Popplewell makes first appearance in court for murder and rape charges
The rattle of the shackles chained to Kyle Popplewell’s ankles only got louder as Dubois County Circuit Court Judge Nathan Verkamp read off the litany of charges the 25-year-old faced.
The six foot two, 265-pound man’s right leg began bouncing as soon as he sat down in front of the judge for his arraignment Monday afternoon.
Verkamp read the charges against Popplewell. Felony murder, two counts of Level 1 felony rape, Level 1 felony burglary, Level 2 felony criminal confinement, Level 5 felony battery resulting in bodily harm and Level 6 felony intimidation.
Popplewell’s low, gravelly voice was barely picked up by the microphone as he responded to Verkamp. At times, he only shook his head up and down in the affirmative.
At the rape charges, Popplewell’s frame shook in the 4X orange jumpsuit, and he appeared to almost whimper. But, he recomposed himself with a shiver and the cacophony of his right leg only increased in cadence.
His family sat in the back of the courtroom. A gray-haired lady began sobbing during the judge’s formal charging of Popplewell with the rape and murder that occurred in St. Henry early Sunday morning.
When asked about legal counsel in the case, Popplewell told the judge he thought his family was seeking an attorney to represent him. Verkamp reminded Popplewell that in the next 20 days, the court system would be moving rapidly in the case, and he would need an attorney to give him the proper representation he was due.
At this, a man who identified himself as Popplewell’s father asked to address the judge. He told Verkamp he was working through his finances to determine how he could retain an attorney for his son and asked the judge to appoint one.
Verkamp advised the man that was probably best and appointed Scott Blazey as Popplewell’s pauper counsel until he could retain an attorney. The judge also entered a preliminary not-guilty plea on Popplewell’s behalf seeing as how he did not have an attorney present to make it for him.
Popplewell will be back in court January 22 at 9 a.m. for pretrial counsel. He will continue to be held at the Dubois County Security Center without bond.
After filing out of the courtroom, the gray-haired sobbing lady collapsed on a bench. As her family tried to console her, courthouse security brought up a wheelchair to help her out of the courthouse.
What happened Sunday morning:
Around 2:40 a.m. Sunday, as the worst of the snowstorm was freezing the roads and blowing blinding sheets of snow across the county, the Dubois County 911 center received a call about an intruder in a home near St. Henry.
Deputy Stuart Wilson was patrolling near Dubois and knew the weather would slow down his response time to the home Jeffrey Perry rented. Wilson called over to Ferdinand for assistance and Lt. Rob Randle began to head to the home located on County Road 50 West in Ferdinand Township; an area considered to be part of the St. Henry community.
The weather slowed Randle down as well. His route took him directly into the horizontal sheets of snow, stopping him from using his high beams to navigate the county roads.
“Going on 1100 South the roads were frozen over already,” Randle said. “It looked like it took me about eight minutes to get there according to my call times to dispatch.”
When Randle arrived, he came to the back door of the home and met with one of the female victims, later determined to be Perry’s girlfriend. She had remained on the phone with the county dispatcher and wasn’t sure whether the intruder was still in the home.
Randle entered the home and saw that Jeffrey Perry had been injured. He couldn’t tell what the extent of Perry’s injuries were though.
He did, however, determine that the intruder, later identified as Popplewell, was barricaded in a room in the back of the home with the other female victim.
Seeing it was a hostage situation, Randle called out for an expanded response. Dubois County deputies, Huntingburg and Jasper officers and Indiana State Police raid entry team members and negotiators came to the scene.
Randle, who knew the responding teams would be fighting the weather as well, remained in the home and made contact with Popplewell. At first, although he recognized Popplewell’s distinctive voice, he couldn’t quite place it.
As the two men continued to talk, it was Popplewell who recognized Randle. “He stopped and asked, ‘Randle, Rob Randle,'” Randle said. “Then I kinda narrowed it down to who it was and I asked him. He said, ‘you know who this is. It’s Kyle Popplewell.'”
Randle recalled he had had interactions with Popplewell in connection with drug and alcohol-related offenses over the years.
Randle was still waiting for the response teams and emergency medical services but he continued to work connection with Popplewell. He advised those units to begin staging outside the home as he spoke with Popplewell.
“Kyle didn’t want anyone else in the house. Also, we were having trouble with the radios due to the weather and location of the residence,” Randle said. “It was tough as the other officers and first responders were out in the cold and waiting.”
Popplewell also didn’t want anyone to leave the home, but, while one woman remained a hostage in the room, Randle was able to negotiate a way to get the other injured woman out of the house.
Randle said he felt that Popplewell’s familiarity with him was important during the situation. “He knew Deputy Wilson also, so he allowed Stu to come into the home,” he explained.
Popplewell gave police an ultimatum that he would come out of the room at 5 a.m. According to Detective Sgt. Tom Kleinhelter with the Dubois County Sheriff’s Department, the officers involved were concerned about what weapons Popplewell had in the room and what he would do to the woman he was holding hostage. They attempted to keep him placated by following his timeline.
At about 5:40 a.m., three hours after the initial call about the intruder, Popplewell came out of the room and the waiting officers were able to arrest him after subduing him with a Taser.
What the investigation determined:
According to court documents, Kyle Popplewell entered the home Jeffrey Perry rented through the back door. At the time, Perry was asleep on the couch in the living room, his girlfriend was asleep in the master bedroom and another young woman, who was not related to Perry but considered him to be a father-figure, was asleep in a bedroom in the back of the house.
Perry’s girlfriend told police she woke to screams coming from the living room and went to investigate. When she walked in, she found a man on top of Perry so she yelled for the woman asleep in the back bedroom to call 911.
Perry’s girlfriend attempted to get the man off him but he turned and struck out at her, cutting her in the area of her right breast. The woman from the back bedroom arrived and began to help Perry’s girlfriend.
While she was there, she told police she recognized Popplewell was the man attacking Perry. She attempted to run back to the bedroom where she had been sleeping to call 911, but Popplewell followed her. When she tried to close the door to her room, he forced his way in.
Popplewell told her he had come to the home to kill her but her stepdad had got in the way and now he was dead.
As this was going on, Perry’s girlfriend called 911. She later told police she noticed it was quiet in the living room and went to check it out. There, she found Perry on the couch. When she rolled him over, she realized he was dead from multiple stab wounds.
She said that she then yelled for the other woman and allegedly heard Popplewell yell “stay back.”
According to court documents, inside the room, Popplewell had the woman help him place a mattress in front of the window and push a dresser in front of the bedroom door. She told police Popplewell told her he had come to the home to kill her but her “stepdad,” Perry, had got in the way and now he was dead.
He allegedly then told her that she needed to do what he said or he would snap her neck before any law enforcement could get in the door. He explained he knew he was going to prison and he would be raped there so he was going to have her.
According to the affidavit, Popplewell raped her.
Afterward, as police were outside the room, he allowed her to put her clothes on and the two talked and prayed about what had happened.
But, according to the female victim, he got angry and raped her again. It was in the middle of this that he finally stopped and threw her down on the ground, removed the dresser and walked out to police.
Officers took him into custody but were forced to use a Taser to subdue him.
According to Detective Sgt. Kleinhelter, a toxicology screen has been sent to the state lab to determine if Popplewell was on any drugs at the time of the incident. He also acknowledged that Popplewell did not have alcohol in his system when he was arrested.
