A Marshall County jury heard two days of testimony and evidence and returned a verdict of guilt against Russell A. Prosser, Jr., of South Bend and formerly of Culver, Indiana. Prosser, 44, was charged with two counts of being a Serious Violent Felon in Possession of a Firearm. The jury deliberated close to five hours before delivering a verdict of guilty on Count I: Possession of a Firearm by a Serious Violent Felon, a Class B felony. The gun alleged to be possessed by Prosser was a .22 semi-automatic rifle found in the bed of a pick-up truck in which Prosser was the sole occupant. The jury acquitted Prosser of a second count of Possession of a flint lock pistol found under the driver’s seat of the truck.
After returning the verdict of guilty on Count I, the jury was then informed that a second phase of the trial was about to begin, and that was to determine if Prosser was an Habitual Offender. Up until that point, the jury was not told that there were two parts to the trial and, of course, were unaware that Prosser had at least three previous, unrelated felony convictions, any two of which would make him an Habitual Offender.
The State of Indiana was represented by Prosecuting Attorney Nelson Chipman for the first phase of the trial involving the guns. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tami Napier presented the State’s case to the jury on the Habitual Offender charge. Matthew Sarber of the law firm of Lukenbill and Lukenbill represented Prosser. All three of Marshall County judges had previously removed themselves from the case for different reasons. As a result, Judge Michael Reed of Kosciusko Circuit Court presided as special judge in Marshall Superior Court No. 2.
The case began at approximately 4:30 am on December 9, 2013, when a pick-up truck was located parked in the MacDonald’s parking lot in LaPaz by Sgt. Nick Laffoon, and assisted by Officer Ryan Hollopeter of the Marshall County Police Department. Sleeping in the truck was Russell Prosser. Immediately observed by Sgt. Laffoon was a semi-automatic rifle in the bed of the truck. His boots were examined and found to have the same tread pattern as footprints in the snow in Culver where numerous parked cars had been broken into. The two officers knew Prosser had several prior convictions, and found that at least one was as a serious violent felony. That conviction stems from a 1990 robbery while armed with a deadly weapon in which Prosser admitted to robbing a woman in Culver of a bank bag containing $9500. Prosser was sentenced to 10 years in prison for that offense.
With that kind of felony history, it is illegal for Prosser to possess any type of firearm, so the Marshall County Prosecutors Office authorized charges. Also approved at that time against Prosser were 10 additional counts of theft and possession of stolen property and unauthorized entry into motor vehicles earlier that night in Culver. A trial before a jury was held on that case in late October, 2014 after which Prosser was convicted of all 10 counts alleged. The firearm case had been separated from the Culver case for technical reasons of not letting the first jury hear Prosser had a prior felony conviction. The State was represented at that trial by then Chief Deputy Prosecutor Nelson Chipman, and Prosser was represented by Sarber and Jere Humphrey. Prosser was sentenced in that case to the maximum under the law of 4 years of imprisonment.
At the most trial related to the guns, Chipman called five witnesses and introduced 28 exhibits. Sgt. Laffoon and Officer Hollopeter were used to introduce the guns found in the vehicle. They had obtained a search warrant and had found the flint lock pistol under the driver’s seat, and had also found a wig. Two of the witnesses had shared time in the Marshall County Jail with Prosser and testified he told them he knew the guns were in the truck. One of the two witnesses, who is still incarcerated testified Prosser intended to use the guns to trade for drugs, or if that didn’t happen, he intended to rob the McDonald’s when it opened on December 9.
Prosser is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on March 13, 2015. He faces now a maximum sentence of 20 years on the firearm charge with an enhancement of an additional 30 years on the Habitual Offender count, for a total of 50 years.
Chipman stated, “The citizens of Marshall County can be very proud of this jury. They could see through all the evidence and hold Russell Prosser accountable for a lifetime of criminal activity. He has literally been a scourge upon our community since his first adult conviction in 1988. I will be arguing for the maximum sentence of 50 years of imprisonment for Mr. Prosser. He has victimized innocent people his entire adult life. The criminal justice system is fully justified to remove Russell Prosser from free society for a long, long time.”
