Sarah’s Story
Sarah Pender has spent over 25 years incarcerated for a crime she did not commit. Charging prosecutor Larry Sells no longer believes she got a fair trial and has become a fierce advocate for her release.
Who is Sarah Pender?
Sarah is a loving daughter, sister, widow, and friend. She is a non-profit founder, avid gardener, animal-lover, teacher, and writer. If released, she aspires to study soil science and has already been accepted into graduate school.
Sarah has used 25 years in prison to change her own life and the lives of the women around her. This includes work as a GED tutor, math tutor, legal aid and law tutor, as well as positions of leadership within her facilities. She has nurtured countless flower and vegetable gardens, becoming the prison’s “plant-whisperer”.
After her escape from prison, Sarah was punished with five consecutive years of solitary confinement. As a result of the inhumanity and torture she endured, Sarah has become an advocate for humane prison conditions. Read about Sarah’s experience in solitary here.
Factual Basis for Sarah’s Innocence
All DNA and fingerprint evidence implicates Richard Hull, who plead guilty to the murders.
The most important piece of evidence against Sarah was a forged confession letter.
Sarah’s fingerprints were not found on this letter - but Hull’s and his cellmate’s were.
In 2003, Hull filed an affidavit admitting to requesting the forgery from his pretrial cellmate, Steve Logan, and asserting his sole responsibility for the murders.
Steve Logan also signed an affidavit admitting to the forgery in 2019.
The prosecution relied heavily on testimony of jailhouse informant Floyd Pennington, who claimed Sarah confessed to him while they were both incarcerated at the Marion County Jail.
In 2009, Larry Sells discovered a previously undisclosed "snitch list" authored by Pennington buried in his deputy prosecutor’s files.
This list consisted of names and organizations Pennington would be willing to testify against in order to receive reduced sentencing.
In a 2013 affidavit, Sells declared that he could not have used Pennington’s testimony at trial if he’d known about this list, because it would have rendered his testimony unreliable and potentially indicated misconduct by Marion County Homicide detectives.
The Crime
In 2000, Sarah Jo Pender and her boyfriend, Richard Hull, were living in Indianapolis with two roommates, Andrew Cataldi and Patricia Nordman. Sarah, the only member of the household without a criminal record, worked a 9-to-5 office job and paid rent. Hull and Cataldi, however, were both using and selling drugs. On the morning of October 24, 2000, Hull asked Sarah to purchase a shotgun and ammunition for him, as his criminal record prevented him from buying one for himself. Sarah had recently been a victim of a violent sexual assault, and believing (as Hull told her) that the gun was simply for the protection of their apartment, Sarah cooperated and went with Hull to a Walmart to purchase the gun of his choice.
That night, Hull and Cataldi got into an argument about drug money. Sarah fled the apartment to avoid the argument. When she returned home, she found Hull loading the bodies of Cataldi and Nordman into a truck. Bewildered and fearing for her own safety, Sarah accompanied Hull while he disposed of the bodies in a nearby dumpster. On October 27, 2000, Richard was arrested and confessed to the crime. Sarah was later arrested and charged as Hull’s co-defendant, despite maintaining her innocence throughout the investigation.
Three students in Georgetown University’s “Making an Exoneree” program are currently working on Sarah’s case.