Katelyn Markham (Facebook: In Memory of Katelyn Markham)
Prosecutors have dropped a perjury charge against an Ohio man accused of lying to the grand jury investigating the murder of a woman engaged to one of his friends, his attorney tells Law&Crime.
Jonathan Palmerton had faced one count of perjury, a third-degree felony, after prosecutors said he lied during the grand jury investigation into the 2011 murder of Katelyn Markham. Markham, a 21-year-old art student, vanished from her townhome in Fairfield, north of Cincinnati, on Aug. 13, 2011.
Hundreds of volunteers, some even traveling from other states, searched the area for Markham for months. More than a year would pass until April 2013, when Markham’s remains were founded dumped off the side about 30 miles away in Indiana. A man looking for scrap metal to sell called 911 after finding a skull in a plastic shopping bag. Other skeletal remains were found nearby.
Markham’s then-fiance, whom many suspected of being involved in her disappearance, was charged with murdering Markham last month. John Carter, 34, has pleaded not guilty.
“I think there’s some gamesmanship going on,” said Ken Crehan, the attorney representing Palmerton. “In 20-plus years, I’ve never seen a strategy like this.”
Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser asked the court to dismiss the perjury charge against Palmerton Tuesday but said it could be refiled later. According to WLWT, Gmoser told the court that allowing a trial to proceed first against Palmerton for the perjury charge could create a procedural conflict of his own making since he sought the indictment against Palmerton in the first place.
Palmerton’s trial was scheduled for August. Carter’s trial is scheduled for June 2024.
Gmoser said Palmerton could be called as a witness in Carter’s trial.
“If he needs my guy to testify, he went about it the wrong way,” Crehan said. “You’ve already charged my guy once with perjury, and now you want him to get on the stand to testify about what you indicted him for?”
It’s not clear what Palmerton was accused of lying about when he testified in front of the grand jury, and Crehan said he was limited in what he could reveal because he hadn’t received discovery in the case.
But a closer look at the recently-unsealed affidavit for the search warrant for the home of Carter’s mother shows investigators believe Palmerton helped Carter dispose of Markham’s body. The affidavit states Carter, and a person whose name is redacted, disposed of Markham’s body in Indiana in 2011.
The affidavit lists the home of Carter’s mother and Palmerton’s mother as two locations where Carter could have retrieved dark-colored plastic construction or landscaping material used to wrap and hide Markham’s remains. Palmerton’s name is redacted when the affidavit listed the home owned by his mother, but the address is visible.
“He had nothing to do with the murder, the disposal, any of it,” Crehan said of Palmerton’s alleged involvement.
Palmerton and Carter were friends. The affidavit states that Markham, Carter and Palmerton spent time together at a property in Indiana that Carter’s father owned. The property isn’t far from where Markham’s remains were found in 2013.
Indiana’s Franklin County Prosecutor Chris Huerkamp declined to comment Wednesday when contacted by Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy about whether charges could be filed in his jurisdiction for disposal of Markham’s remains.
Palmerton had demanded a speedy trial and wasn’t willing to waive that right, Crehan said. He seemed irritated on his client’s behalf that he’d “been wrongfully accused, fired from his job and spent days in jail.”
Crehan said his client is left to wonder for a year or more whether he will be indicted after Carter’s trial.
Meanwhile, Katelyn Markham’s father, Dave Markham, is hopeful that he and his family will finally get the answers they’ve been denied for so long after all these years.
“I’m disappointed that it took 11 1/2 years and that he got to be free, decide what he was going to wear that day or do whatever he was going to do that day. And Katelyn did not have that opportunity,” Markham told Law&Crime last week. “Justice for Katelyn, it’s coming.”
Carter remains free on a $1 million bond.
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