Murder trial delayed

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PENDLETON — The Oct. 1 trial for Joseph M. Hartley — a Pendleton man charged with murder after an altercation near Markleville last year — has been delayed until Nov. 26.

Madison County Circuit 4 Judge David Happe denied a Sept. 7 motion from defense attorneys Bryan Williams, James Voyles and Alexander Newman to postpone the trial but granted a motion to reschedule a pretrial hearing for Sept. 25. On Sept. 10, attorneys conducted a telephone conference and renewed their motion to delay the trial. Prosecutors did not object to the delay, so Happe reset the trial for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 26, according to court records.

Hartley, 29, of Pendleton, is accused of strangling high school friend Uriah T. Wilson, 29, also of Pendleton, the night of Dec. 7. The death occurred at the home of John Hartley, Joseph Hartley’s father, just east of Markleville, according to reports filed in December.

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Joseph Hartley has been held at the Hamilton County Detention Center since his arrest because Wilson was an employee of the Madison County Detention Center when the death occurred.

Joseph Hartley and his wife, Esther Voss, had been living in Germany prior to Wilson’s death but had returned to Pendleton to visit for the holidays, according to initial reports filed by the prosecutor Dec. 13.

Joseph Hartley and Voss told investigators they had been cooking out at John Hartley’s property, and Wilson, an old high school friend of Joseph Hartley’s, had stopped by to visit. At one point, Voss reportedly told investigators, Wilson took out his service revolved and fired it. She said that prompted an argument among the friends, and she decided to go inside her father-in-law’s house.

Voss and Joseph Hartley said that was around 8:30 p.m. when she went back to the house. It was more than two hours later when the Joseph Hartley came running toward the house shouting for someone to call 911. He said his friend wasn’t breathing.

Ambulance crews and deputies from the Madison County police department were dispatched to the scene at 11:36 p.m., and Indiana State Police were called at about 12:30 a.m. when deputies learned it was someone from their own department who had died.

Initial reports called into dispatch were that Wilson had been shot. Later, Madison County Coroner Marianne Dunnichay said the death was caused by strangulation.

Defense attorneys are expected to argue that Hartley acted in self defense, according to court records dating back to March. Call made to defense attorneys on Oct. 1 were not returned by press time.

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