Jurors deliberated for ten hours, starting at around 2:30 P.M. on Thursday afternoon, finally finding that Joshua G. McCulley is an innocent man, despite the Prosecutor’s insistence that he had Recklessly fired a gun into the dwelling of another person. The verdict came in just after Midnight on Friday morning.

“It was surreal. I didn’t recognize myself.” That’s what Joshua McCulley told jurors when asked what it was like watching the body cam videos that were part of the State’s evidence. McCulley took the stand in his own defense.

 The charges stemmed from an early morning call received by Brown County 911 Emergency Management on March 7, 2022. At 1:00 A.M. that morning a frantic Mr. McCulley called 911 to report he had awoken to see multiple intruders standing over he and his girlfriend, apparently having entered his home. McCulley informed 911 he had grabbed his hand-gun and fired shots into his ceiling to scare the intruders. McCulley told the 911 Operator, that “I’ve got three criminals in my truck I’m bringin’ in,” and reported he believed one of the intruders was injured.

 Brown County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded in about 17 minutes to McCulley’s residence to investigate. McCulley met officers outside, approaching with his hands up, explaining to the 911 operator that he had placed his firearm in the floor-board of one his vehicles. 

Once on the scene, officers met with McCulley, and then investigated to find the intruders. But, they determined no one was there. In fact, they determined that no one had actually been there at all, concluding ultimately that McCulley was hallucinating. Further, officers determined that McCulley had not actually shot is gun because they could not find any bullet holes in his ceiling. 

Throughout the body-cam videos, officers comment that McCulley must be a “meth-head,” repeatedly questioning “where’s the meth,” as they searched his home. No evidence of illicit drug use was found, because McCulley was not using any illegal drugs. They further concluded he must have just been intoxicated on alcohol, without performing any tests to determine his level of intoxication.

Finally, they questioned McCulley about what he was taking. McCulley related that he had had a couple of beers that night, and three “shooters,” however, no one asked McCulley over what time-period he had drank these alcoholic beverages, and no evidence was ever collected evidencing what the beverages really were, despite McCulley telling them to “check the trash can, the empties should be in there.” McCulley also told deputies he takes prescribed medication for depression and anxiety.

Officers consulted one another and the internet about the “ID” law (Indiana Code 12-26-4-1). Indiana’s ID Law allows law enforcement officers to immediately detain an individual and transport him/her to a hospital for treatment, if they have “reasonable grounds to believe that an individual has a mental illness, is either dangerous or gravely disabled, and is in immediate need of hospitalization and treatment.”

Officers determined that McCulley was definitely hallucinating, and was “1096” (a police code meaning “mentally disturbed”), but because they could not find evidence that McCulley had fired his weapon (despite McCulley’s insistence he had), they determined McCulley “was not a danger to himself or others,” according to officers’ testimony at trial.

Officers tried to convince McCulley that he had not really seen anything. Repeatedly throughout the conversations, McCulley insisted he was seeing people who were “right there,” but officers verified that there was no one there. And, McCulley’s girlfriend who he originally claimed he “woke up” with, was also not there. 

Finally, officers told McCulley “you know…stay inside, if someone comes in the house, you know, you can deal with it as is.” However, they warned McCulley to make sure to call them if anyone comes back and is outside, because “we have a better chance of doing that; if we get here, and somebody takes off runnin’ I have a dog we can track with…” 

McCulley retrieved his gun and clip from the truck floorboard where officers left it for him, went back inside his home, and ultimately fell back to sleep; until approximately 5:00 A.M.

That’s when McCulley called 911 again, reporting, “I need somebody here.” McCulley was outside on his front porch, and intruders were back in multiple vehicles and all-terrain vehicles, and were shooting at him. This time, McCulley had retrieved 2 other firearms from his gun safe, and was shooting back at the intruders. His mother, who lives in the same house, that is divided into two separate apartments, had awoken to the sound of gun fire outside, coming from the back side of the house. 

“Josh was banging on the back sliding glass door, telling me to turn off the light and call 911,” Linda McCulley testified to at trial.

McCulley told the 911 operator, “I’ll stay on the phone with you as long as you want; I am reloading,” and was still convinced he had not been hallucinating earlier, telling her “this is crazy, I knew I wasn’t hallucinating…but I understand their point.” 

Officers responded again to the house, and this time, made the determination that McCulley was a danger to himself or others, and took him to the Bloomington Hospital for a 72-hour psych hold. 

Officers interviewed McCulley’s neighbors to the west, who said they were awoken by what they thought was gunshots. They went to their sons room, which is closest to McCulley’s residence, but didn’t call the police, because by the time they were going to call, they looked out and the police had already arrived.

Later that same day, the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement officers sought and received an order from the Circuit Court to confiscate all of McCulley’s firearms and ammunition. 

A week later, officers were contacted by McCulley’s next-door neighbors, who indicated they had located a lead projectile, lodged in the wall at the top of their son’s room, where they had been standing at the time they had heard gunfire. They turned this over to police, and were very upset, telling police they wanted McCulley to go to jail. 

Police never explained to McCulley’s neighbors that McCulley was suffering from hallucinations, nor that they had been there earlier in the evening that same night and allowed McCulley to go back inside with his loaded firearm, in spite of the fact he was still convinced that people had broken in his house. Further, the police never did any investigation other than what they had done to seize McCulley’s firearms and rescind his concealed carry permit. They did not perform any analysis to see if the projectile that was found in his neighbor’s closet was fired from any of McCulley’s firearms, nor did they test to see if shell casings found inside McCulley’s house matched any of his firearms.

They did take a number of photographs (all of which were admitted as evidence by the prosecution) of what prosecutor’s repeatedly claimed were “bullet holes,” however police never checked to see if those holes were consistent with the projectile or the shell casings. In fact, no testing or measurements were ever made by police at all. 

After McCulley’s neighbor contacted police, an affidavit was prepared by officers and nearly a month after the incident, McCulley was ultimately charged with Criminal Recklessness with a Firearm. After McCulley refused to plead guilty to the level 6 felony as originally charged, the prosecutor’s office amended the charges to a level 5 Felony (alleging McCulley had fired into a person’s dwelling, which is an enhancement). A level 5 felony is punishable by up to 6 years in prison.     

As McCulley had related to officers the first time they arrived at his residence, leading up to this incident, McCulley had been fighting depression and anxiety. McCulley had been working with his doctor to figure out something that would help him. After trying 2 different medications over the course of a several months, his doctor finally prescribed Duloxytine, the generic form of Cymbalta. Pharmacy records showed, and McCulley testified that he had been taking the Duloxytine as prescribed from February 21, 2022 until the day this happened.

The CVS pharmacist testified as a witness for the defense, and helped explain Food and Drug Administration records that were also admitted by the defense. Based upon this evidence, it was clear that Duloxytine has been associated with hallucinations in rare cases. 

The prosecution contended that drinking alcohol was the issue and that McCulley was voluntarily intoxicated, which is not a defense to a crime. However, both the CVS Pharmacist and the CVS Duloxytine patient information sheet that the prosecution admitted as an exhibit made clear that, while the “heavy use of alcohol” was listed as something to avoid while taking Duloxytine, this warning was related to the risk of liver damage, but was not related to hallucinations. 

McCulley testified that he had never had any hallucinations before this happened, and once released from the hospital he stopped taking Duloxytine immediately, and never had any hallucinations since. 

The prosecution argued McCulley was voluntarily intoxicated, while the defense argued he was involuntarily intoxicated, which is a defense to a crime. In order to show involuntary intoxication (under Indiana Code 35-41-3-5), the jury had to find that the defendant was in a state of intoxication that resulted from the introduction of a substance into his body “when he did not know that the substance might cause intoxication.”    

McCulley’s attorney, Robert G. Bottorff, from Jeffersonville, Indiana, was overjoyed with the verdict. 

“I have tried all kinds of criminal cases, of all degrees of severity, from misdemeanors to murders, all over the state of Indiana. But, I have never had a jury take so much time to deliberate over its decision. That alone made clear to me that this jury truly cared about the gravity of the decision it had to collectively make. My client, his mother, and I, could not be more grateful to each and every one of them for taking Josh’s case so seriously, and for seeing that this was really a medical issue, not a criminal one.”

As for the officer’s handling of the case, Mr. Bottorff went on to say, “my client and I both have tremendous respect for all police officers, including the officers involved in this case. They were confronted with a very difficult situation that night, and I truly believe they were really trying to do the right thing. Sure, I wish they had decided to take Josh to the hospital the first time they arrived and found out he was hallucinating. I suspect we never would have been here if they had. But, if I had any criticism of what happened here, it would only be that the ultimate determination was to try to make Josh a criminal, rather than simply recognizing this for what it was–A man suffering from a medical condition [depression and anxiety] that is difficult to treat. Sometimes it seems like in that circumstance the medical industry treats patients like guinea pigs, trying things over and over until they find something that works. Here, that testing process resulted in Josh suffering a terrible reaction. Thankfully, the jury was able to see that he wasn’t a criminal, just a victim of that testing process.”