Man suspected of killing 7 refuses to answer judge

CROWN POINT, Ind. -- A man who allegedly confessed to killing seven women in Indiana refused to acknowledge his name to a judge Wednesday, and a sheriff explained later the suspect was upset his hearing was in open court before dozens of journalists.

The judge asked Darren Vann, 43, of Gary, Indiana, at his initial court appearance whether he understood the reason for the hearing in the strangulation death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy. But Vann stood unmoving and stone-faced, staring back silently at the judge.

"Mr. Vann, are you choosing not to take part in this hearing?" Magistrate Judge Kathleen Sullivan asked Vann, wearing striped jail garb and with his wrists and legs shackled and flanked by two Lake County Jail guards at the lockup in Crown Point.

Sullivan then addressed Vann's public defender, Matthew Fech, urging him to "tell your client that he stays in jail the rest of his life until this hearing takes place."

Vann's public defender walked up to Vann and put his hand on his shoulder, encouraging him to speak. But he offered no response. The judge found him in contempt and said she would schedule another initial hearing for next week.

Before entering the courtroom, Vann had peered through a window at spectator benches, asking his guards why so many journalists were there and refusing to even enter, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich told reporters later. Vann's lawyer finally convinced Vann to at least enter the room, he added.

Until Wednesday morning's hearing, the sheriff said Vann's demeanor had been "quiet, calm and collected," which included confessing to investigators and leading police to abandoned homes where several bodies were hidden.

Vann is being held in isolation and is on 24-hour-a-day watch at the county jail, Bunich said, so it's unclear how the contempt charge will alter his status. His silence, if it persists, could raise complicated legal questions that might slow the prosecution.

At the less than 10 minute hearing, the judge also issued a gag order, meaning investigators can no longer interview Vann unless they first get his permission through his attorney, Buncich said.

Vann, a convicted sex offender, was arrested Saturday and charged with the strangulation death of Hardy, whose body was found Friday in a bathtub at a Motel 6 in Hammond, Indiana, 20 miles southeast of Chicago.

On Wednesday, he also was charged in the death of 35-year-old Anith Jones of, Merrillville, Indiana, whose body was found in an abandoned house Saturday night in Gary.

Five more bodies were found Sunday in other homes, said Hammond Police Chief John Doughty, who identified two of the women as Gary residents Teaira Batey, 28, and Kristine Williams, 36. Police have not determined the identities of the other three women, including two whose bodies were found on the same block where Jones' body was found Saturday.

Investigators in Indiana and Texas, where Vann also lived, have been poring over cold case files and missing person reports to determine if there are more victims. Buncich said Wednesday his staff has fielded called worried family members "from all over the Midwest" about whether their relatives could be among Vann's victims.

Vann was convicted in 2009 of raping a woman in his Austin, Texas, apartment. He was released from prison last year and moved back to Indiana. Before that conviction, he served a year in prison in Indiana after he grabbed a Gary woman in a chokehold in 2004, doused her with gasoline and threatened to set her on fire.

In both cases, the charges against Vann were reduced in plea bargains, and Texas officials deemed him a low risk for violence. Vann registered as a sex offender in Indiana and police made a routine check in September that he lived at the address he provided.

Sherriff Buncich said he wished registered sex offenders, like Vann, could be monitored more closely than they are but that budgetary and legal constraints make that difficult.

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