Jury Returns Verdict in Starke Circuit Court Trial

Matthew Schutz

A four-day trial in Starke Circuit Court has concluded. After deliberating for just over three hours yesterday, a jury found 32-year-old North Judson resident Matthew Schutz guilty on a charge of murder.

Schutz stabbed Bradley White to death with a knife in the chest in an incident at a North Judson home on Jan. 17, 2017.

Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff called over 10 witnesses to the stand to provide testimony in the case including two eye witnesses, local law enforcement officers, a crime scene technician, a forensic pathologist, a lab tech, and a phlebotomist from the Starke Hospital.

Defense Attorney Blair Todd represented Schutz and called four witnesses.

The defendant did not testify.

Schutz will be sentenced on Aug. 27 at 10 a.m. in Starke Circuit Court. A murder charge carries a sentence of 45 to 65 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections.