Rape charge added in Indiana cannibal case

A trial date has been set in the case of a southern Indiana man accused of killing and then eating parts of his former girlfriend in September 2014.

Joseph Oberhansley, 34, appeared in Clark County Circuit Court Monday afternoon, where Judge Vicki Carmichael set the trial for Aug. 2, 2016. Oberhansley was vocal in court, frequently talking over Carmichael, prosecutors and his own defense attorneys.

"How do they keep falsifying stuff," Oberhansley said aloud in court. "There's a lot of lies and deception going on here."

Upon his arrest in September, Oberhansley told police he broke into the Jeffersonville home of his ex-girlfriend, Tammy Jo Blanton, before striking her with a knife and mutilating her body, according to a probable cause affidavit.

BACKGROUND | Jeffersonville woman found slain; man charged

RELATED | Timeline of suspect in cannibalism case

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In addition to murder and burglary, Oberhansley is now charged with rape, after Judge Carmichael granted prosecutor Jeremy Mull's motion to add rape as an aggravating charge for jurors to consider in a capital punishment phase, if he is found guilty.

The request came after prosecutors recently received Indiana State Police laboratory results in April on the victim's body.

Prosecutors in Indiana must prove at least one alleged aggravating circumstance — including rape, burglary and dismemberment — beyond a reasonable doubt for a jury to consider life without parole or the death sentence.

Carmichael also considered a defense motion to have Oberhansley removed from isolation in the Clark County Jail.

Since his arrest in September, Oberhansley has been held in a maximum security cell in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement.

Carmichael denied the defense motion Monday to move Oberhansley into general population.

But she did order the Clark County Sheriff's Office to review Oberhansley's placement within its most secure locations.

Reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at (502) 582-4989. Follow him on Twitter at @MattGlo.