Suspected Serial Killer Refuses To Answer Judge, Hearing Delayed One Week
Updated 10/22/14 - 11:19 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After allegedly confessing to at least seven murders, and helping police find his victims' bodies, suspected serial killer Darren Vann clammed up at his first court hearing Wednesday, prompting the judge to warn him he'd stay in jail until he cooperates.
When Vann was brought before Lake County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Sullivan to face a murder charge in the strangling death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, he refused to answer when the judge asked if he'd swear to tell the truth during the hearing.
Sullivan asked if he was choosing not to participate in the hearing, and Vann again remained silent.
As Vann stared blankly, Sullivan warned him he could be held in contempt if he did not answer her questions, then urged Vann's public defender to encourage him to speak.
When Vann again refused to respond, Sullivan told his attorney to tell Vann "he stays in jail the rest of his life until this hearing takes place."
Sullivan then postponed the hearing for one week. Vann never looked at anyone in the gallery while making his way in and out of the coutroom.
CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller said a not guilty plea likely would be entered on Vann's behalf next Wednesday if he again refuses to talk in court.
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said Vann at first refused to even come out for the hearing.
"His public defender talked to him, got him out into the courtroom," he said.
Buncich said Vann apparently was upset with the fact the hearing was held in a jailhouse courtroom, rather than the public courthouse.
"All I could say is that his demeanor while he's been incarcerated here has been calm, and quiet, and collected; and this morning was the first of any indication where he tried to be disruptive or uncooperative," Buncich said. "He mentioned the media. He wanted to know why there was so much media."
The sheriff said Vann now is refusing to speak to investigators without his public defender present.
Vann, 43, has been charged with strangling Hardy on Friday, but police have said he confessed to killing at least six other women after he was arrested on Saturday in Gary, Indiana. Gary police said they expect to ask Lake County prosecutors to bring more charges in the next few days.
Police have said Vann, a convicted sex offender in Texas, might have killed women outside of Indiana as well.
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Vann has been separated from the general population at the jail and has been placed under 24-hour watch.
Vann is accused of strangling Hardy after making arrangements online to meet her for sex in Hammond, Indiana.
Hardy's naked body was found Friday night in a room at the Motel 6 in Hammond, Ind. Police have said she was a prostitute who arranged to meet Vann through the website backpage.com. When her facilitator received suspicious text messages from Hardy's phone after Hardy met Vann at the motel, the facilitator went to the motel room and found her body.
The facilitator called police and gave investigators Vann's phone number, and they tracked him to Gary. After he was arrested, he confessed to killing Hardy, and led police to six other women's bodies in vacant buildings in Gary.
Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said Vann has indicated he killed more than the seven known victims. The FBI has said Vann also might have killed women in other states. Police have said he claimed his crimes date back as long as 20 years.
In addition to Hardy, authorities have identified three other victims – 36-year-old Kristine Williams, 28-year-old Teaira Batey, and 35-year-old Anith Jones. Hardy, Batey, and Jones were strangled.
Three other bodies have not yet been identified.
"Certainly, it is a horrible thing to observe," Freeman-Wilson said. "One of the things that is very clear, and that's given the fact that we're even trying to identify three of the six victims, is that this was a crime that was concealed."
Hardy's cousin, Latasha Allen, said she wants to know why Vann killed Hardy and the other women.
"Did you have a daughter? You have a mother, you have nieces. Why would you want to do this to her?" Allen said.
Batey's cousin, Lynette Cullom, said officials in Gary should have done more to check abandoned buildings in the city before Vann led them to the bodies of his victims.
"If they would have actually went to those houses, and actually searched those houses, they would have found Teaira," Cullom said.
On Tuesday, investigators searched approximately 120 of the 10,000 abandoned buildings in Gary, in an effort to find other possible victims, but turned up no other bodies.
One of the unidentified victims was found in the 400 block of 43rd Avenue in Gary last Sunday. The coroner says the woman was wearing a silver-colored linked bracelet with the words "Best Aunt" on the top of it. She was also discovered with two silver-colored rings, one heart-shaped and the other with scalloped engravings. The woman is approximately 5'3" tall, according to the coroner.
Another Jane Doe was also found last Sunday in Gary in the 4300 block of Massachusetts Street. The woman had a pair of blue jeans twenty-one black by RUE21 size 3 / 4, and white Nike gym shoes. The coroner says she is approximately 5' tall.
Anyone with information that can help identify the two women can call the Lake County Coroner's Office at (219) 755-3265.
A vigil for the victims has been planned for Wednesday night in Gary.
Vann was in the U.S. Marine Corps from November 1991 to September 1993, when he received an "other than honorable discharge" for "minor disciplinary infractions." He was based at Cherry Point Air Station on the coast of North Carolina. Police in Havelock, North Carolina, have said they are looking at Vann as a possible suspect in an unsolved murder from 22 years ago. Camille Whalen was 25 - a hitchhiker - her body dumped near a baseball field in August 1992. The autopsy said she was strangled and stabbed.
