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Police: 3 people robbed student of $2, shot him

By John Tuohy

Indianapolis Star, March 10, 2004

E-mail as a Word attachment to jstroebel@indy.rr.com by noon Thursday, March 18. Put your name in the title of your attachment. If you do not receive a receipt by 10 p.m. the evening before the due date, bring a hard copy to class.

Two dollars.

That's what police say the suspects got when they robbed and killed Carmel resident and Ball State University sophomore Karl Harford.

"It's a pretty sad state of affairs when that is enough to do something like this," Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle said at a news conference Tuesday to announce authorities are seeking a third man in connection with the killing.

Harford, 20, was found dead Sunday after agreeing to drive two men and a teenage boy home from an off-campus party early that morning.

According to court documents filed Tuesday:

Brandon Patterson, 18, wanted to rob Harford. But Patterson told police his accomplices, a 14-year-old boy and Damien Sanders, 21, decided Harford should be killed after the robbery.

Harford gave them a ride to a spot about two miles away from the party and then Patterson got out of the car, pulled a pearl-handled, .25-caliber pistol on Harford and ordered him to empty his pockets.

When Harford refused, Patterson hit him and pulled him from the car, he told police.

Patterson said he then went into Harford's pockets and pulled out $2.

He would not tell police who shot Harford.

But in an interview with The Muncie Star Press on Tuesday at the Delaware County Jail, Patterson said his sister's boyfriend, who police say is Sanders, shot Harford.

"I take the blame for the robbery," he said, "but I ain't shooting nobody."

Patterson said that after the robbery, Sanders told him to shoot Harford with the pistol Patterson still had.

"I told him, 'No, man,' " Patterson said. "He was like, 'I'll shoot him myself.' "

At that point, Patterson told investigators, Harford started wrestling for the gun. The gun fell to the ground. Patterson said he was told to hold Harford while Sanders picked up the gun. Sanders raised the gun to Harford's head and pulled the trigger, Patterson said.

The three left Harford on the ground and ran into a nearby building, then returned and hoisted his body into the back seat of the 1993 Mercury. Patterson said one of the men then drove it a short distance before it crashed.

At some point the gun was hidden. Patterson, who has no adult arrest record, later told police where to find it.

Sanders has not been charged in Harford's death, but Winkle said he was wanted for failing to appear in court and has seven previous arrests as an adult, mostly for robbery.

Even before Patterson implicated Sanders, police had identified him on a videotape a student made at the party.

The video shows the trio, as well as Harford, who appeared lucid and composed.

"They are all just partying, nothing out of the ordinary," said Muncie Deputy Police Chief Terry Winters.

Police said underage residents who aren't students at Ball State often attend the off-campus parties, noting the youngest suspect's appearance Sunday. Worried the Muncie party scene is becoming dangerous, police promised tougher enforcement and started Tuesday by citing Ryan Moores, 21. A former Ball State student who rents the house where the party was held, he was cited for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and maintaining a common nuisance.

Winters said police would increase patrols on Friday and Saturday nights. If noise is causing a disturbance or students are pouring out into the street, they will enter and begin checking for IDs.

The building department also will increase inspections, Winkle said, making sure the houses are up to code.

"It's getting out of control with people walking all over town drunk," Winkle said.

In November, excessive drinking contributed to the situation when Ball State student Michael McKinney, 21, was fatally shot by school police officer Robert Duplain.

McKinney had been out at bars and had a blood-alcohol content well over the threshold for being considered too drunk to drive. He went to what he thought was a friend's house and started pounding on the door. The startled resident called police. Duplain said McKinney lunged at him, and he fired.

Gena Vaughn, a 23-year-old Ball State graduate student, doubted being tough on parties would have made a difference Sunday.

"It was their intention to kill," she said. "I don't know how you pass laws to prevent that."

Sophomore Justin Curtis, 20, said parties are usually quite tame.

"Considering the size of the crowds, I'd say they're pretty calm," he said.

Graduate student Rick Peterson, 25, said characterizing the parties as excessively rowdy was an exaggeration.

"I don't think they are out of control or anything like that," he said. "I'm from Wisconsin, and these parties don't even compare to those."

Ruth Holladay

Events that led to good Samaritan's death are sadly familiar

To the young men accused of robbing and killing him, Karl T. Harford was "the dude."

That's what suspect Brandon Patterson called Harford in interviews Tuesday with Muncie police detectives and a Muncie newspaper reporter.

"The dude."

Patterson, 18, didn't even know Harford's name. The shy, trusting 20-year-old college sophomore was just a guy at a party in Muncie -- a nice guy, the only guy willing to give Patterson and his two buddies a ride at 5 a.m. Sunday morning. That simple act of humanity ended with Harford being robbed. Of $2.

Then shot in the head.

Those who loved and respected the Ball State University pre-business major -- his mom, a Catholic schoolteacher; his dad, a master woodworker; his 18-year-old brother; his friends, his priest, his teachers -- recall a loving firstborn child, a hard worker, a quiet, diligent, responsible member of various communities. He spent summers as a lifeguard. He was a manager at Arby's Restaurant in Westfield. Growing up, the Carmel High School graduate played baseball, football and basketball.

He loved "Star Wars." He was fond of cards. He was shy. Card games were one way he related to people.

And he was a good Samaritan.

Patterson has been charged with murder and armed robbery in the slaying. He has denied pulling the trigger. Also in custody is a 14-year-old suspect. A third man, Damien B. Sanders, 22, is wanted for questioning.

Those who knew Harford well may be shocked by his death, but not at what led up to it.

"This did not come from nowhere," explained the Rev. Kevin Haines, the priest at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Westfield, where Harford's family worships and his mom teaches.

"Karl did what he was taught and raised to do -- he was always willing to help out. It cost him his life. But that does not mean we want to change the teaching or the value of that lesson. Unfortunately, this is the sad result of what can happen when we do the right thing."

Father Haines acknowledges that the temptation is to hear what happened to the good Samaritan and "shut the door."

"But the question we have to ask ourselves is, do we want to live in a world where we let evil dictate the way the rest of us live? It would be easy to say, 'I will never offer to help.' If we let that happen to us, then we all become victims of this murder."

Muncie Deputy Police Chief Terry Winters agrees there is a place in this world for the good Samaritan.

But as a cop, he's turned his attention to a situation that may have created an environment that led up to Harford's death. The party where Harford met the suspects was in the Riverside neighborhood east of campus, he said. It's an area where absentee landlords rent to students, and late-night weekend parties and other problems are common and often out of control.

Winters says police have been working for the past two weeks with the Riverside Neighborhood Association to target wild parties and enforce code violations regarding drinking, how many are living in a house, even parking. The neighborhood association, he says, has been "up in arms" over the situation.

Others have been willing to take advantage of it.

"Some of the locals know about these parties," he says. "We do have a criminal element that goes there looking for opportunities. The kids need to be aware of that when strangers come in."

We don't want to lose any more good Samaritans.