A judge has dismissed murder charges against two men in the fatal 1980 shooting of an off-duty Hammond police officer after prosecutors said they lacked sufficient evidence “to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Lake Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez on Thursday granted prosecutors’ motions to dismiss the charges James Hill, 59, and Pierre L. Catlett, 67, faced in the November 1980 killing of Officer Lawrence Pucalik, The (Northwest Indiana) Timesreported.
Pucalik, 33, was working as a Hammond hotel’s security guard when he was slain during a robbery.
Hill and Catlett were both released last year from custody after Vasquez set aside Hill’s murder conviction because prosecutors did not turn over some evidence to Hill’s defense before his 2018 trial. That evidence included DNA found on a towel in the alleged getaway car that eliminated Hill, Catlett and a third co-defendant as its source.
Lake County prosecutors had said in May 2021 that they still intended to bring Hill and Catlett to trial on charges in Pucalik’s killing.
But in his motions to dismiss, First Assistant Deputy Prosecutor Peter Villarreal wrote, “After a thorough and exhaustive review of the currently existing evidence from this incident that occurred in 1980, there is insufficient credible evidence to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hill’s attorney, Scott King, praised prosecutors for their decision to dismiss the charges. He said that in their “zeal” to charge someone in Pucalik’s slaying, Hammond police engaged in “absolutely egregious” behavior.
Attorneys for the Lake County public defender’s office represented Catlett. Marce Gonzalez, the county’s chief public defender, said his office was elated for Catlett and his family.
“This ends a 40-year ordeal with the correct result,” he said.
Larry Mayes was also originally charged in Pucalik’s killing, but murder charges against him were dismissed after he was declared medically incompetent to stand trial in March 2014.