Five inmates remain on Indiana’s death row

HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT) – The death penalty has been a hot topic of debate across the country. Indiana is one state that used to carry them out until 2009. In late 2024, the Hoosier state resumed capital punishment, and since then, three people have been executed: Joseph Corcoran, Benjamin Ritchie and the latest with the execution of Roy Lee Ward.

With these carried out, Indiana has five inmates remaining on death row. Who are these individuals, and what were their crimes?

William Gibson:

William Gibson is on death row for the murders of Karen Hodella, Stephanie Kirk and Christine Whitis.

Records indicate Hodella, 44-years-old from Port Orange, Florida, was strangled to death. This murder lead Gibson to plead guilty and receive a 65-year sentence in 2014.

Kirk was 35 years old when she was also strangled to death by Gibson in 2012. Gibson would go on to confess to the crime.

Whitis was killed when she was strangled by Gibson also in 2012, almost one month after Kirk was killed. Records indicate Gibson’s sister was the one that found the body. This was the crime that lead to Gibson’s arrest. Whitis was 75.

Eric Holmes:

Eric Holmes is on death row stemming from a violent robbery in 1989 when he was 21.

Holmes was a former employee at a Shoney’s restaurant in Marion County where he reportedly got into an argument with co-worker Amy Foshee. Holmes’ supervisors were 30-year-old Charles Ervin and 20-year-old Theresa Blosl.

After his dismissal, reports stated at closing Holmes waited in the parking lot with Michael Vance when Foshee left the restaurant with Ervin and Blosl. That was when Holmes and Vance trapped them in the foyer and stabbed Ervin and Blosl to death, grabbing the till. Foshee would survive.

Vance was tried in a separate trial and received 190 years in prison.

Kevin Isom:

Kevin Isom is on death row for the murders of his then wife and her two children in their Gary, Indiana apartment in 2007. He was sentenced to death row in 2013.

Isom was convicted of killing Cassandra Isom, 16-year-old Michael and 13-year-old Ci’Andria. Records show police were called due to gunfire but were unable to immediately get into the building. Isom allegedly began to shoot at them through his apartment windows. He was eventually taken into custody by a SWAT team following a struggle.

Michael Overstreet:

Michael Overstreet is on death row for the 1997 kidnapping, rape and murder of Kelly Eckhart in Johnson County.

Eckhart’s body was found several days later dumped in Brown County.

It was determined Eckhart was strangled by her own shoestring and a strap cut from her overall suspenders. She was also found to have been shot in the head. Bodily fluids were also found on her, which was later matched through DNA analysis as been contributed by Overstreet.

Overstreet was also claimed to be responsible of a Columbus, Indiana killing four months before Eckhart’s.

In 2014, Overstreet was found mentally incompetent for his sentence to be administered. Until that changes, Overstreet cannot be executed.

Jeffrey Weisheit:

Jeffrey Weisheit is on death row for the 2010 murders of 5-year-old Caleb and 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch in Vanderburgh County. Authorities state Weisheit bound and gagged the children before intentionally setting fire to his home with a railroad flare.

Weisheit was later arrested in northern Kentucky after a chase. It was determined Weisheit fled Indiana in a yellow Camaro and was stopped following the use of stop sticks.

Weisheit was sentenced to death in 2013. He has previously entered appeals to the Indiana Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court, but his death sentence has been upheld. His latest appeal in 2023 to the United States District Court Southern District of Indiana was denied on Tuesday, according to court documents.

There is also one local Kentucky inmate who is on death row. However, Kentucky abolished the death penalty in 1976, and capital punishment has been indefinitely suspended by court order since 2009. The full list of death row inmates can be found here.

Robert Keith Woodall:

Woodall was sentenced to death on September 4, 1998, in Caldwell County for capital murder, capital kidnapping and first-degree rape.

According to authorities, Woodall abducted Sarah Hansen from the Minit Mark parking lot in Greenville, Kentucky on January 25, 1997. Authorities say Woodall then drove to Luzerne Lake where he proceeded to rape her.

Woodall beat her and used a box-cutter knife to inflict cuts in Sarah Hansen’s throat. Her body was dragged and discarded into the water. Result of an autopsy revealed that water was found in Sarah Hansen’s lungs and reports that she died as a result of drowning.