CROWN POINT, Ind. — A man who allegedly confessed to killing seven women in Indiana on Wednesday refused to speak or even acknowledge his name to a judge, and a sheriff explained later that the suspect was upset his hearing was in open court before dozens of journalists.
The judge asked Darren Vann, 43, of Gary, Indiana, at his initial court appearance if he understood the reason for the hearing in the strangulation death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy. But Vann stood unmoving and stone-faced, staring back silently at the judge.
"Mr. Vann, are you choosing not to take part in this hearing?" Magistrate Judge Kathleen Sullivan asked Vann sternly.
When Vann — wearing striped jail garb, with his wrists and legs shackled and flanked by two guards at the lockup — still offered no response, Sullivan told his public defender to "tell your client that he stays in jail the rest of his life until this hearing takes place."
Putting his hand on Vann's shoulder, public defender Matthew Fech, encouraged him to speak — but he again stood silently. The judge then found him in contempt and said she would schedule another hearing for next week.
Before entering the room, Vann had peered through a window at spectator benches, asking why so many journalists were there and refusing to even enter, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said later. Fech finally convinced Vann to at least enter.
Until Wednesday's hearing in Crown Point, the sheriff said Vann's demeanor had been "quiet, calm and collected," which included confessing to investigators and leading police to abandoned homes where several bodies were hidden.
Vann is held in isolation on 24-hour-a-day watch in jail, Bunich said, so it's unclear how the contempt charge will alter his status. His silence, if it persists, could raise complicated legal questions that might severely slow the prosecution process.
