John Carter sentenced to maximum in Katelyn Markham death

“The court believes that Mr. Carter has shown no genuine remorse for this offense,” Haughey said.

Carter, who was credited 14 days in jail, also was ordered to pay court costs and will be subject to post-release probation. He was handcuffed and taken into custody immediately following sentencing.

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser argued strongly for the maximum sentence.

“The defendant was given the opportunity to explain himself, to proceed on the road to redemption with a good act of contrition,” Gmoser said to the judge. “He did neither and he gave no account other than his admission to you of his guilt and that he caused her death with no explanation to solve the mystery of how and why he killed Katelyn.”

Gmoser said: “His ultimate plea surely was not to assuage the pain he caused and garner some benefit of accountability. Defendant Carter had the benefit of three skilled attorneys, and with them a risk/benefit analysis of the trial about to take place, and the conclusion a jury would make in the battle between circumstantial evidence and coincidental evidence.”

Markham’s father, Dave Markham, talked with the media after the sentencing, saying Carter “was responsible for this and he deserved what he got.” He admitted he was “relieved” and “grateful” for the judge giving the maximum sentence possible under the plea agreement.

“It’s not over, and no it’s not closure, but it’s the start of something else to come,” he said. “I’m thankful and grateful for the judge handing out the sentence that he did.”

The Markham family will now focus on life after the Carter case, and that includes introducing state legislation called Katelyn’s law.

“We want to try to change some legislation,” he said, adding others could have been charged in connection with Markham’s death if it weren’t for the statute of limitations running out.

They’d like to change this, said Markham attorney Tina Barrett.

The goal would be Katelyn’s law would be triggered, opening up more charges, if a crime like murder and involuntary manslaughter that involves a person or body being missing or hidden for any period of time.

“If we had something like Katelyn’s law, it wouldn’t have been just the three years for involuntary manslaughter,” she said. “It would have been a lot of other charges that we would not have run out of time on.”

Markham was an art student, days shy of her 22nd birthday, when she was reported missing by her then-fiancé Carter in August 2011. Her skeletal remains were found more than a year-and-a-half later on April 7, 2013, in a remote wooded area in Indiana, some 30 miles from her Fairfield home.

The wooded area was not far from a farm owned by the Carter family.

Markham’s death was then ruled a homicide, but the cause of death had not been determined. It remained unsolved until Carter’s arrest in March 2023.

Markham’s disappearance was initially treated as a missing persons case by Fairfield police. She wasn’t at her Dorshire Drive residence and she didn’t show up for work at David’s Bridal near Tri-County Mall. Her car, keys, dog and other personal belongings, except for her cellphone, were at her townhouse. The phone was turned off, according to the investigation, at about 12:45 a.m. Aug. 14, 2011, and the GPS on her phone was also off.

Almost a month shy of a decade since her disappearance with no arrests in Markham’s death ― though Carter had been under suspicion ― Gmoser announced the indictment of Carter on a murder charge after an 18-month investigation by his office.

Carter, now married and a father, was scheduled to go to trial on June 24, but pleaded to the third-degree felony with a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a possibility of receiving community control.

The prosecution had a list of more than 100 pieces of evidence collected that could have been introduced at trial. Prosecutors filed the list of “documents and tangible evidence” that included, among other things, 13 written statements, tips from the public, work records, and interview and/or polygraphs.

While the case against Carter is over with the sentencing, Gmoser said he would pursue a new perjury indictment against Jonathan Palmerton, who was accused of lying during official proceedings in connection with the Markham investigation. He was indicted in February 2023, but those charges were eventually dismissed months after the Carter indictment because Gmoser said circumstances would not allow Palmerton’s case to be tried before Carter.

There is a five-year statute of limitations in Palmerton’s perjury allegation.