INDIANAPOLIS — The woman convicted of killing a former Evansville mayor three decades ago will remain in custody after an appeal of her conviction for the stabbing of a psychiatric hospital worker was rejected.
The Indiana Court of Appeals 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.
A Cass County jury found Van Orden guilty but mentally ill of attempted murder for the 2006 attack in which a Logansport State Hospital attendant was stabbed 13 times. A judge sentenced her to 50 years in prison.
Van Orden was found guilty but insane in the 1980 shooting death of Russell Lloyd less than three months after he had left office as mayor.
