HAMILTON, Ohio — Dave Markham will have a lot to say Thursday when the man responsible in the death of his oldest daughter is sentenced, but John Carter’s plea to involuntary manslaughter — with the maximum sentence of three years behind bars — is not enough bring to closure for Katelyn Markham’s father.
“I am hoping the courtroom is packed. It is going to be a tough day,” Dave Markham said. “I want people to see it. I really want him to get the max he can when it is really just a slap on the wrists in my opinion.”
Carter, who was engaged to Katelyn Markham at the time of her 2011 disappearance and death, was facing a murder trial when he pleaded guilty in June to involuntary manslaughter, a third-degree felony, with an underlying crime of misdemeanor assault, according to prosecutors.
Dave Markham and his fiancée Peggy Wallace both quickly and loudly said “no” when asked if Carter’s sentencing will bring any closure.
“I just don’t think it is fair,” the father said. “He took away Katelyn ... he took away a lot from us, and the three-year jaunt in prison isn’t going to be pleasant for him, but the means don’t justify the end.”
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Dave Markham said he is grateful to the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office, specifically Investigator Paul Newton, for taking over the unsolved 2011 case and getting an indictment when other police agencies and private investigators did not succeed.
“I applaud Paul Newton for the effort he went through. I am not happy with the plea, but thank God they took it on, otherwise we would still be sitting here with nothing. The only good thing is now nobody can say ‘John is innocent.’ Nobody can say ‘John didn’t have anything to do with it,’” Dave Markham said.
The case — built on highly circumstantial evidence — might have been difficult for a jury to convict the defendant of murder, and “that would have been worse,” Dave Markham said.
RELATED | John Carter pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection to Katelyn Markham's death
It took 13 years from Katelyn Markham’s disappearance for a guilty plea, with the first two of those years not knowing if his 21-year-old art student was dead or alive after vanishing from her Fairfield townhouse in August 2011.
Her remains were found dumped in Indiana in April 2013, not far from a farm owned by the Carter family.
No arrest in her death came until nearly a decade later, in March 2023, when Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser announced the indictment of Carter on a murder charge after an 18-month investigation by his office.
Carter, now married and a father, was scheduled to go to trial on June 24, but he pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony. The maximum sentence is three years in prison, but he could get community control. He remains free on the $1 million bond he posted after arraignment in April 2023.
If Butler County Common Pleas Judge Dan Haughey sentences Carter to prison, Dave Markham said he wants him taken away from the courtroom in handcuffs. Carter, who has only been required to appear in court a handful of times since posting bond, was seen by Markham’s younger daughter, Ally, on a recent shopping trip.
“It was horrible, and I don’t want Ally to have that (happen again),” Markham said.
Gmoser said after Carter’s plea hearing: “(This) brings absolute undeniable finality to the question of who is responsible and accountable for the disappearance and death of Katelyn Markham.”
Gmoser said the investigation into Markham’s death was “frozen in time” until his cold case investigator began investigating, noting the crimes of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse had expired because of the statute of limitations.
Another person was indicted in connection with Carter’s case, Jonathan Palmerton.
In February 2023, the Butler County grand jury indictment of Palmerton for perjury was unsealed. The third-degree felony charge accused him of lying during official proceedings in connection with the investigation into Katelyn Markham’s death.
The charge against Palmerton was dismissed by the prosecution three months later after Carter’s indictment. Gmoser said circumstances would not allow Palmerton’s case to be tried before Carter.
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Gmoser said then, “The state of Ohio reserves the right to seek a new indictment at a later time.”
Since there was no trial for Carter and his case is nearly over, what happens to Palmerton? His defense attorney, Kenneth Crehan, attended Carter’s plea hearing.
Gmoser told the Journal-News last week the statute of limitations in the perjury allegation against Palmerton does not expire for five years, and he anticipates seeking a new indictment.
“I plan on being here for at least another five years, and during that period of time, I have every expectation (there will an indictment),” Gmoser said.
At the plea hearing, prosecutors said on Aug. 13 or 14, 2011, Carter caused the death of Katelyn Markham by the commission of misdemeanor assault. His attorney, Lawrence Hawkins III, stipulated to the statement of facts in the crime.
Carter will also have a chance to speak before sentencing.
Carter’s attorneys did not respond to comment for this story. Palmerton’s attorney also did not respond.
Katelyn Markham was days away from her 22nd birthday when she disappeared.
Gmoser told the Journal-News the case was largely circumstantial, but pointed to Carter. That included previously available evidence, new evidence gathered by the prosecutor’s investigator and Assistant Prosecutor Brad Burress, plus residences searched by officials, including the Fairfield home of Carter’s mother.
“The case presented the most extensive and challenging collection of circumstantial evidence never before seen in this office to reach the guilty plea,” Gmoser said.
A large piece of the case was the anthropology report that deduced Katelyn Markham suffered trauma and said her remains were not originally in the Indiana location where they were found.
RELATED | Autopsy: Katelyn Markham's body was likely held somewhere before being dumped in Indiana
Katelyn Markham’s case was ruled a homicide by a coroner in Indiana, but a cause of death could not be determined.
The skull was found inside a knotted plastic grocery bag, according to the anthropologist’s report. There was very little soft tissue, decomposition fluid or staining inside the bag, “indicating that the head had not decomposed in the bag, but that it was placed inside after the head had already undergone significant decomposition” reported Dr. Stephen Nawrocki of the University of Indianapolis Archeology and Forensics Laboratory.
The state of decomposition indicated “broadly” that Katelyn Markham died one to two years prior to recovery of her remains, according to the report.
Three small incised wounds or cut marks caused by “sharp-force trauma” were found on Markham’s left wrist, the report states. One wound is described as a v-shaped incision that shaved off a layer of the bone. The report says it was caused by a weapon.
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