A second man has been charged in the 2012 slaying of a retired farmer found shot to death in his western Indiana home, authorities said Thursday. A judge issued a warrant Tuesday for the arrest of Richard D. Taft, 39, on one count of murder and two counts of burglary resulting in bodily injury in the killing of 85-year-old Lowell Badger, Indiana State Police said.
Taft is currently incarcerated at the Michigan City Correctional Facility on unrelated drug convictions. Online court records do not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Indiana State Police
Taft’s arrest comes after another imprisoned man, William Ray Grimes, was indicted in April on charges of murder, burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary in Badger’s killing. Grimes’ trial is scheduled for October.
Badger, 85, was fatally shot in December 2012 during a burglary at his rural Sullivan County home about 30 miles south of Terre Haute. Badger was found dead on the bedroom floor, and a 46-inch TV and safe were taken from his home, Indiana State Police previously said.
Court documents state that during a party on Dec. 7, 2012, Grimes, Taft and a third person who hasn’t been charged said they were going to break into a house, looking for money, WTHI-TV reported.
Grimes, Taft and the other person later returned to the party with a flat-screen television in the bed of a truck, according to the documents. A witness told police that during a later car ride Taft began crying and said he “did not want to hurt like the old man had been hurt,” the documents stated.
The Sullivan County Seriff’s Office previously said that after Badger’s murder, law enforcement had used aircraft all-terrain vehicles, boats, and SCUBA divers to search the area.
A reward of about $30,000 had been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Badger’s death.