Straley pleads guilty

A Portland man has pleaded guilty to his wife’s murder.
Richard A. Straley, 53, Portland, entered the plea Tuesday at what had been scheduled as a pretrial conference in Jay Circuit Court. Judge Brian Hutchison accepted the plea, entered a judgment of conviction and set a sentencing hearing for June 22.
Straley had been charged with murder following the March 18 stabbing of his wife Connie Straley, 58.
Jay County prosecutor Wes Schemenaur said this morning he was pleasantly surprised by the result.
“This was pretty much unexpected by me,” he said. “I don’t usually anticipate murder cases pleading guilty like that … Most of them go to trial.”
Schemenaur added that he believed Richard Straley made the plea against the advice of his attorneys, Robert Beymer and Joelle Freiburger. They could not be reached for comment this morning.
No plea deal had been reached prior to Tuesday. A trial date had been set for Aug. 17.
“The only concession I agreed to make was to withdraw the habitual offender enhancement,” said Schemenaur. “So he’s going to be subject to the full range for the murder charge without the possibility of facing additional time for the habitual offender.”
In addition to the murder charge, Schemenaur had been seeking to have Richard Straley classified as a habitual offender because of two prior felony convictions. He was convicted of burglary, a Class C felony, in Adams County in 1993 and battery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Class C felony, in Jay Circuit Court in 2003.
He faces a sentence of 45 to 65 years on the murder charge. Being convicted as habitual offender could have added as many as 20 years to his sentence.
“My next step is to sit down and meet with the family ... I want to talk with them and find out what their thoughts are,” said Schemenaur of his preparation for the sentencing hearing. “Obviously I’m going to be asking for a pretty hefty sentence.”
Portland Police Department officers responded to a report of a woman who had been apparently assaulted and was bleeding profusely about 6:37 p.m. March 18. When they arrived at the scene, officers found Connie Straley in a neighboring apartment bleeding from multiple stab wounds.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, Connie Straley was stabbed, escaped out the back door of her apartment and ran to the neighboring apartment. She was breathing and alert when officers arrived.
A helicopter was called to transport Connie Straley to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, but she died at 7:30 p.m. before it arrived.
The probable cause affidavit says officers followed a blood trail leading back to the Straley apartment, 719 S. Shank St., where they found Richard Straley seated at a picnic table and covered in blood. He allegedly said to the officers: “I killed her didn’t I.”
After obtaining a search warrant, officers found a knife at the scene that was believed to be the murder weapon.
The incident marked Portland’s first murder since 2008, when Shawn Buckner’s body was found in a rural area of Delaware County after he had been beaten and stabbed to death. Roderick Berry and Thomas Smith pleaded guilty to the murder, while Addison Pijnappels, Michael Heffern and Tina Whiting were found guilty during the trials.