White verdict upheld

A Spencer man sentenced to 60-years in the shooting murder of Elizabeth "Bizzy" Stephens filed an appeal in his case last fall.

Jay White was found guilty of murder and obstruction of justice in April of last year and sentenced on May 30, 2024.

"The trial court erred in failing to overturn the jury verdict, as no reasonable jury could find the State proved Jay White guilty beyond a reasonable doubt due to the lack of sufficient evidence mishandled evidence and the overwhelming evidence entered by the defense that proved the State's theory of murder was an impossibility," the nearly 50 page appellate brief reads. "The trial court's error was compounded when it erred in failing to overturn the verdict from a jury trial rife with prosecutorial misconduct, wherein the prosecutor engaged in mischaracterization of evidence, failed to account for lost evidence, failed to process and test evidence, and the prosecution misused incompetent polygraph evidence to obtain a wrongful conviction and an unjustly long sentence in light of the factors provided at sentencing."

The brief, filed in late October 2024, goes on to say that the court "egregiously erred" by failing to sustain the defense's motions to exclude the stipulated polygraph.

It argues that there was a breach of contract, an onerous nature of the stipulation and an inability for the polygraph examiner to provide answers to "foundational questions regarding the readings a polygraph provides, any empirical studies showing a direct correlation between the physiological responses detected by a polygraph device and deceit, as well as the appropriateness that a candidate may have given a brain injury, such as the one Jay White sustained."

The state responded with their brief on Feb. 26, which was also approximately 50 pages.

In April, the Indiana Court of Appeals issued a Memorandum Decision.

"The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted the results of the polygraph exam or the testimony of the polygraph examiner. In addition, the prosecutor did not commit any acts of misconduct, let alone acts that either individually or cumulatively amounted to fundamental error. And the State presented sufficient evidence to support White's murder conviction. We therefore affirm his convictions," the Memorandum Decision reads.

White's public defender, Megan Schueler then filed a petition for rehearing, which the appellate court denied in June.

In July, Schueler then petitioned the appellate court to transfer the case to the Indiana Supreme Court, and that petition was denied on Aug. 26.