Inset: Jeremy Hinson (Madison County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Forrestville Cemetery in Indiana (Google Maps).
A 49-year-old man in Indiana will likely spend the remainder of his days behind bars for killing his wife, fatally shooting the 47-year-old woman inside of a car at a cemetery last year.
Madison County Circuit Judge David A. Happe on Tuesday ordered Jeremy Hinson to serve 75 years in a state correctional facility for the slaying of Michela Hinson last year, authorities announced.
The sentence came after a jury found Hinson guilty on one count of murder as well as a felony firearm enhancement. Specifically, Happe sentenced Hinson to 55 years on the murder charge, plus an additional 20 years for the firearm enhancement, to be served consecutively, according to a news release from the Madison County Prosecutor’s Office.
As Law&Crime previously reported, deputies from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, responded to a report of a “suspicious vehicle” at the Forrestville Cemetery in the 1600 block of South North Street, which is about 65 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
The 911 caller told the sheriff’s emergency dispatcher that they had seen a dark-colored SUV in the parking lot near the back of the cemetery with two people inside, “an adult male and an adult female,” Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR reported. The caller said they walked over to the car and knocked on the window, but both passengers were unresponsive.
First responders reportedly found Michela Hinson in the driver’s seat. She was dead from several apparent gunshot wounds to the chest and stomach.
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Jeremy Hinson initially appeared unresponsive but soon awoke and exited the vehicle, police said. He was found to have a handgun in his waistband before authorities transported to Community Hospital Anderson for treatment of a possible drug overdose, local Anderson-based newspaper The Herald Bulletin reported.
Police noted there was blood spatter on Jeremy Hinson’s face, arms, hands and feet.
Authorities executed a search warrant on Jeremy Hinson’s vehicle, where they discovered five bullet holes in the cushion of the driver’s seat where the victim was found. Five bullet casings were also found inside the vehicle, along with a loaded 9 mm handgun and a second magazine.
During Jeremy Hinson’s subsequent incarceration, he reportedly confessed to killing his wife during a recorded conversation with a family member.
“I feel most bad for the boys in this situation,” Jeremy Hinson reportedly said. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking right. I don’t know what happened to make me do that, but tell them I love them.”
Indianapolis radio station WIBC reported that Michela Hinson was a mother of two boys and worked as a school bus driver for the City of Anderson Transit System.
