Emmit Yarbrough’s arson trial was delayed to next year after his lawyer Susan Severtson said Thursday that the Lake County Coroner’s Office was investigating whether the victim took drugs “voluntarily” before she died.
Yarbrough, 57, of Gary, is accused of torching Deborah Leslie’s overdosed body inside a Gary abandoned home in September 2022.
Severtson told Judge Natalie Bokota that prosecutors only told her the new information “yesterday.”
Depending on what they find after interviewing Lake County Coroner’s Office forensic pathologist Dr. Zhou Wang in a deposition, it could “drastically change the theory of the case,” Severtson said. Yarbrough’s trial had been scheduled to start Monday.
His new trial date is March 31.
Deputy Prosecutor Jacob Brandewie also withdrew a request to double Yarbrough’s bond. Yarbrough posted a $2,500 cash bond Monday.
A Lake County Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman declined to comment on whether other charges could be pursued against Yarbrough in Leslie’s death if Wang finds foul play.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for Nov. 14.
Yarbrough is also barred from reaching out to Leslie’s parents after Bokota granted a no-contact order.
Leslie, 30, of Griffith, was found Sept. 23, 2022, in a torched-out house on the 5300 block of W. 8th Avenue in Gary.
She was last seen alive on camera at a Hammond Motel 6. Yarbrough and co-defendant Heather Richardson were the last people seen with her.
Richardson died earlier this year.
Yarbrough is charged with Level 4 felony arson, two counts of Level 6 felony altering the scene of a death, one count of Level 6 felony abuse of a corpse and multiple misdemeanors.
mcolias@post-trib.com
