Indiana man accused of murdering ex-girlfriend and eating parts of her body proclaims innocence in 10-minute rant in court
WARNING: This article contains some graphic details of the crime
INDIANA: 38-year-old Joseph Oberhansley is accused of devouring his ex-girlfriend's brain, heart, and lung after opening her skull with a saw.
Oberhansley is alleged to have stabbed Tammy Jo Blanton, 46, to death at her home in Jeffersonville in Indiana after he broke in. Deemed the 'cannibal killer', he previously admitted to the crimes including "cooking a section of her brain and eating it" after his arrest in September 2014, said police.
It is reported that he used an electric jigsaw to open Blanton's skull and eat parts of her brain. He also allegedly ate part of the 46-year-old's heart and a lung.
However, in a pre-trial hearing where the court heard that Blanton had accused him of raping her on the weekend before her murder, Oberhansley burst into a ten-minute long rant. He denied the allegations against him calling them "all bull cr*p lies" and insisted he is innocent. At a pre-trial hearing at Clark County Court, he claimed that his ex-girlfriend was "getting high and drunk and texting a bunch of bull c**p" He also told the judge that he uncovered new evidence that pointed to his innocence. He and Blanton had broken up a month before her killing.
Oberhansley suggested that detectives had missed the murder weapon as it could not have been the "cheap little knife" that the investigators found. He ignored his frustrated lawyers who warned him to keep quiet.
Despite the judge warning him to save his comments for the trial, Oberhansley brazenly tried to hold a news conference on his way out of court before the sheriff's deputies led him away.
Cops had conducted a welfare check on Blanton's home when she hadn't turned up to work that day and she was found under a vinyl camping tent draped over her bath with parts of her skull removed. Authorities also found a "plate with what appeared to be skull bone and blood" on it.
A skillet, a pair of tongs with blood on the handles and tissue were found in the dustbin.
It was revealed in the autopsy that Blanton died of multiple stab wounds and she was missing parts of her heart, lungs and brain.
At the time of the killing, Oberhansley was out on parole for fatally shooting his girlfriend 17-year-old Sabrina Elder in a drug-fuelled jealous rage in 1998. Oberhansley also shot his mother in the back and fired at his sister before putting the weapon under his chin and pulling the trigger in order to give him a "partial lobotomy".
His trial is set to start on August 19. In October 2017, he was found mentally not competent to be tried. But last November, a judge decided he was fit after a doctor found his competency has been restored at a psychiatric hospital.
If convicted, Oberhansley faces life in prison without parole.