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Last updated on Thursday, September 22, 2016
(NASHVILLE) - On Thursday afternoon, Brown County Circuit Judge Judith Stewart sentenced 51-year-old Daniel Messel to 80 years in prison for the murder of 22-year-old Hannah Wilson.
Last month, after about 5 hours of deliberating, a Brown County jury found Daniel Messel guilty of murdering the IU senior.
A passerby found Wilson's body on April 24, 2015 in a parking lot face down at State Road 45 and Plum Creek Road near Helmsburg. Wilson had been reported missing the day before the discovery of her body. Messell's cell phone was found next to her body.
An autopsy determined that Wilson had died from blunt force injuries to the back of her head.
The jury also determined Messel, a print shop worker from Bloomington, was guilty of being a habitual offender. That offense added an additional 20 year to his sentence. Judge Stewart sentenced Messel to 60 years for the murder and an additional enhancement of 20 years for being a habitual offender.
Messel's prior convictions include three convictions of battery and one for forgery. Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams presented the jury with court records showing Messel pleaded guilty in Monroe County to forgery in 1989, felony battery in 1990 and battery with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in serious injury in 1996.
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