A second man has been charged in the 2012 slaying of a retired farmer who was found shot to death in his western Indiana home, authorities said Thursday. A judge issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for Richard D. Taft, 39, on one count of murder and two counts of burglary resulting in bodily harm in the killing of 85-year-old Lowell BadgerIndiana State Police said.
Taft is currently incarcerated at the Michigan City Correctional Facility on unrelated drug convictions. Online court records do not list an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Indiana State Police
Taft’s arrest comes after another jailed man, William Ray Grimes, was indicted in April on charges of murder, burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary in Badger’s killing. Grimes’ trial is scheduled for October.
Badger, 85, was fatally shot in December 2012 during a burglary at his home in rural Sullivan County about 19 miles south of Terre Haute. Badger was found dead on the bedroom floor and a 46-inch TV and safe were taken from his home, Indiana State Police previously said.
Court documents say that during a party on Dec. 7, 2012, Grimes, Taft and a third person who has not been charged said they were going to break into a house and look for money, WTHHI-TV reported.
Grimes, Taft and the other person later returned to the party with a flat-screen TV in the bed of a truck, according to the documents. A witness told police that during a later car ride, Taft started crying and said he “didn’t want to hurt like the old man had been hurt,” the documents said.
Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office previously said that after Badger’s murder, police had used all-terrain vehicles, boats and divers to search the area.
A reward of about $30,000 had been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Badger’s death.