A Johnson County jury found William Dillard guilty on four felony counts Wednesday after prosecutors laid out a harrowing account of the Franklin man strangling his wife until she passed out, pistol-whipping her, and holding a gun to her head while threatening to kill her. Dillard now faces up to 19.5 years in prison when he's sentenced next month.
Dillard was convicted of domestic battery causing injury, strangulation, and intimidation, all Level 6 felonies, along with unlawful carrying of a handgun, a Level 5 felony, according to WTHR. Testimony during the trial in Johnson Superior Court 1 revealed the attack began while Dillard and his wife were driving home during a snowstorm, and continued at the Franklin home of Dillard's parents, where the couple was living at the time, per 93.1 WIBC-FM.
Dillard's wife told officers he hit her with the butt of a gun and strangled her until she lost consciousness. She also showed officers a painful bump on the back of her head, and said Dillard held a gun to her head while threatening to kill her. She was not allowed to possess a gun herself due to Dillard's criminal history, which barred him from having one in the home at all.
Why the Report Came Days Later
The Franklin Police Department didn't take a report from Dillard's 43-year-old wife until February 4, 2026, several days after the attack. According to the same account, she delayed reporting the violence because she was afraid of retaliation and waited until she could secure a safe location before going to police.
That delay is not unusual in domestic violence cases involving intimidation or threats made with a firearm. Experts note that roughly 50% of non-fatal strangulation victims show no visible external marks or bruising immediately after an attack, despite suffering internal neck trauma, according to research from the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention. That same research indicates that strangulation is one of the strongest predictors of future lethal violence: victims of non-fatal strangulation by an intimate partner are 750% more likely to later be murdered by that partner, often with a firearm.
Prior Record Triggers Habitual Offender Enhancement
The Johnson County Prosecutor's Office pursued Dillard as a habitual offender because of his several prior felony convictions. Local arrest records show a 34-year-old William Dillard living on Hospital Road in Franklin was booked into the Johnson County Jail in December 2017 on a counterfeiting charge, part of the criminal history that formed the basis for the habitual offender case and for barring him from possessing a firearm.
Under Indiana Code § 35-50-2-8, prosecutors can seek a habitual offender enhancement of two to six years on a Level 5 felony if they prove the defendant has two prior unrelated felony convictions, with at least one exceeding a Level 6 or Class D felony. Dillard's Level 5 handgun conviction carries a baseline range of one to six years with a three-year advisory sentence, while Indiana Code § 35-42-2-9 sets strangulation as a Level 6 felony punishable by six months to 2.5 years, and prosecutors don't need to prove loss of consciousness or visible injury to secure a conviction.
Combined, the underlying felonies expose Dillard to up to 13.5 years, with the habitual offender enhancement adding another 3 to 6 years, for a maximum of 19.5 years in prison. Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner thanked officers and prosecutors for their work on the case and said he will ask the judge to impose a prison sentence when Dillard is sentenced on September 9 in Johnson Superior Court 1, now led by Judge Brandi Foster Kirkendall, who won the bench in the November 2024 election succeeding retiring Judge Kevin Barton.
Part of a Pattern in Johnson County
Hamner's office has pursued several major domestic violence prosecutions in the county recently. Hoodline previously reported that a Greenwood man got 31.5 years for rape and stalking in a case built on similar habitual offender enhancements, and a Franklin man's guilty plea in a February stabbing case had also initially included a felony strangulation charge before it was resolved through a plea agreement.
