Trial set for accused killer of prominent local attorney

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ----Charles Calvert, the 61-year-old man accused of stabbing to death his girlfriend on Feb. 3 of last year, shuffled into the Allen Superior courtroom Friday, a stack of documents in his shackled hands.

He was charged with murder almost immediately after prominent attorney Marcia Linsky’s body was found on the kitchen floor of her Grabill home.

Friday, he wore orange prison stripes indicating he is in protective custody at the Allen County Jail.

Charles M. Calvert

At the defense table, he sat all alone and spent the entire court hearing looking toward the courtroom door, away from his alleged victim’s family and professional friends, some of whom she mentored in her many years as a local attorney.

Calvert’s Indianapolis-based attorney, John Lawrence Tompkins, attended the hearing by phone because he said he had business north of Allen County. That disappointed Calvert who asked if he could get “a discount.”  It was a joke, but no one laughed.

Tompkins then promised to stop by the Allen County Jail to see Calvert on the way back to Indianapolis.

Special Judge Steven Clouse was in court to clear the way for Calvert’s trial, set to begin April 21 at 8 a.m. with jury selection. 

Clouse, judge in Noble (County) Superior Court, was appointed special judge for this case, probably because Linsky worked closely with the three felony criminal court judges in Allen County. Linsky had so many community ties that Clouse said jurors would be asked if she’d ever been their attorney. 

In her 30-plus years, Linsky served as a magistrate, public defender and private attorney.

The night of the homicide, Calvert called 9-1-1 around 8:30 p.m.  to say his girlfriend had “come at him with a knife,” and then told police “she is no longer with us,” according to a probable cause affidavit written by Detective Corporal Gabe Furnish with the Allen County Sheriff's Department.

Shortly after that, Calvert’s father called in to say “my son called me and said he had hurt his girlfriend and was going to call 911.”

Officers with the Allen County Police Department, part of the sheriff’s department, went inside the Grabill home and found Linsky lying face down with a big gash on her head and neck, court documents said. 

Corporal Ben Fries interviewed Calvert who said he’d been dating Linsky for about a year. He said she got “very aggressive” while he was cutting onions because “he wasn’t doing it correctly.” Blaming her, he said she shoved the crock pot towards him and came at him with a knife that he grabbed.

“I became defensive,” he said, a quote included in the probable cause.

When officers and Deputy Coroner Jeff McCracken investigated the scene they thought it looked staged because there were knives placed carefully and neatly around the victim. There was an onion peel in the garbage, but no chopped up onions anywhere to fit the onion narrative. The crockpot looked like it had spilled all over the floor.

Signs of struggle were there, too. Linsky’s eyeglasses were on the countertop with blood on them. Shoe scuffs were evident on the floor near the dining room, blood was spattered on the wall close by, and there were holes in the victim’s shirt that detectives thought could be from stab wounds, court documents said.

Autopsy photos will be difficult to view at trial. The victim had a large cut near the back of her neck, on her neck and from the front of her neck to the right side.  There were cuts to her lip and a nearly severed right thumb. 

Detectives believe Calvert showered and cleaned up before he called 9-1-1. Disjointed thoughts seemed to be going through his head in that call. He was calm as he repeated “she’s not breathing, not living, no longer with us.” When the dispatcher asked him how old he was, Calvert said “old enough to know better, but young….60.”

Then there were utterances like “she parked her car outside of the garage, she never parks her (car) outside. She bought bleach today. She never buys bleach. In the year I’ve been with her, she’s never bought bleach,” court documents said.

Then something like blame - “she came at me and I responded inappropriately. I’m going to spend the night in jail.” Before he hung up, he told the dispatcher he had a cut on him.

With a probable cause so detailed, the public and Linsky’s many friends and associates already have a good idea what went on that evening, at least according to the police. That’s even if Calvert decides he wants to take a plea.

Judge Clouse gave him that opportunity until April 7, two weeks before the trial begins. It’s up to the judge to give a deadline and there have been defendants who’ve taken a plea right up to the last minute, Chief Counsel Tesa Helge for the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office, said Friday at the hearing.

But not this time.