Boney's Statements to Others

Charles Boney is a conflicted individual. He wants to take credit for what he has done in his life, but he knows that he can't admit to the murder of a mother and her children...and still be able to live a "normal" life in the Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC).

Boney has, however, bragged to other people about taking the lives of others but he has done so in his own way and without acknowledging that his victims were a mother and her children. To do so wouldn't be the "BACKBONE" thing to do. The following are a few of the individuals with whom Boney has spoken, many of whom know of his penchant for violence towards women.

Carl Colvin knew Charles Boney when Boney was working at J.D. Byrider in Jeffersonville, Indiana. In approximately January, 2003, Boney told Colvin of his desire to sell his big-screen television for $300-$500. Colvin was present when Boney made a telephone call and spoke with someone whom Boney identified as his wife. During that call Boney began yelling and cussing and said that he was coming to get the television.

Boney accompanied Colvin in Colvin's car to Boney's residence in Louisville and during the trip Boney was very angry with his wife who didn't want him to sell the rental television on which several hundred dollars were still owed. Boney fumed to Colvin, "I'll kill that bitch. I'll leave her where I see her." He further told Colvin that she thought she knew who he was, but she didn't know who he really was.

Boney then told Colvin that he had three bodies on his conscience, and that one more, referring to Boney's wife, wouldn't matter.

After Boney went into their home, Colvin followed a few minutes later and he saw Boney straddling his wife who was on the floor of the living room. Colvin saw that her throat was red and she cried that her husband had been choking her. Amber also told Colvin that Boney had put a gun in her mouth and had dry-fired it as he threatened to kill her.

Colvin, a witness found by the defense, had been subpoened by the prosecution and had already testified in Boney's trial when Camm's attorneys tried to use him as a witness in Camm's trial. The following exchange occurred at Camm's trial:

Defense Attorney Liell: Your Honor is that we do have a witness here, Mr. Carl Colvin. He was disclosed in our Sixth Amendment proffer. And he would testify, if permitted by the Court, and I'm taking this up outside the presence of the jury pursuant to the Court's prior ruling, that Charles Darnell Boney told him that he had three deaths on his conscience, one more wouldn't matter. We believe that that is admissible under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution which permits the defense to demonstrate to the jury that someone other than the Defendant committed the offense. And we would ask permission to present that testimony to the jury. If the Court denies that, then would ask permission at this time to present Mr. Colvin for an offer to prove.

The Court: Mr. Henderson, Mr. Owen.

Mr. Steve Owen: Your Honor, I think we've already addressed his testimony in our pre-trial hearing. It's hearsay. It's not permitted under the rules of evidence, and the Court has already ruled that it would be inadmissible. So we would stand by our arguments that we made at the pre-trial hearing with regards to Mr. Colvin's testimony.

The Court: And the Court would maintain its previous ruling as before.

Incredibly enough, Colvin's testimony was critical in helping the prosecution convict Charles Boney but the same prosecutors, who used him as a witness in Boney's trial, fought every effort, successfully and unfortunately, to allow that same witness to testify at Camm's trial; this is one of the primary issues currently before the Indiana Supreme Court. Do rules of evidence trump the 6th Amendment?

Ray Dean was a co-worker of Boney's wife Amber and he got to know Boney when Boney was hanging around his wife's employment. Boney admitted to Dean that he had been physically abusive with his wife but that he thought that he had his anger under control, but he didn't.

He then told Dean that he had a rage that roared inside him and that he began seeing white spots and didn't remember what he did. He did say, in the same context about becoming enraged, that, "I've done some things that you wouldn't even believe" and further, "I'm telling you things that you or nobody else could even conceive that I've done."

Dean also saw Boney in possession of a handgun. Boney bragged to Dean about guns, and specifically, Boney said that a ".380 is the best little handgun you can get" and further that "it's got a hell of a punch" and further, "it's little, but it packs a hell of a punch." Dean was also told by Boney that the .380 was "so little you can hold it in your hand, put it in your pocket, cover it up." Boney also said that he had shot a gun a few times.

Dean was also told by Amber that her husband told her that he was going to kill her and further that if she didn't believe him, to check his track record because he had done it before.

Shawn Singh, the brother of Mala Singh, said that while at the residence of his sister, in the late summer of 2000, that Boney, in front of his sister, solicited him to be a lookout and a getaway driver in a robbery planned by Boney to occur in Indiana. According to Boney, he was going to rob either a Kroger's or a bank and needed his girlfriend's brother to drive his car, an older Cadillac. Boney said he had the plan, the gun, and the place picked out and he just needed a getaway driver. Shawn Singh refused Boney's offer.

Bianca Singh, Mala's sister-in-law, was also present during the robbery solicitation of her husband by Boney. Boney, whom she described as excited as he talked about his robbery plan, further told her husband that he had been to jail and was not afraid to do hard time. He also told her husband that all her husband had to do was to drive the car and further that he, Boney, had the gun and the car needed to do the robbery. For being the getaway drive, Singh would be "cut a piece" of the stolen money. According to Boney, the target was in Indiana where it was easy to get money. The more Boney talked about the anticipated robbery, the more excited he became.

Bianca Singh also recalled Boney commenting, "If anybody gets laid out, they get laid out." Her understanding of getting laid out was it meant getting shot or killed.

Bianca Singh was also present with her mother a few weeks later when Boney threatened to rob a restaurant in Louisville. Her mother also recalled overhearing Boney, who was very angry, state "I oughta rob this motherfucker." He was referring to the fast food take out restaurant owned by Mala's Uncle Joe.

Michael Richey was a supervisor of Boney's for a short period of time at Slone Suzuki in Jeffersonville in 2003. Boney was hired after he appeared unannounced at the dealership and made an impressive first appearance on Richey and others.

Boney did not respond well to supervision, however, and within three days of being hired, he and another supervisor, Tom Minteer, got into an argument with Boney threatening Minteer, a 67-year old man, with the words, "Don't fuck with me old man, I'll kill you!"

According to Richey, Boney, whom he described as a "Jekyll and Hyde" personality, had a strange look and was serious when he threatened to kill Minteer. Boney was immediately fired.

Trevor Smith is a long time friend of Boney who met Boney shortly after his release from prison in 2000. Boney and Smith went to an adult entertainment lounge in October, 2000. While there, Boney solicited one of the female entertainers to sell him one of her stockings, which she did for $50. Boney later told his friend that he had a foot fetish and further that he liked to smell women's feet and further liked to "lick them, kiss them, suck them". Boney said that some feet were pretty and also that some feet were ugly.

Amber Boney told Smith that her husband had beaten her in the ribs with a gun and had used a stun gun on her. When Smith confronted Boney in early 2004, Boney didn't deny Amber's story but he rather told Smith that he was justified in beating his wife.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, 2003, Smith was shown a .38 snub nose revolver by Boney who said that he needed it for protection. Boney acknowledged that even though he was a convicted felon that he would never get rid of the gun. Smith told Boney that if he was caught with the gun, then it would be three strikes against him. Boney's response was that he promised Smith that he would never go back to prison.

The same evening that Boney showed him the .38 revolver he solicited Smith to manufacture a silencer for that same weapon, telling Smith that the arguments with his wife, Amber, had to stop. Smith refused but Boney kept pleading with him to build him a silencer. He finally asked Smith how to make a makeshift silencer using felt, washers, and a milk jug.

Smith, who probably knew Boney as well as anyone, described Boney as a very good salesman who "can tell you what you want to hear" and "read you like a book."

Tanya Simon was a friend of Amber Boney and when Amber was hospitalized in December, 2003, she offered to pick up Amber's dogs from her residence and to take care of them. Simon went to the residence early in the morning and put the key given to her by Amber in the rear door. The door suddenly opened and Charles Boney put a gun to her head. Even though she identified herself, Boney told her that he could kill her then and claim that she was trying to break into his house. He then began waving the gun and telling Simon that he hated her. She quickly fled the residence.

Amber Boney was the wife of Charles Darnell Boney, having married him in October, 2001. She was employed at the Green Light Lounge in Louisville for over 20 years and it was there that she met Boney in the spring of 2001.

Boney was very charming and attentive during the time that they were dating and during their first few months of marriage. However, during the course of their marriage he physically abused her on numerous occasions, using his fists, a gun and a stun gun. In the middle part of 2002, or thereabouts, he placed the gun to her head and threatened to blow her brains out. He also used a stun gun on her body on several occasions and hit her with his fists and choked her.

While residing with Boney in Louisville, Kentucky, Amber discovered what she described as a "robbery kit" which belonged to her husband. That kit was hidden in a box and contained a gun, bullets, stun gun, masking tape, black pullover ski mask, and clear plastic gloves. When he found out that she had discovered the robbery kit, he told her that if she told anyone that he would kill her.

For many people what Amber Boney described was, in addition to being a "robbery kit" also a "rape kit."

On one occasion, Boney told her that they needed money and told her that he was going to rob a bank. She told him that he couldn't do that and he acknowledged that he would probably spend the rest of his life in prison if he did so and was caught.

Tina Lalla was a close friend of Mala Singh. Lalla was present one day during the summer/fall of 2000 when Boney told her that he could commit a murder and that it wouldn't be hard to do. That comment came literally out of the blue and was in the form of idle conversation by Boney.

On one occasion, Singh told friends that Boney took her to a cemetery near Halloween (2000) to see ghosts. That cemetery turned out to be Graceland Cemetery where Kim and the children were buried.

It was also shortly before his DNA was identified in early 2005 that Boney spoke with a representative at Graceland Cemetery in New Albany and inquired about purchasing a mausoleum for his mother, the cost of which was over $300,000. The prospective site of the mausoleum, which Boney couldn't even begin to afford, was but a few feet from, and in a direct line of sight to, the gravesites of Kim and the children.

While later incarcerated with Boney in the Floyd County Jail in 2005, and after Boney was charged with Conspiracy to Commit Murder of the Camm family, a fellow inmate kept notes of his conversations with Boney, and some of the comments Boney made to that inmate were as follows:

1. Boney had the ability to outsmart the system.
2. He would soon walk the streets.
3. He had no remorse or affection for human life.
4. Boney was too slick for them (police) to get him; he knew the system.
5. Boney claimed to be a rich man and a celebrity.
6. It was cool to get publicity.
7. He could say, hypothetically, that he could have done what they were charging him with.
8. He would be stupid to admit to a triple murder.
9. There was nothing to link Boney to the killings.
10. Boney laughed about murderers who had gotten away with murder.

That inmate also recalled that Boney made the following assertions regarding the Camm murders:

1. He claimed that he, his girlfriend, and another man drove to the area near Camm's residence and that Boney walked from the parked vehicle to Camm's house.
2. Boney's girlfriend, who was from out of the country, drove the car.
3. The man who was with them provided the gun and was the lookout.
4. Boney claimed that he walked in the front door and that he had the gun in his sweatshirt.
5. Boney claimed that David Camm was present and that he gave Camm the gun.
6. Boney took some souvenirs from the house while he was waiting for Camm.
7. He heard the garage door open.
8. He then heard three "pops".
9. Boney ran out the front door, into the garage, and then leaned in the vehicle, leaving his print on the vehicle, and then saw the dead children.
10. When Boney asked Camm, who was allegedly in the garage, what he did, Camm pulled out his gun, fired once at Boney, missed, and then the gun jammed.
11. According to Boney, they fought over the gun which fell to the garage floor and Boney then picked up the gun and fled.
12. Boney also acknowledged driving around the Camm residence at least two times prior to the murders.
13. Boney's girlfriend and he drove to a motel to clean up after leaving the Camm residence.
14. Boney was concerned about his girlfriend "breaking" when the police talked to her.
15. Boney claimed that he had been in several houses over the years and that people didn't know he had been in their house.

Another Floyd County inmate with whom Boney was incarcerated in the Spring of 2005, and to whom he confided was Joseph Zaepfel (to whom he later wrote a letter requesting photos of women and advising Zaepfel, who was wanted on a warrant, to keep his mouth shut). Zaepfel advised that:

1. Another inmate was drawing and then providing Charles Boney with interior maps of the jail and that inmate was in possession of four such maps. (Note: the possibility that Boney was contemplating an escape was dismissed by the Sheriff's department.)
2. He saw Boney, who was playing a game of monopoly with he and others, calmly walk around the table, grab another inmate by the throat and began choking that inmate, who weighed approximately 100 pounds less than Boney; Boney quit choking the inmate after being encouraged to do so by other inmates.
3. Boney advised that he met David Camm a couple of months prior to the murders and
4. Camm asked him to get him a gun.
5. He finally met up with Camm and implied that the two of them drove in the same car to the Camm residence.
6. While in the Camm residence, he and David Camm were sitting at a table and
7. David Camm left to get money to pay for the gun.
8. Boney heard the garage door open and then heard shots from the garage.
9. Boney went to the garage and then saw Kim Camm slumped over, dead, in the front seat of the vehicle.
10. Boney demonstrated how he put his left hand on the vehicle, leaving his palm print and looked in and
11. Saw the dead children.
12. He then looked around and saw David Camm with a gun who raised the gun at him and
13. Began firing shots at Boney who
14. Ran out of the garage.
15. Boney didn't say anything about the gun jamming.
16. Boney was always staring at the feet and shoes of both men and women.
17. Boney was going to write a book about the murders and get rich off of it.
18. Boney also said that he had done burglaries before.

Remember that habitual liars do tell the truth about some things. Obviously, Boney was lying about being shot at, lying about fighting Camm for the gun, and acting as though he were the victim. Keep in mind, however, that Boney's girlfriend being from "out of the country" was absolutely accurate, because Mala Singh was a native of Trinidad. Remember also that her blood was mixed with that of Kim on the Backbone sweatshirt. Boney would absolutely have cause for concern if she broke.

Boney had also walked to his previous crime scenes and that is consistent with him claiming that he walked to the Camm crime scene after parking his car. Remember that one of Camm's neighbors did, in fact, see a box-like car parked several hundred feet away from the residence.

As to the lookout being the source of the gun? That also has apparent merit and is discussed at length in the next section.