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Murder Suspect Moved To Knox County

Last updated on Monday, August 4, 2014

(KNOX CO.) - Daviess County jail inmate Donald Kruchten was moved to the Knox County Jail.

29-year-old Kruchten is facing murder charges in connection to the December 2013 death of 17-year-old Devan Burris.

Daviess County Sheriff Jerry Harbstreit told the Washington Times Herald that Kruchten was moved to Knox County on Wednesday to keep him separated from other inmates involved in the case.

Harbstreit says Krutchen was not any trouble, but there was someone related to the case in nearly every cell block in Washington.

Krutchen will be returned to Daviess County, once the other inmates are sent to Department of Correction facilities.

Krutchen's trial is set for March 2, 2015.

Krutchen is facing charges of murder, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and conspiracy to commit robbery resulting in serious bodily injury. He also is facing two counts of theft from a separate unrelated incident.

According to a probable cause affidavits, Kruchten and Craig Streete were with Burris on the night he was shot.

According to police, Burris set up a drug deal at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Oak Grove Road in Washington intending to rob those providing him with meth.

The document further states that Burris had taken a BB gun with him to the drug deal.

Logan Evans and Lucas Benjamin, both of Washington, meet Burris, Krutchen and Streete at the church. Evans and Benjamin planned to sell Burris $100 worth of meth.

During the drug deal, Benjamin alleges Burris and another man grabbed him by the hood of his jacket and tried to pull him out the car. Benjamin says the man had a gun pointed at his face and began hitting him.

He told police as he was being pulled from the car, he heard a gunshot and then everyone began screaming. The probable cause affidavit stated that Streete stayed in his own car, while Kruchten went to the vehicle and Streete said he saw Kruchten wailing on Benjamin until he heard a gunshot.

Then Benjamin and Lucas fled the scene. Kruchten helped load Burris into Streete's gold Cadillac and they took him to the Daviess Community Hospital where they left Burris in the emergency room parking lot. Kruchten went inside to tell medical personnel that someone was in the parking lot bleeding. Then both men fled the scene. Burris died at the hospital.

Evans was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the murder of Burris. He pled guilty to the crime in February, but maintains he did not mean to shoot the teen. Benjamin sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with the death. He pleaded guilty to charges of assisting a criminal and attempted dealing in meth as part of a negotiated plea agreement.

Streete, who plead guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery resulting in bodily injury will serve two years in the state Department of Corrections, 10 years in the Daviess County Security Center on work release and the final three years on home detention. He will also serve 15 years of probation after serving his time in jail.

Two others charged in relation to the shooting 14-year-old Wyatt Byers was charged with obstruction of justice for hiding the gun used to kill Burris.

18-year-old Heaven Berry was charged with providing assistance to another who committed the crime of murder. She let her cousin, Evans, hide at her apartment after the murder. She was sentenced to five years in prison. She was ordered to spend two-years behind bars and three years on probation.

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