until now, the 35-year-old has maintained his innocence in her disappearance since the beginning as well as her death once her remains were found nearly two years later.
John Carter is heard sobbing as he leaves the courtroom and walks down the stairs after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter @FOX19 pic.twitter.com/IZYV4ghf7k
— Jessica Schmidt (@JSchmidtTV) June 7, 2024
“This case presented the most extensive and challenging collection of circ*mstantial evidence never before seen in this office,” Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said. “To reach the guilty plea today and end the dissembling of the defendant and his alibi have gone on for way too long.”
The judge is now asking John Carter a list of questions before he officially submits his plea. @FOX19 pic.twitter.com/q6mFYFtLoB
— Jessica Schmidt (@JSchmidtTV) June 7, 2024
“Her father suffered, and this case and the result was for her, for justice for Katelyn, and for her father, for an answer and finality,” Gmoser added.
Her father, Dave Markham, expressed disappointment about the plea in a social media post early Friday, hours before court.
“In case you haven’t heard, POS is expected to take a plea this morning,” he wrote on Facebook along with a picture of the rules for making a “Victim Impact Statement” in court.
“It feels very unfair to me, I’m sure many of you will feel the same. Below is the guidelines for anyone who wants to vent. The butterfly event is still on Saturday at the Creekside Park at her tree, 1 p.m. See you tomorrow!”
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His daughter’s death was ruled a homicide, but authorities were never able to establish how she died.
For Butler County Sheriff’s Office Detective Joe Nerlinger, there was no question about who killed Markham.
“For us, we knew it was John,” Nerlinger stated. “Never a doubt. Happy for the family.”
Last month, Carter’s defense team filed court papers saying he has an alibi that will prove he wasn’t there when she was killed and that evidence would be introduced at trial.
Prosecutor Gmoser said this concludes the investigation and ends all questions as to who is responsible for Katelyn Markham’s death. They would have called 87 witnesses if this went to trial. He added it’s not a quick and clean process. “Justice for Katelyn has been done” @FOX19
— Ken Brown (@Fox19KenBrown) June 7, 2024
Carter and Markham were engaged when the 22-year-old art student disappeared from her Fairfield condo on the night of Aug. 13, 2011.
She was considered a missing person until her skeletal remains were found on April 7, 2013, in southeastern Indiana.
A couple looking for scrap metal spotted a human jaw in a rural, wooded area at Big Cedar Creek in Cedar Grove.
The indictment charged Carter with murder by “purposely” causing her death on or about Aug. 13-14, 2011, in Butler County.
The second murder count alleged he caused her death on the same dates “as a proximate result” of committing or attempting to commit a violent felony offense (felonious assault).
Markham suffered trauma and her remains were not originally in the location where they were found, according to a forensic anthropology report released by prosecutors late last year.
It indicates there were three or four sharp, blunt-force trauma wounds to her left wrist bone, according to a copy of it released to FOX19 NOW.
Prosecutor Gmoser released court documents last year including one about a typed poem he says was found in Carter’s mother’s home, where Carter was living when Markham vanished.
It reads in part: “Deep down I love her. You want to kill her. But I love her. She must die. I can’t kill her. Yes, you can. No. Yes.”
The poem, according to Gmoser, shows the “conflict and demon within” between Carter and himself.
Since Carter pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, the most time he could spend in jail is three years.
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