INDIANAPOLIS (AP)
-- The Indiana Supreme Court has agreed to hear a northern Indiana man’s
appeal of his conviction in his ex-girlfriend’s fatal shooting.
Twenty-one-year-old
Dustin McCowan is serving a 60-year sentence for the September 2011 murder
of 19-year-old Amanda Bach of Portage.
The Indiana Court
of Appeals upheld McCowan’s conviction and sentence in April, but the
state’s high court announced Monday it would hear his appeal.
The Times of
Munster reports McCowan’s appeal will likely focus on the admissibility of
cellphone records purportedly showing McCowan at sites near where Bach’s car
and body were found.
He’s also expected
to challenge a Porter County judge’s alleged bias in the case and refusal to
provide jurors with McCowan’s preferred instruction on a criminal
defendant’s presumption of innocence.