Heidi Kathleen Carter, a 37-year-old woman from Indiana, is set to spend the remainder of her life in prison after she was found guilty of all charges related to a rape and murder case that shocked the local community. Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge David Kiely declared on Friday that Carter will serve a 65-year sentence in a state penitentiary, as confirmed by court documents.
The jury had already convicted Carter on the six felony counts that she was facing, which included one count of murder, two counts of aiding, inducing or causing forcible rape, and three counts of criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon. She was given 65 years for murder, 40 years for each rape charge, and 16 years for each confinement charge, with all sentences to run concurrently.
Carter’s arrest had taken place in October 2021 at her Evansville residence, 180 miles south of Indianapolis, after a house cleaner discovered the body of Tim Ivy and a female victim who had been sexually assaulted and restrained by duct tape. Previously, a different jury had only found Carter guilty of one misdemeanor count of carrying a firearm without a permit with the other charges causing a partial mistrial.
On Friday, Carter had the chance to speak in court and still maintained that she was also a victim of the violence due to her then-boyfriend Carrey Hammond. Hammond had beaten Ivy before strangling him to death and sexually assaulted the female victim before being shot by the police. Carter stated that “Yes, I was living in sin,” but “did I commit any crimes? No. Under the circumstances, I did the best that I could. I’m a victim, too.” However, Judge Kiely was not moved by her words and said the court noted her “lack of concern that a human life has been lost” before delivering the sentence.
Ivy’s family members had submitted victim impact statements to the court, with his daughter writing that “the only man to truly understand me is gone, and it feels like most of me went with him. I will never understand or recover from this.” Stan Levco from the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office commented to the Evansville Courier & Press after the hearing and said that his office was content with the sentence given by the judge. He went on to say that “this murder and rape were one of the most sadistic — if not the most sadistic — I’ve ever prosecuted.”
The police said that Carter and the female victim had met on a LGBTQ dating app, and Carter had invited her and Ivy to her home on October 19, 2021. After they arrived, they drank alcohol and took drugs before engaging in consensual sexual activity. However, this angered Hammond and he started to beat Ivy with a baseball bat before restraining them both with duct tape. The female victim testified that Carter aided Hammond in restraining them and held a gun on them, threatening to kill the victims. The woman also stated that Carter was excited and angry during the assault and told Hammond to “do anything he wants” to her. After Carter left for a few hours, Hammond strangled Ivy to death with a belt as he had attempted to break free from his restraints.
Subsequently, a female worker employed by Carter to tidy the house before a landlord assessment uncovered a female victim, who was bound and asking for assistance, as stated by officials. The woman thought she was sitting on a stack of blankets, but it was actually hiding the body of Ivy. When the police officers arrived at the dwelling, Hammond left with hostility and was holding an object that was shaped like a gun, according to the police. The officers shot and killed him, noting that he had an object made of metal and plastic that looked like a firearm in his grasp. Police described his death as a suicide-by-cop. Carter affirmed that she was only acting in a way that would appease Hammond and had the gun pointed at the victims. Carter reportedly stated that she intends to challenge her sentence.