Escalating Violence

Tina* (not her real name), Boney's first wife, has tried to distance herself from him for well over 17 years, and in that regard, has also tried to shield and protect the son that the two had together, not only from Boney but also from his mother. She nonetheless provided a vivid account of a man who had an identity problem and who could not control his violent nature.

The two met while both were employed at a Hardee's restaurant in Bloomington when she was 18, still in high school, and he was 20, having returned to IU from his National Guard training. She called him Darnell and he made a great first impression with the young white girl as being hard-working, kind, considerate and always happy.

Darnell was very attentive to her and often gave her little gifts. If there was anything that drew attention to him, it was his obsession with being excessively neat and orderly. He also portrayed himself as a good student although Tina would later discover that he was lying about his grades as well as what he was doing with his free time.

The two began dating about six months after first meeting one another and soon Tina was pregnant with their son, William* (not his real name), who was born shortly before their marriage in November, 1989.

According to Tina, Darnell portrayed an excellent public image. He was always attentive to her and their son and even joined the Mormon Church where both were seen as an attractive and caring couple and as good parents to their infant son.

Just after they began to be serious, however, Darnell began the first of his extra-curricular activities, unbeknownst to Tina. She and Darnell were not living together when he began his string of attacks and shoe robberies in October, 1988, and it was only afterwards that she became aware of his fascination and obsession with women's shoes, feet, and legs.

Later, during their marriage, Tina discovered that Darnell was also into a little different type of sex. On more than one occasion she awakened during the night to find that Darnell had delicately placed knee-high hose on her feet and lower legs and was masturbating over her lower extremities.

Barbara Boney was also involved in their lives and would host the newlyweds in New Albany. According to Tina, Barbara told others that Tina's father, whom she had met on several occasions, was the president of Indiana University. In actuality, Tina's father wasn't the president but rather worked in a relatively small department at the university.

Darnell had wanted to join a fraternity at IU and the fact that his grades were poor, he had a felony record, had dropped out of school, and then was married didn't stop the man. He simply formed his own fraternity, with himself as the lone member, and then had hats made with his own Greek letters. He would later claim that the shoe thefts were a result of an innocent fraternity prank.

Although Darnell had been convicted of several felonies, his relationship with Tina was still good, or at least it was good until they married. Within a few months after the two became married and then became parents, things began to spin out of control, according to Tina, inasmuch as Darnell became increasingly violent. Prior to their marriage he exhibited impeccable behavior but afterwards he became a whole different person. That type of shift in his demeanor and behavior would resurrect itself in the future with his relationships with other women.

Minor arguments between the newlyweds would grow increasingly heated to the point where Darnell began hitting Tina in the face and head with his fist. A pattern was developing where the head of Boney's victim was always a fair target and Darnell took full advantage of that. He also would throw Tina on the floor, pull her hair, and on one occasion, he threw a cake into her face and poured Kool-Aid over her head. The young Backbone was exhibiting his standup stuff.

One of the greatest hurts of all, however, came when Darnell threatened to hurt his wife by harming their son. Although during his physical abuse of Tina, he often threatened to kill her, the worst thing for her was when he threatened to hurt their child. Darnell told her that if she ever told anyone of the abuse, he would "hurt me the worst by doing something to (William)." She didn't have to use a lot of her imagination.

Tina continued to put up with the physical and emotional abuse for several months, but began suspecting Darnell of actually physically abusing their son who was not yet a year old. On one occasion, she returned home to find that William had several scratches on his face which, according to Darnell, occurred when he had fallen off the bed while taking a nap. Tina didn't buy that line, but nonetheless the young and frightened mother was reluctant to leave.

A short time later, however, when returning early to their campus married housing unit, Tina was walking the lengthy corridor to their apartment and heard her son screaming and Darnell yelling at him. She ran down the hallway and flung open their apartment door to find Darnell standing over their son and slapping him in the face with his open hand. Backbone was engaged in his own unique way of parenting.

Although Tina quickly moved out of the apartment with their son, Darnell repeatedly tried to make amends with her. He wasn't successful.

Prior to the breakup, however, Darnell began writing bad checks at the local J.C. Penney department store and then returning the merchandise for cash. He convinced Tina, on one occasion, to go to the store, return the merchandise, and get the cash. Backbone was probably a little tired that day and needed some help.

Boney was subsequently arrested, interrogated, and then confessed. During his lengthy confessional diatribe, however, he made it repeatedly known that he was sorry for his wrongdoing and that he would never again violate the law. He also promised to make restitution. Darnell somehow or another failed to make good on those promises as well as others he made after committing future crimes.

After pleading guilty to the theft charge, his probation for his shoe theft crimes was violated and Boney was sentenced to a term of incarceration for two years. He served several months in the Monroe County jail and almost a year at the Branchville Correctional Facility and then was released in late August, 1992. A few weeks after his release, he returned to Bloomington and he immediately tried to reconcile with Tina. He was still wearing his prison clothes when he appeared at her doorstep.

Tina told Boney to leave, which he did, but he later returned with some money for back child support. He subsequently left and then returned, again demanding that Tina allow him to stay with her. Tina refused his repeated efforts to attempt to stay with her, but he did tell her that he had ridden a taxi to Bloomington…courtesy of taking the taxi cab driver hostage at gunpoint. Tina didn't know what to think, but she quickly gave him enough money to ride the bus to New Albany and even took him to the bus station to get him away from her house.

Four hours later, Tina received a telephone call from Boney who was incarcerated, again, at the Monroe County Jail. On this caper, however, Boney had leaped into the big time. He told her that instead of leaving town, he had committed an armed robbery of three women and then attempted to take them hostage. He also told her that the child support money that he had previously given her was the proceeds from a previous armed robbery.

The first armed robbery occurred on October 1, 1992 when Boney entered a local apartment complex rental office and demanded money from the two white female victims. During the 15 minute ordeal, not only money but also a vehicle belonging to the manager was demanded by Boney. Additionally, several tenants came into the office and saw Boney while he was present, albeit they were unaware that Boney was in the middle of an armed robbery. He didn't care that witnesses were present.

During the robbery Boney, who was not wearing a facial disguise as he had done during the shoe thefts, placed his .38 revolver into the back of one of the victims and threatened to shoot her. He also tried to get both victims into the parked car in the parking lot but the two were brave enough not to comply. Boney nonetheless stole the car and drove it for a short distance and then parked it in a Bloomington neighborhood.

The second armed robbery occurred just one week after the first robbery. That event, like the first armed robbery, occurred on a Thursday evening and involved three white coeds as victims, the father of one being an Indiana State Police Trooper.

According to Boney's later confession, he randomly picked the apartment, in an apartment complex, like the first one, which catered to IU students, and simply entered the residence with his mother's .38 revolver. At first the victims thought that Boney was just joking, but he made it known very quickly that he was deadly serious.

Boney escorted the three victims throughout the residence and through the bedroom of each as he held them at gunpoint. He also rifled through their personal belongings as he demanded money from each, calling them "white honky bitches." He claimed that they must have been rich due to the complex where they were living. The complex was nice, but it wasn't that nice and the girls weren't rich.

During the 15-20 minutes that they were held at gunpoint, the victims became increasingly alarmed when Boney's anger grew stronger, particularly after they refused to lie on the floor, believing that Boney was going to sexually assault them.

He became particularly incensed after he saw the photograph of the uniformed Indiana State Trooper father of one of the victim's roommates which was sitting on an entertainment center in the living room, telling the three that he hated cops as he slammed the photograph onto the top of the structure.

During their ordeal, Boney also grabbed the hair of one of the victims and placed his loaded .38 against the back of her head, threatening to shoot her and to kill all three if they screamed. He then began waving the gun around and was described as panic-stricken by the victims, who themselves were beginning to panic.

All three of the victims thought that Boney was going to kill them, particularly after he took them at gunpoint to the car of one of the victims which was parked in a lot adjacent to the apartment building. He told them he was going to take them to an ATM for more money and then would release them. They didn't believe that line, but rather believed they were going to be sexually assaulted and then killed.

The Bloomington Police Department, however, had been alerted by one of the boyfriends of one of the victims who was on the phone at the time of Boney's intrusion and was alarmed by her comments. As such, several officers responded to the scene where they subsequently arrested Boney, at gunpoint, as he was in the backseat of the vehicle with his momma's gun pointed at the back of the head of the driver. One police officer thought that he was going to have to shoot Boney, who was slow in obeying the officer's command to drop his gun.

Boney was again taken to police headquarters where he was Mirandized by the police and he provided yet another confession. Caught red-handed, again, there wasn't much else that he could do other then brag about his actions.

One of the first things he did was to tell the police that he enjoyed reading about his first armed robbery in the paper, although he also pointed out an error in the story which was made by the police reporter.

Among his confessional thoughts was the fact that he had his own personal bag at the last robbery which contained a Halloween mask, but he had failed to use it because he was in a hurry. He was on his own time and own agenda, he had picked the residence at random, but he was in a hurry. Darnell obviously got excited as he waved the gun around, placed it to the head of one of the victims, began yelling and screaming, and then threatened to kill everyone. By his comments, it was apparent that he must have been really juiced.

Boney also confided that he was going to abduct all three of the young coeds because he didn't want them calling the police. That makes perfectly good sense. Let's see, if there are no witnesses who can talk to the police and provide a description of the robber, it will be more difficult to identify and arrest the perpetrator. Backbone was also a smart cookie. He knew that there would be no witness statements without witnesses.

Boney also provided the motive for the crime: he needed money and no one would lend him any. Uh, yeah, Darnell, you're fresh out of prison, no job, have in your possession a handgun which you admit is a parole violation, and no one will lend you any money. After being treated so shabbily, it's no wonder that you had to resort to committing a home invasion and three armed robberies within weeks of your release from prison.

Boney's three violent crimes, all committed within five weeks after his release from prison, also had two striking commonalities. They all involved the use of a loaded handgun and the commandeered use of a vehicle.

Additionally, for the period October, 1988 through October, 1992, Boney exhibited a distinctive pattern of behavior when committing his crimes:

1. His crime sprees began in early Fall.
2. He committed his crimes in or adjacent to vehicles and/or parking lots.
3. Boney walked to the crime scene.
4. His victims were white females, close in age to Boney.
5. He tackled some of his victims and drove them to the ground, injuring their ankles, knees, wrists, and/or hands.
6. His victims were often assaulted in the face or head.

Of greater concern, however, was the fact that Boney's violence had escalated and his concern for anonymity had declined during the same four-year period:

1. After initially wearing disguises, he later failed to try and hide his identity.
2. He no longer wore a mask or facial makeup to disguise himself.
3. Witnesses were present during Boney's last crimes.
4. He did not wear gloves after losing one glove at the scene of his first crime.
5. He touched items during the robberies with his bare hands, apparently not caring if he left fingerprints.
6. He progressed from physical assaults to using a loaded gun.
7. His threats grew more and more violent during the crimes and he became more and more agitated the longer the crimes took.
8. He threatened to shoot his victims in the head.
9. He tried to abduct five women.
10. The number of victims during each crime grew from one during his initial shoe theft to three during his last armed robbery.

Counting the assaults on his wife, Boney had victimized thirteen women. Thirteen women. Only one of the women was ever interviewed by the investigators or prosecutors involved in the Camm case. They apparently made no attempt to contact his first wife and the woman with whom they did speak wasn't sought out by the investigators but rather personally appeared at the Floyd County Prosecutor's office. She told an investigator of her agonizing personal ordeal with Boney thirteen years after he terrorized her, and she was still traumatized.

Henderson repeatedly used the term, "Fresh Eyes" when describing the new investigative team assigned to the Camm case after the Appeals Court threw out the first conviction. Those eyes, however, didn't see fit, after presumably educating themselves about Boney's prior criminal conduct, to ever directly confront Boney about his previous actions in an attempt to tie those identical criminal traits with the Camm crime scene nor did they solicit information from his many previous victims.