Court upholds 'Mad Dog's' murder convictions

HARTFORD CITY, Ind. – Calling him “among the worst of the worst,” a state appeals court this week upheld Charles “Mad Dog” Whittington’s two murder convictions.

In a 3-0 vote, the Indiana Court of Appeals also found the “brutality and senselessness” of Whittington’s crimes justified the 170-year prison term he received from Blackford Circuit Court Judge Dean Young.

A jury found the Portland resident guilty in the February 2015 slayings of Shane Williamson and his 14-year-old daughter, Katelin, at the Hartford City apartment building where they lived.

Testimony during the November 2015 trial indicated Whittington was unhappy over online communication between his ex-girlfriend and Shane Williamson.

RELATED: From 2015, Charles Whittington sentenced to 170 years for two murder convictions

At his sentencing hearing, Judge Young called Whittington “evil” and a “monster,” and said he would sentence him to death if that was an option.

In his appeal, Whittington maintained Young should not have allowed jurors to hear testimony about his statements to police, and suggested he should have been found guilty but mentally ill.

Whittington, who is now 62, also contended his 170-year sentence was too harsh.

In a Monday ruling, Judge Robert R. Altice Jr. rejected those arguments.

The appeals court judge acknowledged there was evidence Whittington had been “diagnosed with a number of mental illnesses,” but said there was also “significant evidence that Whittington had a history of malingering and being dishonest with service providers.”

Trial evidence “paints a picture of a deceitful, manipulative and violent criminal rather than a seriously mentally ill individual,” the judge wrote.

“Whittington ended two lives because he was angry and jealous over a woman who wanted nothing to do with him,” the ruling said.

Altice also noted the 14-year-old victim “was completely uninvolved in Whittington’s quarrel with (her father),” but had been shot “in the face at close range... (and) died an excruciating and terrifying death.”

Whittington, incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, has a projected release date in 2137, when he would be 181 years old.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.