CENTREVILLE – The preliminary hearing for a man arrested in connection with a murder in Colon will continue on Tuesday.
St. Joseph County District Court officials say 20 year old Ethan Dingman is charged with open murder in the November 2019 murder of 55 year old Todd Schwartz. Schwartz was found dead in a garage behind Illusions Hair Care in Colon. The cause of death was determined to be from blunt force trauma and strangulation.
During the first preliminary hearing in February 2020, Dingman was found incompetent to stand trial on the charges. Dingman was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and he admitted he stopped taking his medication over a year before Schwartz's death. Dingman was placed with the Department of Mental Health and recently found competent to stand trial. Two days of testimony were held last week in District Court. However, questions were raised by District Court Judge Jeffrey Middleton about how
the investigating officers handled their initial questioning of Dingman, some of the evidence that was presented and the admissibility of Dingman's statements that were made to the police.
Middleton recessed the examination until Tuesday, giving the prosecution time to prepare an expert witness on DNA reports. If he is found guilty, Dingman could face up to a term of life in prison.
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