Sarah Jo Pender is a woman convicted along with her former boyfriend Richard Edward Hull of murdering their roommates: Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman on October 24, 2000 in Indiana. She came to national attention in August 2008 after she escaped from the Rockville Correctional Facility and was featured on America's Most Wanted. She was recaptured on December 2008.

Crime

Sarah Jo Pender, then 21, was a graduate from Lawrence Central High School in 1997. She worked as a secretary at Carl E. Most and Sons. Richard Hull, her boyfriend, worked as a bouncer at a bar. He had a criminal history which included 6 misdemeanors and two felony convictions for auto-theft and for residential entry.

Andrew Cataldi 24, and Tricia Nordman 25 were both fugitives from a Nevada Correctional Facility where Nordman served time on a forgery conviction and Cataldi on a possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine conviction. According to the police, Richard Hull and Andrew Cataldi reportedly sold drugs from their place, a fact confirmed by Hull himself.

The murder

According to neighbor Jana Frederick, tensions had been growing for three weeks between the couples as Richard Hull and Andrew Cataldi often had arguments. At some point before the murders, Richard Hull, who couldn't legally purchase a firearm because of his record, sought to buy one from her boyfriend's son. When that didn't work, he turned to Sarah Pender, who he somehow convinced to buy a weapon for him.

In the morning of October 24, 2000, Hull drove Pender to a local Walmart where the clerk who handled the sale of the 12 gauge shotgun used for the murder saw Hull pick himself the ammunition and bring it to the counter where Pender paid for it. The couple then went for an outing with Pender's parents and came home around 11 p.m.

Sarah Pender left the place shortly after to take a walk in the neighborhood. According to Richard Hull, while she was away, an argument broke over money Hull's sister, Tabitha owed to Cataldi. Cataldi, who knew about the recently purchased shotgun, went into Hull's room and tried to grab the weapon. "He said he was going to kill my f------ family" later told Richard Hull to the detectives. A struggle followed. Hull then shot Cataldi in the chest and Nordman in the chest and in the head.

When Pender came back to their home, both victims were dead and Hull had already loaded one of the bodies in the back of a truck he had borrowed from a friend, Ronnie Herron, on October 23, 2000. He needed it to get stuff out of the basement because he and Cataldi planned to have a chemist from Las Vegas use the place to cook meth. Hull and Pender then drove a few blocks away and dumped the bodies in a dumpster where they were found by Steve Stultz.

On October 25, 2000, Sarah Pender went to work as usual while Richard Hull borrowed a plug adapter from neighbor Jana Frederick to clean up the blood in the house. On October 26, the couple went to Noblesville to bring the truck back to its owner; the home of which Richard Hull burned several blood stained items. On the same day, detectives, who had identified the victims, searched Hull and Pender's house. They found traces of blood and noticed that attempts had been made to conciel the murders.

Hull was arrested in Noblesville on October 27, 2000 and he admitted he committed both murders. On October 28, 2000, Sarah Pender turned over a pair of blood stained pants belonging to Hull to the police. DNA testing showed that the blood was that of Tricia Nordman and Andrew Cataldi. No DNA evidence was found that linked Pender to the murders of which both she and her boyfriend were charged. Sarah Pender explained later that "after he committed these murders, I did not call the police, but instead stayed with him out of love, fear, loyalty and sheer stupidity".

The trial

Protagonist

Sarah Pender went on trial at Marion Superior Court in July 2002. She was represented by attorney James Nave. The judge was Jane Magnus-Simpson. The Prosecutor was Larry Sells. Larry Sells was a republican candidate who had just been defeated when he ran for office to become Hamilton County Prosecutor. He had campaigned stressing his tough sentencing for criminals. He was favourable to the death penalty and managed to get it on several occasions. He believed that trials should results in convictions in more than 75% of the cases.

Neither Sarah Pender, nor Richard Hull testified at the trial.

Evidence against Pender

Citing the fact that Sarah Pender had bought the murder weapon on the morning of the murders and that she later helped Richard Hull in disposing of the bodies, Larry Sells told the jury that she had planned the murders and had manipulated Richard Hull into committing them.

According to Indianapolis Star journalist Vic Ryckaert, Sells "likened her influence over Hull to the control Manson had over his followers, who committed a string of murders in 1969." The "female Charles Manson" tag has stuck to Sarah Pender ever since.

To prove Sarah Pender's guilt, Sells relied chiefly on a letter allegedly send to Richard Hull by Pender in May 2001 and on the testimony of inmate Floyd Pennington. In the letter she allegedly wrote to her former boyfriend, the woman took responsibility for the murder. "I wish I could go back and change the events of that night," said the letter. "Drew was so mean that night. I just snapped. I didn't mean to kill them. It must have been the acid.[...]"When you said you would try to take the blame, I knew then that you loved me deeply. At first I thought you would tell, but you stuck to your promise." the letter ended with a postscript: "Destroy this."

Forensic Document Examiner Lee Ann Harmless testified the letter had been written by Pender. Defense attorney James Nave said the letter was a fake. he said that Sarah Pender was no "clever criminal mastermind" and that the murder "was not a cleverly planned criminal act. It was an act of the moment." He argued that Richard Hull had shot Cataldi and Nordman because they were about to cut him out of a big drug deal.

Another evidence presented to the jury was the testimony of fellow inmate Floyd Pennington, who had a pen relationship with Sarah Pender for several months. He testified that Pender had admitted to him her responsibility in the double homicide during a meeting they had arranged on September 22, 2001 at Wishard Hospital.

On August 22, 2002, Sarah Pender was found guilty and sentenced to 110 years in prison. Richard Hull pleaded guilty to avoid trial. His line of defense was that he had been influenced by Sarah Pender at the time of the murder, which was considered at the time by the court as a mitigating factor. He received a 130-year sentence.

Controversies

Over letter

The only hard piece of evidence presented at Pender's trial as proof of her guilt was the letter that she allegedly wrote on May 16, 2001 and sent to Richard Hull. Richard Hull gave this letter to his attorney who passed it on to Indianapolis detective Kenneth Martinez between September and October 2001. Sarah Pender, her lawyers and her supporters have always said that it was manufactured evidence against her by Hull to shift the responsibility of the murder on her. Several elements support this claim.

1. Richard Hull himself, in a signed affidavit, has recanted and admitted the letter was a forgery. In it, he has explained that while he was detained at Marion County Jail, he showed samples of Pender's handwritting to fellow inmate Steve Logan and asked him to write the letter for him, since Logan wrote more like a female. The deal was that Richard Hull would provide protection for Steve Logan, who was a small white guy on the cell block. By producing the forged letter, Hull's goal was to get a shorter sentence and walk home. However, On May 4, 2004, when he appeared for re-sentencing, the court found as an aggravating factor the notarized affidavit in which he admitted the forgery, since it contradicted his earlier testimonies. The court found “an additional aggravating factor, which [arose since the original sentencing], which, actually, is very serious. [Hull] appears to have committed perjury in an effort to help his co-defendant manipulate her way out of a criminal conviction for [the] very serious offenses of murder.” While admitting the May 16 letter was a forgery resulted in a heavier sentence for Hull, it was of no benefit to Sarah Pender.

2. Fingerprints from both Hull and Steve Logan were found on the letter, but not those of Sarah Pender.

3. Detective Kenneth Martinez could not find a sealed envelope to match the letter.

4. Most of the eighty letters sent by Pender to Hull were in cursive writing. The alleged self-incriminating letter was printed, which was less common.

5. While Steve Logan has always stopped short of admitting he wrote the May 16, 2001 letter, he has testified that Hull showed him letters written by Pender and also asked him to write some sort of letter as a way to reduce his charges or sentences, which Logan claims he didn't. On another occasion, according to Pender, Steve Logan also admitted to a private investigator hired by Pender that Richard Hull had requested that the forged letter be written.

6. Between the alleged time of redaction of Pender's alleged self-incriminating letter, May 16, 2001, and the moment it was given to him by Hull's attorney, September–October 2001, pursuant to a search warrant, Detective Kenneth Martinez ceased jail correspondence between Hull and Pender on July 17, 2001. He did not find the May 16th letter, even though Hull's had allegedly kept it during all that time. Supporters of Pender say this is because the forged letter had not yet been written.

Over Pennington's testimony

At the beginning of September 2001, Floyd Pennington was an habitual offender and violent felon waiting for sentencing over robbery. He also had a previous record for Child Molesting, a crime for which he got a five year sentence in 1989.

On September 20, 2001, he met with detective Kenneth Martinez, saying he could arrange a meeting and have Pender admit to him her responsibility for the murders. He had been involved in a correspondence with Pender which totalled at the time 75 letters. This had evolved in a long distance love relationship. After his meeting with detective Kenneth Martinez, he wrote to Sarah pender at which date she should fake being sick to be sent to Wishard Hospital.

On September 22, he faked having a kidney problem and both met as planned at the hospital. On September 28, 2010, Pennington gave a statement according to which he had been able to discuss during three to four hours with Pender. He told that they were left alone for half an hour during which Pender admitted to planning the murder, coercing Hull to kill both Cataldi and Nordman and being present in the house at the time of the murders.

Sarah Pender says that Floyd Pennington is a liar. Supporters of Sarah Pender believe it is no coincidence if Floyd Pennington decided to make a statement against Pender at the end of September. This happened just before he was due to be sentenced, and just at the time Richard Hull decided to give Pender's alleged self incriminating letter via his attorney to Detective Kenneth Martinez. Floyd Pennington had been incarcerated in the same cell block as Richard Hull for two months. They believe Floyd Pennington knew about the letter and saw an opportunity to make a false testimony against Sarah Pender that would look credible and would hopefully benefit him and get him some leniency.

Evasion

Pender escaped from Rockville Correctional Center, a medium-security prison 50 miles west of Indianapolis, on August 4, 2008, with the aid of prison guard Scott Spitler Sr., and former cellmate Jamie Long.

Protagonist

At the time of Pender's evasion, Scott Spitler had been a corrections officer at Rockville Correctional Facility for 5 years. The previous month, he has been placed in a pre-trial diversion program for a misdemeanor charge of battery. Although he was married and had children, he was also engaged in an on-going relationship with Sarah Pender behind bars.

Jamie Long was 41 years old and married to Larry Long. She had a criminal history of two felonies and 12 to 15 other convictions. Both women had met in 2001 while they were inmates at Marion County Jail. They formed an intimate relationship and Long referred to Pender as her "wife" while they served time at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. After her release, Long frequently visited Pender.

Circumstances

In April 2007, Sarah Pender submitted a petition for writ of Habeas Corpus. On September 5, 2008, in a closing judgment, her petition was dismissed. She later wrote: "Once my appeals were exausted [sic], I had no hope left and I chose to create my own justice. I served the equivalent of 21 years of my sentence and I felt that was enough. I escape because I felt justified in doing so."

Jail Break

Sarah Pender reportedly planned her escape in the days or weeks before it happened with a cell-phone provided to her by Scott Spitler. On August 4, 2008, Sarah Pender went to the facility's gymnasium where she changed clothes, hiding her prison uniform above the ceiling's tiling and putting on civilian clothes that Spitler also had given to her. She then walked toward the fueling area where they had agreed to meet. Spitler told her to get in the van and hide under the seat, which she did. He then drove to the prison's gate where he knew, out of experience, that the guard would not search his vehicle. Spitler dropped off Pender at one of the facility's parking lot, where Jamie Long picked her up, gave her $140 and drove her to Indianapolis. After an inmate count, it appeared that Pender was missing. The Prison was put on maximum security lock down.

After viewing video surveillance tapes and consulting the guardshack log, investigators identified Spitler as Pender's accomplice. He was arrested on August 5, 2008 and charged with assisting a criminal, official misconduct, sexual misconduct and trafficking with an inmate. In February 2009, he was sentenced to 8 years in jail. Jamie Long was arrested on August 7, 2008 after Spitler denounced her to investigators as the person who had picked up Pender. She was charged with aiding an escape, a class C felony, and sentenced to 7 years in jail.

In September 2008, TV show America's Most Wanted began to ran a feature on Sarah Pender. In October 2008, Pender was added to the US Marshals 15 most wanted fugitives list. She was the only woman on the list at the time.

In the meantime, Sarah Pender had settled in a North Side Chicago neighborhood where she went under the name Ashley Thompson. She found a job as an estimator for a contractor. She led an ordinary and uneventful life as an employee, which she has extensively described in her blog "the Long way Home".

On December 22, 2008, two hours after a rerun of America's Most Wanted, her neighbor identified her and called the Chicago police, which arrested her at her apartment. Although she denied being Sarah Pender for a little while, she did not resist arrest.

Sarah Pender is now being held in Solitary Confinement at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. This punishment, which should have lasted a year, has been arbitrarily prolonged by the Indiana Department of Correction, with no set date for her release back into general population. She is kept under observation and has no contact with other inmates.

Sarah Pender's current release date from jail is April 4, 2054 – when she would be 75 years old.

"Female Charles Manson" Label

In 2002, during her trial, Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Sells likened Sarah Pender to a "Female Charles Manson" to describe her alleged influence over Richard Hull. At the time, this comparison was relayed by the media on several occasions and it has regularly resurfaced since in the online media.

Supporters of Sarah Pender claim that this comparison is inappropriate because Sarah Pender did not plan, commit or pressure Richard Hull into murdering Tricia Nordman and Andrew Cataldi. They claim that even if Sarah Pender had organized the murders, the comparison would be grossly exaggerated : Charles Manson was a guru with a juvenile offender record and a psychiatric history who led several members of his sect to commit several murders on several occasions over a period of several monthes. Sarah Pender held a legitimate job at the one-time the one-Richard Hull shot Cataldi and Nordman.

In 2008 and during his trial, Scott Spitler explained that he had been manipulated by Sarah Pender. At the time of the escape, Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner Edwin Buss told the media that Spender had "Manipulated him to the point where [he had planned his day] to get a vehicule inside the facility and take her outside the facility." Detectives said that she had first seduced and then coerced Spitler into helping her to escape. Interviewed by America's Most Wanted, Larry Sells said one more time about Pender that "Lurking within is a dark evil demon [...] she has the ability to seduce people into committing atrocious acts [...] she has a Charles Manson-like ability to manipulate people."

The America's Most Wanted website made a particularly dramatic depiction of Sarah Pender, labeling her a "cunning and dangerous fugitive" and asking viewers to call "before she has the opportunity to kill again." It precised that "Pender used her body to get what she desired most -- Freedom" The show talked about "her manipulative ways".

Sarah Pender has written that "the media, including "America's Most Wanted", has selectively used facts in order to manipulate the viewers to believe I am a degenerate, dangerous criminal in return for sensational story and higher ratings under the guise of bringing justice." Supporters of Sarah Pender claim that Scott Spitler was aware of the media depiction of Sarah Pender and used it to minimize his responsibility. They point out that Spitler did not act out of a misguided love for a femme fatale when he helped Sarah Pender to escape Rockville Correctional Facility : he was expecting a 15000 $ payment for his services, a fact the media reported on neither during Pender's escape, nor before, during or after Spitler's trial.

Sarah Pender's supporters further point out that the relationship between Pender and Spitler was not an exception at Rockville. Two months after her escape, in October 2008, Roger Heitzman, another correctional officer at Rockville, was arrested by the state police for trafficking and engaging in sex acts with at least one female inmate. Because the case was not high profile, no one claimed Heitzman was a victim manipulated by the inmate involved.

Supporters of Sarah Pender finally claim that the Department of Correction had also an interest in exaggerating Pender's abilities in order to minimize media damage and their own responsibilities : the Rockville Correctional Facility's hiring policy had already gotten bad media publicity in February 2008 when it was revealed that mass murderer Steven Kazmierczak had been hired there in 2007 to work as a correctional officer. The fact that the guard posted at the gate did not search Spitler's vehicle on the day of the escape as he should have, Scott Spitler's behaviour, Roger Heitzman's arrest, the hiring of psychopath Steven Kazmierczak are elements that clearly pointed out problems within the institution which, when considered, had little to do with Pender's personality. Supporters of Sarah Pender point out that she committed no violence of any kind to prepare, during or after, her escape.

Supporters of Sarah Pender claim that if anything, far from being manipulative, Sarah Pender has often been used by a variety of people as a convenient scapegoat to elude their own responsibilities in crimes or errors they committed, or used in the media as a mean to get high ratings and more copy of their newspapers.

Media

A book on her escape, Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender, was released June 7, 2011. The book, written by Steve Miller (author), has been criticized as inaccurate and deliberately quoting key documents in a misleading way.

In April 2011, a Mail-Art Project "Send us YOUR Hand" has been launched by Sarah, her family and friends under the organization "Art for Humanity" to raise support and help Pender, who has been in solitary confinement since 2008, to remain connected to the outside world.

On April 1, 2012, her case was profiled on an episode of the Oxygen TV Series "Snapped". The TV show features interviews of Sarah Jo Pender and her relatives, as well as those of many persons involved in the case.

Richard Hull vs. State of Indiana

The facts

[O]n October 25, 2000, about three o’clock in the morning, Ed Leggon saw two large people, one larger than the other, covering the bed of a pickup truck out in front – parked out in front of the home at 906 S. Meikle Street, here in Marion County, Indiana.  He couldn’t distinguish at that time either the race or the sex of the individuals.  Later, Sarah Pender and . . . Richard Hull, both acknowledged that those individuals were them. 

[A]t six o’clock PM that day, Stephen Stultz, an employee of the Teamsters Local Union at 869 South Meridian, discovered the bodies of a male and a female in a dumpster at the back of the Union address and that’s just a short distance from the Meikle Street address.  Those individuals were later identified as Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman, roommates of  . . . Hull, and Sarah Pender.  The male had been shot in the chest and the female in the chest and in the head with a shotgun.  Descriptions of the victims and photos of their tattoos were shown on TV newscasts. 

A neighbor to the four individuals, Sarah Pender, Richard Hull, Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman, there at 906 Meikle, contacted law enforcement and told them that she knew who the individuals were that were – had been killed and also told them that Sarah Pender and Richard Hull also lived at that address. 

A search warrant was secured by Detective Kenneth Martinez and other law enforcement officers.  They searched the 906 S. Meikle address and discovered, among other things, that there was a lot of blood at the scene.  DNA analysis later determined that that blood belonged to – the blood that they tested belonged to Tricia Nordman, victim in this case.  It was appearing as well that there’d been an attempt to clean up the blood and conceal evidence of the murders.  Jana Frederick told police that Richard Hull borrowed a plug adapter around noon on October 25, 2000, to use a carpet shampoo [machine] to clean the residence there at 906 S. Meikle. 

The police found a Richard Hull and a Sarah Pender in Noblesville.  When Richard Hull was questioned in the early morning of October 27, 2000, he initially denied any knowledge of what happened to Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman.  The detectives advised him of some of the evidence against him, including that he had borrowed from—Ronnie Herron’s pickup truck the evening of October 23, 2000.  That bodies had been moved in that pickup truck. 

The DNA analysis of the pickup truck showed that in the bed of the pickup truck was blood of Andrew Cataldi, one of the victims in this case.  They advised him that [they] were aware that he and Sarah Pender had gone to a South US 31 Wal-Mart.  Sarah Pender was driven there by Richard Hull and a twelve-gauge shotgun had been purchased there the morning of October 24, 2000, just hours before Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman were shot with a shotgun.  Richard Hull was observed by the clerk who had handled the sale of the shotgun obtaining ammunition, which was brought to the counter and paid for – it was paid for by Ms. Pender.  That ammunition [was] twelve gauge deer slugs.  Ms. Nordman was shot twice with a twelve-gauge deer slug and both Cataldi – Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman were shot with a shotgun.  DNA analysis of – excuse me.  Strike that temporarily. 

Richard Hull told law enforcement officers the morning of October 27, 2000, that his sister, Tabitha, owed Andrew Cataldi money.  That he and Andrew got into an argument that night.  Cataldi knew he had the Mossberg shotgun that had just been purchased.  Cataldi went in Hull’s room to try to grab the shotgun.  They got in a struggle and Hull told detectives, “He said he was going to kill my f------ family” and that argument occurred just moments before the shooting actually took place in the house. 

On October 28, 2000, Sarah Pender, when giving their [sic] full statement to law enforcement, turned over to them a pair of black pants belonging to [Hull].  Those pants were tested and DNA tests established that the blood on those pants was that of Andrew Cataldi and Tricia Nordman. 

And all those events occurred in Marion County, Indiana.