Ind. suspect confesses to media in rape, murder of teen

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JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -- Saying he wanted to give the family of a 17-year-old girl closure, Richard Hooten confessed to the rape and murder of the teen in a jailhouse interview with reporters Thursday.

"I just lost it in my head. I just lost control," Hooten said at the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

But victim Tara Willenborg's father, Todd Willenborg, said hours after Hooten's confession that there's nothing Hooten -- who he sometimes referred to as "it" -- can say to console family members.

"Tara was a beautiful, independent girl who did nothing to deserve this. There's nothing it can say that will change who Tara was, her beauty, her strength and her smile," Willenborg said as he struggled to read a statement prepared with the help of his pastor at St. Luke's United Church of Christ in Jeffersonville, Ind.

Hooten, 49, who has not yet been assigned a public defender, was charged Wednesday with murdering and raping the Clarksville, Ind., teen in her apartment. He also is charged with criminal deviate conduct, being a habitual offender and abuse of a corpse.

Hooten, a registered sex offender previously convicted of six violent felonies, said he didn't plan the crime. But according to an affidavit filed in Clark Circuit Court, he told police he knew he was going to rape Willenborg when he saw her sitting on the stoop outside their apartment building around midnight Friday.

Hooten is being held without bond in an isolation cell at the Clark County jail. He had eluded Clark County police for months on outstanding warrants for failing to appear in court and provide a correct address as a registered sex offender.

He told police that he asked Willenborg if she wanted to hang out and she agreed.

"I went into her apartment, and she was a pretty girl, you know. But I didn't know she was 17, I thought she was like 19 or 20," he said Thursday.

When she resisted his advances, Hooten said, he dragged her to a bedroom where he strangled her as he raped her. "I didn't realize how strongly I was really putting pressure on her. I was choking her."

He said he "blocked it out" when she was crying and later tried to perform CPR. When that failed, he tied an apron around her neck in an attempt to make the death look like suicide, he said.

Hooten, who calmly answered reporters' questions Thursday, said he wasn't nearly as calm in the hours after Willenborg was killed. He said he returned to his apartment across the hall, packed his clothes and told his girlfriend he was leaving early for work.

"I was nervous, you know," Hooten said. "I was trying to figure out what I was going to do because I just did a terrible crime."

He said he also has been hearing voices and that this was the first time he had hung out with Willenborg.

Her body was found by her fiance, Joshua Lewis, early Saturday after he returned from work. After first trying to revive her, he called 911, Clarksville police said.

Willenborg was buried Wednesday in Jeffersonville. She would have been 18 Sunday.

Her father, answering a few questions from reporters at the church Thursday, railed at the implication that Hooten's actions were related to a mental disability.

"Hooten is not crazy, so don't fall for it. He knows how to manipulate the system," Todd Willenborg said, adding that his daughter loved animals and participated in cross country and theater at Jeffersonville High School before dropping out. She obtained her GED two weeks ago.

"I loved Tara, and we had a good relationship. I was her daddy," he said, breathing hard and struggling to keep his composure. "I was her protector. I'll miss her dearly and so many will -- the world will. She was good."

Willenborg said Lewis had courted his daughter for months and planned to give her a "real engagement ring" on July 4. He also recalled how Tara Willenborg, the youngest of his four children, loved theater so much she missed the family's first trip to Walt Disney World.

"I always promised my kids I would take them to Disney World and one day I did," he said, choking back tears. "Tara didn't want to go, she wanted to stay here in Indiana because she had a class ... on theater."

Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart said Wednesday that he will decide in the next two weeks whether to pursue the death penalty against Hooten.

Asked about that possibility during Thursday's interview, Hooten said, "If they want to take my life for a life, that's fine," adding that he intends to plead guilty.

Indiana law doesn't allow defendants to plead guilty to capital offenses before a trial, but they can plead to lesser crimes.

Clark Circuit Judge Vicki Carmichael told Hooten on Wednesday that a public defender will be appointed to serve him, but he said Thursday that he had not talked with an attorney.

It isn't immediately clear how the confession will affect the case. Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden said it's the first time in his six years as sheriff that an inmate requested a media interview, but he allowed it after consulting with Stewart.

Hooten's trial is scheduled for August.

Louisville Metro Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell confirmed Wednesday that the department's Sex Crimes Unit has been investigating a case involving Hooten, who has not been charged in that case.

Hooten also told police they would find evidence of other crimes at his former home in Memphis, Ind. Clarksville and Indiana State Police searched the area on Wednesday but could not confirm his statements.