An Indiana man was sentenced on Wednesday to 85 years in prison for the 2020 murder of his mother’s boyfriend.
Cody Allen Wade, 33, was on parole for arson on June 18, 2020, when he stabbed Carl Haviland to death. On that fateful day, Wade left a cookout and went to a man’s house, whom he told he was about to kill someone.
Wade then went to his mother’s house and called her, but she didn’t answer, and he left a voicemail. Wade, however, failed to hang up after leaving the voicemail, so he ended up recording himself as he stabbed Haviland to death in front of his mother.
“The defendant repeatedly stabbed Carl Haviland not only in front of the defendant’s own mother but did so in spite of her efforts to physically prevent him from committing the crime,” Clay County Superior Court Judge Robert A. Pell wrote when sentencing Wade, according to People Magazine.
Clay County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Zach Clapp said prosecutors played the recording Wade accidentally left on his mother’s phone for the jury during his trial. The jury ultimately found him guilty of the murder after a four-day trial.
“All murders are gruesome,” said Clay County Prosecutor Emily Clarke, who prosecuted Wade. “I think what made this case especially so was the fact that the defendant had inadvertently recorded himself throughout the murder, so we were able to hear the entire thing.”
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Prosecutors said at trial that after Wade stabbed Haviland, he kicked and taunted him.
Wade was found to be under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the murder. He had previously been diagnosed as bipolar.
“There was taunting going on,” Clarke said. “The defendant was making racial slurs at the victim and saying horrible things.”
Wade’s 85-year sentence breaks down to 60 years for the murder charge alone, five years for a level 5 felony charge of battery on a law enforcement officer with injury, another five years for a second level 5 felony charge of battery on a law enforcement officer with injury, two and a half years for a level 6 felony charge of battery on a public safety official, plus an additional year for a class A misdemeanor charge of resisting law enforcement. Wade received an additional 15 years for being a habitual offender, but since some sentences were handed down as concurrent, the total number of years he is scheduled to spend in prison is 85. He will also receive credit for time already served since his arrest and trial.