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Messel's Change Of Plea Hearing Rescheduled

Last updated on Sunday, February 25, 2018

(BLOOMINGTON) - Convicted murder Daniel Messel was scheduled to plead guilty Monday in a 2012 sexual assault, but that hearing has been rescheduled.

Messel is now scheduled to appear before Monroe Circuit Court judge Marc Kellam on Tuesday, April 24th at 9:30 a.m.

Messel will be transported to Bloomington from the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility where he is serving a 80-year prison sentence for the murder of Hannah Wilson. Messel was found guilty by a jury in August 2016.

Wilson's body was found 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. Messell's cell phone was found next to her body. She died of blunt force trauma to the head. Wilson's DNA was found on Messel's clothes and in his vehicle.

Messel's DNA was entered into a database when he was convicted, police say it matched DNA taken from beneath the fingernails of the female who was abducted and sexually assaulted in September 2012.

Messel was charged in 2016 with rape, criminal confinement, criminal deviate conduct, battery, and theft of the woman's shoes, clutch purse and cell phone, after abducting a 22-year-old IU Law student. The woman was attacked near Griffy Lake by Messel who offered her a ride home.The assault happened in a remote parking lot near Griffy Lake.

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