A man accused of killing a 10-year-old boy and his stepmother in Franklin, Indiana, nearly 20 years ago has made his first court appearance. The biggest question in his case may not be the evidence. It may be whether an adult court has the power to hear it at all.
Michael Jerome James, 35, is charged with four counts of murder in the July 24, 2006, deaths of Blake Dickus, 10, and his stepmother, Chynna Dickus, 26, at their home in the Branigin Woods subdivision, Fox News reported. Prosecutors allege the killings happened during a burglary or attempted burglary. They say James was 14 at the time. He is presumed innocent, no plea has been reported, and no one has spoken publicly on his behalf.
A case that sat for years
Both victims were stabbed multiple times. Blake also had blunt force injuries and signs of smothering, and he appeared to have fought his attacker. His father, Sean Dickus, found the bodies. Investigators cleared him, but he lived under public suspicion for years. "My family went through torture, so I can't go through anything worse than that," he told WTHR.
Franklin police Capt. Jeff Dawe told WTHR that James is the first lead in the nearly 20-year investigation supported by forensic evidence. Authorities have not said what that evidence is. A grand jury returned the indictment, which remains sealed, and Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said there is no probable cause affidavit because the grand jury made that finding, WIBC reported.
At the hearing, James told Judge Andrew Roesener he planned to hire a lawyer but needed time to raise the money. The judge gave him until November 2, after which a public defender will be appointed. James is held without bond and was told he faces 45 to 65 years in prison if convicted.
The jurisdiction gap
Hamner told Fox News Digital that investigators had identified James as a suspect years ago but that prosecutors could not charge him. "We weren't able to bring charges for several years," he said, because they were "trying to get the jurisdictional statute in place."
The problem was built into Indiana law. Juvenile courts handled crimes committed by minors, so a person accused of a crime committed as a child, but not charged until well into adulthood, could fall into what one prosecutors' group called a "black hole." In 2022, the Indiana Supreme Court said such a case "falls within a jurisdictional gap only the legislature can close," the Indiana Lawyer reported.
Lawmakers passed a fix in 2023, but appellate courts rejected its use in a separate child molestation case. They passed a new statute in 2025, which gave prosecutors the mechanism to charge James, Fox News reported. The jurisdiction provision, Indiana Code 31-30-1-4, gives adult courts jurisdiction over a person at least 21 years old for an offense committed as a child, if the offense could have been waived to adult court.
"Nothing's ever certain, but I'm a lot more confident about this statute than we were with the other one," Hamner said.
The fight ahead
Defense lawyers see an opening. Criminal defense attorney Mike Cunningham told Fox 59 he believes Indiana law does not allow James to be charged as an adult for conduct that happened before 2023, Fox News reported. A challenge to jurisdiction could decide whether the case goes forward at all.
That is the core question. Can a legislature open a courthouse door after the fact for conduct that happened two decades earlier, when the accused was a child? Whatever the forensic evidence shows, that issue could be litigated long before a jury hears a word of it. Procedural rulings can decide murder cases, as the reversal of Alex Murdaugh's conviction showed.
For the Dickus family, the arrest is the first real movement in 20 years. It is the kind of case the Two Taps legal panel takes apart on the show.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
