Guilty Plea Reached In Crash That Killed Warsaw Woman

WABASH – A Warsaw man pleaded “guilty but mentally ill” to a felony charge of  reckless homicide in connection with a 2013 crash that killed Warsaw architect Mary Ellen Rudisel-Jordan.
Carl Burt, 64, entered the plea in Wabash Circuit Court Monday, in exchange for the plea the charges of driving while intoxicated were dropped.
Wabash Circuit Court Judge Robert McCallen took the plea under advisement and set sentencing for April 3.
Burt was charged with reckless homicide two years after the 2013 crash.
Burt told McCallen he had no memory of the accident. He also claimed he was not intoxicated during the crash.
A chemical test performed on Burt after the wreck showed multiple narcotic drugs in his system, court records state.
Burt’s lawyer, Alan?Zimmerman, said Burt had been determined mentally ill after his court-ordered competency evaluation. Zimmerman did not elaborate on what Burt’s illness was, but said he intends to call an expert witness to testify at the sentencing hearing.
Burt faces two to eight years in prison after his plea.
Deputy Wabash County Prosecutor Alfred Plummer said he had explained the plea to the Rev. Jim Jordan, her widower. Jordan may send a letter but Plummer doesn’t expect Jordan to testify at the April hearing.
Police say that on July 18, 2013, Burt was driving erratically, headed south on Ind. 15. Pleasant Township Fire Chief Adam Casper followed Burt’s vehicle, responding to multiple reports of a car driving in the wrong lane. Casper wrote he saw the car swerving, speeding and driving in the wrong lane, according to a crash report from the Wabash County Sheriff’s Department.
As Casper tried to get close enough to get Burt’s license plate number, “he jetted away at high rate of speed,” according to court records.
Casper lost sight of Burt at about the intersection of Ind. 14 and Ind. 15, after seeing what appeared to be an explosion.
Burt struck the vehicle that Rudisel-Jordan was driving, around the intersection of Ind. 15 and CR 1400N,  sending it into another car, driven by Jennifer Miller, Wabash.
Rudisel–Jordan, who was 61, was pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth vehicle, driven by Kyle Royce, Selma, had to leave the roadway to avoid the crash.
Burt also was injured in the crash and was taken to the hospital unconscious. When he was recovering in the hospital, he declined to speak to police about the crash, according to court records.
Witnesses told police that Burt came “flying around them” in a no-passing zone around a crest of a hill and stayed in the wrong lane for a long time.