BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY, Ind. – A judge sentenced a Bartholomew County man to 67 years in prison for murdering his great aunt with a hammer.
Bobby Truitt II’s sentence included 65 years for murder and 2 years for abuse of a corpse, with those sentences being served consecutively.
The original charges against Truitt included rape and auto theft. However, the auto theft charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement. In addition, Truitt pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of abuse of a corpse instead of rape.
Bartholomew County sheriff’s deputies responded to a Waynesville home in September 2020 where they found Truitt’s great aunt, 64-year-old Sharon Lovins, dead under suspicious circumstances.
Truitt, then 19, was named a “person of interest” in the case, with police saying they believed he was the last person to see her alive.
Lovins had bailed him out of jail and let him live with her temporarily. It was during that time he killed her with a hammer, according to investigators.
After his great aunt’s murder, Truitt stole her SUV and drove it to Indianapolis, where he was later found panhandling and arrested.
Truitt never revealed a motive for killing his great aunt. In court, he called her death “inhuman” and said he wished he could take it back, according to The Republic.