Michael Jerome James, now 35, appeared in Johnson Circuit Court in Franklin, Indiana, on Thursday, Oct. 8, after a grand jury indicted him on four counts of murder in the 2006 deaths of 10-year-old Blake Dickus and his 26-year-old stepmother, Chynna Dickus. Prosecutors allege James killed the two while burglarizing or attempting to burglarize their home on Aberdeen Drive in the Branigin Woods subdivision.
The case had been stalled for years by an unusual gap in Indiana law. Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said authorities had identified James as a suspect years before charges were filed, but they could not prosecute him because he was 14 at the time of the killings. Indiana law historically gave juvenile courts jurisdiction over crimes committed by minors, creating a dilemma when an alleged juvenile offender was identified only after aging out of the system. «That's what took us so long,» Hamner said. «We had a suspect identified. We weren't able to bring charges for several years because we were trying to get the jurisdictional statute in place.»
In 2023, state lawmakers created a legal path for adult courts to handle certain cases involving those accused of serious crimes as juveniles. But that law was tested in a separate child molestation case, and the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected its application. The Indiana Supreme Court later reached the same conclusion, meaning prosecutors could not use the 2023 statute for James either. «We started back over,» Hamner said. «We went back to the legislature and, with the guidance of the decision in that 2023 statute, drafted a new law that would satisfy the concerns that the Indiana Supreme Court had.»
The legislature passed a new statute in 2025, giving prosecutors the mechanism they needed to charge James. «Then we were back in business to be able to charge this individual,» Hamner said. He added that he is more confident the latest statute will withstand a legal challenge, though he acknowledged nothing is certain. Criminal defense lawyer Mike Cunningham, however, told Fox 59 News that he believes Indiana law does not permit prosecutors to charge James as an adult for crimes allegedly committed before the 2023 change. «For acts that are committed after 2023, if you're a juvenile and we don't learn about it until after you're 21, then you may be held accountable in adult court,» Cunningham said. «But what the court has said is for anything that happened before 2023, the law does not permit that because they did not have adequate notice.» If James' eventual defense attorney challenges the court's jurisdiction, the dispute could determine whether the murder case proceeds at all.
During his court appearance, James told Judge Andrew Roesener that he did not yet have an attorney but planned to hire one. Roesener gave him until Nov. 2 to secure counsel and set a status hearing for the same date. The murders occurred on July 24, 2006, when Blake and Chynna suffered multiple stab wounds inside the family home. Investigators determined Blake also had blunt-force injuries and signs of smothering. Blake's father, Sean Dickus, returned home and discovered the bodies. Blake's mother, Christina Smith, had planned to pick up her son that day but instead arrived to find the neighborhood surrounded by police. She later learned that Blake appeared to have fought desperately against his attacker. «His poor little hands were so bad, like, he tried to grab the knife and like, his thumb was almost sliced off,» Smith told WTHR. «The knife went through his hands... I don't know how that guy could live with himself.»
For years, investigators explored possible connections between the murders and a string of break-ins within a half-mile of the Dickus residence. They also questioned multiple construction workers who were in the neighborhood around the time of the killings. «They did a very extensive and thorough investigation, but they weren't able to identify any suspects,» Hamner said. «They were getting a lot of tips, but nothing was coming from it.» Hamner declined to say whether authorities uncovered evidence suggesting a juvenile committed the burglaries or whether James had any connection to them.