Family’s horror: Killer will go free - "retarded" saved him from death penalty

    Christopher Flauding was considered retarded.

    Now, 27 years after he killed a Merrillville woman, he's about to go free, a bachelor's degree in anthropology to his name.

    Flauding was 17 when he attacked Celia Villareal with a butcher knife as she walked into her far-Northwestern Indiana home. Now 44, Flauding disputes labels such as "borderline mentally retarded" and "a limited mind" that were attached to him -- and may have saved him from the death penalty.

    Defense attorneys used the 17-year-old Merrillville High School junior's mental state as part of its case to keep Flauding off Death Row. The prosecution never rebutted it. And Lake Superior Court Judge Richard Maroc believed it, handing down a 60-year sentence.

    But, in a recreational room at the Miami Correctional Facility in the Northern Indiana community of Bunker Hill, Flauding held a folder full of photocopied certificates and degrees.

    He earned his general educational development certificate a year after entering prison. An associate's degree followed, then a bachelor of science in anthropology. Through a program offered by Ball State University, he made the dean's list twice and finished with a 3.39 grade-point average.

    Maroc, 63, who retired from the bench in 2003, is practicing law in Munster. The Flauding sentencing was one of the most difficult decisions he made during his 24 years as a judge.

    "I imposed death sentences after that," Maroc said.

    Villareal's children -- Albert Jr., 58, Fort Wayne; George, 56, Hobart; and George's twin sister, Sally Burcham, 56, Virginia Beach, Va. -- wonder if the family was duped 27 years ago when doctors claimed Flauding had limited intelligence.

    If that's what kept him off Death Row, they said, why is he leaving prison with a decorated educational background?

    "All of a sudden he's a doggone brilliant person," Albert Villareal Jr. said. "It just doesn't make sense."