The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction and four animal-torture convictions of Ryan Uopasarn, the 32-year-old Vevay man found guilty of stabbing his father to death and mutilating four small dogs in March 2025. A three-judge panel rejected his arguments that he was insane at the time, that jurors received improper instructions, and that his 67.5-year sentence was excessive.
Uopasarn was convicted in January of murdering his father, Sulasak “Mike” Uopasarn, and mutilating Mike's four small dogs, according to Eagle Country 99.3. The killing happened at a home in Vevay in the early morning hours of March 29, 2025. Investigators said Uopasarn stabbed his father more than 25 times with a butcher knife.
Appeals Court Finds No Error in Trial or Sentence
The appellate panel found no evidence to support Uopasarn's insanity claim, and it cited the unprovoked nature of the killing, the extreme violence involved, his lack of remorse, and continued violent conduct while he awaited trial, as reported by 812Now. That outlet also reported that the three-judge panel reviewed the trial record and found no error with either the trial or the sentence imposed.
Court-appointed mental-health experts who evaluated Uopasarn before trial both determined that he understood his actions were wrongful at the time, the station's earlier report on the case noted. A Switzerland County jury took less than two hours to convict him after hearing several days of evidence in January.
Sentence Details and Conflicting Reports
Reports on the exact breakdown of Uopasarn's sentence have varied. Eagle Country 99.3 and WCPO both reported the maximum sentence totaled 67.5 years, while the Madison Courier reported that Judge W. Gregory Coy sentenced Uopasarn to 65 years for the stabbing death, with the total reaching 67.5 years after an additional sentence for torturing and mutilating the four dogs. WCPO reported that Coy handed down the sentence immediately from the bench.
The four dogs belonging to Uopasarn's father were named Mickey, Red, Bruno and Star, according to a separate Madison Courier report on the jury's verdict. With the appeal now rejected, Uopasarn's convictions and sentence stand as the case moves beyond the trial-court phase that concluded earlier this year.
