Based on recent news, there has been a murder case in Porter County. John Silva, 21 of Hamlet tried to attempt robbery but ended up murdering Thomas Grill, 18, of Cedar Lake and Molly Landham, 19, of St. John. Silva was charged with gruesome and bloody murder, as well as attempted robbery.

Due to the murders and attempted robbery, the second case trial has not been the most abundant. There was a trial on March 21st to address previous information along with current information. According to the judge, Porter Superior Court Judge Mike Fish, the trial was supposed to happen on April 11th but became postponed. 

Before the cases were ever called, Silva was waiting in the basement to ambush his friend, Kerner to carry on the attempt of robbery but that sadly failed, which caused the unneeded murders to happen. They later found out that the basement belonged to Kerner’s grandparents. After that, they also found out that everything was true in which they thought was false. Gunshots were also recorded, which happened to be used at both of Kerner and Silva’s case trials as evidence.

While the shooting was happening, Kerner was beating up Grill with a pipe wrench. Kerner, 20, was then sentenced to jail for 179 years for assisting in a crime.179 years would then be considered a “de facto” life sentence. The judges also learned that Silva had planned to have Kerner carry out the plan and it also shows that Silva didn’t plan for these murders to happen in the first place. 

Kerner had put the bodies in the Honda Civic of Grill and Lanham along with slayings, flammable liquids in a container which caused the car to set ablaze to try and destroy the evidence. Kerner and Silva weren’t able to follow through with their original plan because they had already messed up by killing both Grill and Lanham. 

Information from https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/prosecutors-taking-second-shot-at-high-profile-porter-county-murder-case/article_9269f0ec-5aa3-5336-8f34-02c356ae7a20.html

By Bob Kasarda