HAMILTON, Ohio — Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser dropped the charge of perjury against a man accused of his involvement in the Katelyn Markham murder case on Tuesday.
Gmoser said he plans to re-indict 35-year-old Jonathan Palmerton once the man charged with Markham's murder, her former fiancee John Carter, has stood trial. Palmerton was accused of making a false statement under oath in April 2022.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Gmoser said the perjury charge created a conflict of interest, since the prosecution intends to call him as a witness in Carter's trial, which isn't expected to happen until 2024.
Judge Jennifer Muench-McElfresh granted Gmoser's filing to drop the charge Palmerton faced. He has been out on bond since his Feb. 22 arraignment, with a GPS monitor.
At the end of April, Mc-Elfresh set Palmerton's trial to begin August 7. A charge of perjury carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Carter faces a charge of murder for Markham's death. On the day Palmerton was arrested,search warrants were conducted on Carter's former home where his mother lives, as well as other residences of relatives of friends.
A list of items seized in that search and the affidavit laying out evidence in request for the search warrant were unsealed and released to the public on April 25.
Palmerton was originally charged on February 17 and Gmoser confirmed the charge was related to Katelyn Markham's disappearance and death; it was the first time anyone faced charges connected to her murder in over a decade since her disappearance.
Markham, who was 21 at the time she went missing, vanished in August 2011. Hundreds joined searches for the Fairfield woman before her skeletal remains were found in April 2013 in a black garbage bag in a wooded area of Cedar Grove, Indiana, which is roughly 30 miles from Fairfield.
The coroner ruled Markham's death a homicide but never could determine the exact cause of death.
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