A jury convicted a Whiting man on all counts Friday in a 1998 Hammond triple homicide, a prosecutor’s office spokeswoman said and court records show.

Prosecutors alleged James Higgason III, 52, and David Copley, 47, beat Elva Tamez, then 36, Jerod “Buddy” Hodge, 18, and Timothy “Midnight” Ross, 16 to death on Jan. 18, 1998, with pieces of wood or metal pipes, records state.

They were trying to get drugs and cash in Tamez’s home, a suspected “crack house” on the 4600 block of Torrence Avenue in Hammond, according to court documents.

Higgason was charged with murder and murder during the commission of a robbery, court records show.

His sentencing hearing is set for June 24.

Copley, also charged, cut a plea deal with prosecutors.

The victims had their skulls bashed in a drug-fueled “frenzy,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jovanni Miramontes said.

He argued new DNA evidence linked Copley and Higgason to a lesser extent. Copley made two recorded phone calls in May 1998 where prosecutors alleged Higgason alluded to his involvement.

Copley had gone to police in 1998, he said to clear his conscience and testified during Higgason’s five-day trial this week because it was the “right thing to do,” he told jurors onWednesday.

Defense lawyers Mark Gruenhagen and Matthew Fech said the evidence against Higgason was thin and Copley wasn’t credible because he flipped in exchange for his testimony.

Last year, Copley pleaded guilty to Hodge’s murder for a 45-year sentence term. In exchange for his testimony, prosecutors dropped the other two murder charges.

Fech and Gruenhagen said the prosecution’s case was hobbled when it was reopened around 2020 leaning on the new DNA hit. The lawyers asked detectives why new suspects were not sought or witnesses weren’t reinterviewed.

Hammond Detective Steve Guernsey testified earlier on Friday that Lake County prosecutors told police not to reinterview witnesses apart from what they already had in the 1998 case file, because they could remember what happened differently.

Guernsey said he believed the 1998 tapes pointed to Higgason as a credible suspect and believed his voice was the man on the other end. Detectives admitted there were no corroborating phone records nor were police staked out to verify Higgason was at either home when the landline calls were made.

Did you take Copley’s word it was Higgason on the other end, Fech asked.

“Not solely, no,” Guernsey said.

During the call, Higgason made “numerous admissions of being involved with this crime,” the detective later told Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Keith Anderson.

Copley said he secretly taped the two phone conversations with Higgason in May 1998 at the request of police where the latter man both denied and vaguely alluded to possible involvement, according to court documents.

He repeatedly asked Copley not to go to the police, according to the tapes.

“The only way out is to get away with it,” Higgason allegedly told Copley in one recording.

At times, Higgason appeared to shift between blaming Copley and telling him to keep his mouth shut, according to the tapes and court records.

“Well, do you think you’d get the (electric) chair if you went and told the police what you did?” Copley said, per court documents.

“Yeah, I do,” Higgason responded.

Defense lawyers said there’s no proof Higgason was the other man on the call.

In the 24-year case, Copley, their star witness, had “played” the police, Gruenhagen alleged to jurors.

In testimony, Copley denied he pointed to Higgason as a suspect to protect his relative’s children’s father, i.e. Higgason’s uncle. Miramontes said the man was ruled out because he wasn’t there.

Both Copley and Higgason were among a handful of early suspects, but were not charged at the time.

Back then, DNA tests turned up inconclusive.

Decades later in 2020, as technology became more sophisticated, Indiana State Police linked DNA from Tamez’s fingernail clippings to Copley.

A secondary, but much more limited hit came from Higgason, court records show.

Both men were charged in January 2021.

Copley had gone to the police in 1998 alleging Higgason instigated the murders, threatening to kill him if he did not cooperate, court records show.

Charges were presented against Higgason and Copley at the time of the original incident but due to the evidence that could be obtained at that time, charges were not accepted, a Hammond police news release said previously.

At the time, police said they had no suspects or a motive in the slayings.