RIFE, Lawrence - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Edward A. Marlatt, 24, of Attica, who faces reckless homicide charges stemming from a July 15 accident in which two men were killed, was taken into custody this morning, according to Fountain County Deputy Prosecutor John Shambach.

  He was to have appeared last Tuesday in Fountain Circuit Court to be arraigned on a charge that he violated the terms of a 1975-invoked probation.

  There was some confusion last week among Fountain County authorities who were handling the case. Prosecutor James Bunch believed Marlatt was in custody on the probation charge at the time Bunch responded to questions about the case.

  However, Bunch later fund that Marlatt had not been arrested.

  Information about outstanding warrants is not normally made public, but news accounts carried information about both charges prior to the discovery that Marlatt was not in jail.

  The lack of an arrest also pushed back a scheduled August 3 arraignment on the charge of reckless homicide. The continued arraignment date had not yet been set. Marlatt was arrested earlier on that charge but he posted bond and was released from the Montgomery County Jail, which houses Fountain County prisoners while a new jail here is being built.

  The homicide charge stems from the deaths of two Attica men, Lawrence Rife, 19, and Ronald Clinton, 28, who were passengers in a car Marlatt was driving when it hit a tree in Attica.

  The probation violation stems from five criminal convictions against Marlatt since the time the probation went into effect. There is no bond on that charge .A conviction for possession of cocaine resulted in a five-year prison sentence for Marlatt, but it was suspended and he was put on probation.

  He faces a maximum sentence of 24 years in prison if he is convicted of both offenses.