Jurors shouldn’t have heard evidence about Daniel Messel possibly having a Maglite flashlight if it was never proven that he had one, or that one was used to kill an Indiana University student in Brown County, an attorney says.

That’s one of the arguments that local attorney Kurt Young is making before the Indiana Court of Appeals, trying to get a new trial for Messel or at least a reduced sentence.

Messel, 51, is serving an 80-year sentence at the maximum-security Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. In August, a Brown County jury found him guilty of murdering 22-year-old IU student Hannah Wilson in April 2015 and leaving her body in a vacant lot off Plum Creek Road.

An autopsy showed Wilson, of Fishers, died from at least four blunt-force strikes to the head from something rounded. The doctor who conducted the autopsy testified that it would have been shaped like a baseball bat, a pipe or a large tree limb. A murder weapon was never found.

A former co-worker testified that Messel had mentioned owning a metal Maglite flashlight about a year before the murder and that he thought Messel had told him it was for self-defense. However, the co-worker testified that he had never seen it.

Young said the testimony invited the jury to speculate that Messel actually had a Maglite that was of a size that could produce Wilson’s wounds. That testimony caused the jury to think that Messel was “a dangerous armed man” and “severely prejudiced” the jury against him, Young argued.

Young also argued that Messel’s sentence of 80 years was “inappropriate” because it did not take in mitigating factors. A mitigating factor is information that might result in reduced charges or a lesser sentence.

At the time of the trial, Messel was “physically and mentally not in good health,” he was the product of a “twice-broken home,” and he was a recent cancer survivor still “suffering” the effects of his treatment, the appeal said.

Young also said Messel “expressed his sorrow” for the Wilson’s family loss and that should have been considered to be a mitigating factor.

Messel’s words during sentencing in September were: “I am sorry for the Wilson family’s loss, but I didn’t do it. If it was my daughter, I would want to know what really happened.”

Brown County Circuit Court Judge Judith Stewart said during the sentence hearing that she saw no mitigating factors other than the time period between Messel’s criminal history and this case. The last time Messel was in the court system was in 2007 when he pleaded guilty to a Class B misdemeanor.

In the appeal brief, Young also said that Messel waived his right to a jury during the part of his trial that determined whether or not he was a habitual offender. The “habitual offender” status added 20 years to his 60-year sentence for the murder. Young said that waiver amounted to a guilty plea, and he cited an Indiana Supreme Court case that said a defendant who pleads guilty deserves some mitigating credit.

Young asked the court to grant Messel a new trial, to reduce his sentence or grant him a re-sentencing.

Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams said he was confident in the case and that the conviction would stand.

At press time, the Indiana Court of Appeals had not filed a response.

Messel hadn’t wanted Young to be his appeal attorney. He had asked the court for a different public defender.

At a hearing in March, he said he had concerns about Young’s connections in the “small” legal community in Brown County, particularly that he was friends with Stewart.

“We (Stewart and I) do not socialize,” Young said in court. “The fact that I appear in this court very often is not going to influence anything I do.”

Stewart agreed, and denied Messel’s request for different appellate counsel.

“I think he (Young) zealously argues for his clients. I don’t think the fact that we’re a small county warrants counsel outside of the county,” she said. “As for socialization, there is none.”

Messel is preparing for another, unrelated trial in Monroe County for attempted rape. He was charged in October after police used DNA collected during the murder investigation in Brown County.

The victim in the attempted rape case came forward after reading about testimony in the murder trial. She told IU Police she believed Messel may have been the man who attacked her in 2012. The Indiana State Police lab said his DNA was a match.

A pre-trial conference in that case is scheduled for May 30 in Monroe County.