The Confession: Legal expert analyzes Nicholas Stanley case

"I'm a partner at the law firm of Loevy & Loevy," he said. "I am a staff attorney at the Exoneration [Justice Clinic] and an adjunct professor at Notre Dame Law School."

He sat down with ABC57's Annie Kate to discuss Nicholas Stanley's case.

"Seems like a really sad case all around," he said, "and a lot of, sort of, thorny legal Issues...”

Stanley is awaiting trial, charged in the June 24 murder of Allen Cogswell at an Elkhart Motel, just weeks after Cogswell was released from prison early. He was in prison after a 2018 conviction of molesting Stanley's young relative. 

"The circumstances here sort of add- they at least give an explanation for why somebody would feel, like, emboldened, to confess," Slosar said.

Stanley confessed to his actions in an exclusive jailhouse interview with ABC57 News in July. 

"What's not normal would be a defendant confessing to a serious crime prior to going to court and having representation, but that's the circumstances of this case," Slosar said.

"Any criminal defense attorney's going to tell their client, 'Don't talk to anybody, don't talk to the police, don't talk to the prosecutor, don't talk to the media. Certainly, don't confess responsibility to any crime you're charged with in those areas.' That's already been done, you know. And so, anything that he told you, anything that he's told the media, any admissions, would certainly be used against him- could be used against him in court," Slosar said.    

ABC57's Annie Kate asked, "Do you think that he has a real defense here? And if so, what would that look like?"  To which, Slosar replied, "Well, I think if you're a defense attorney on a case like this, you're going to, you know, try to get your client a jury instruction about voluntary manslaughter. And I would imagine that legally, that would be the best that a defense attorney could do here."

But Stanley told abc57 he wants a different lawyer than the public defender appointed to him, whom he claims is only trying to push a plea deal. 

"It is the defendant's right to take a plea or not take a plea," Slosar said. "So, regardless of whether an attorney believes that a plea is appropriate, if the defendant does not want to do that, then the attorney has ethical obligations that would require them to investigate the case and defend the case, as anybody else would."

That attorney, chief deputy public defender for Elkhart County, has yet to respond to ABC57's requests for an interview. Still, Slosar says it wouldn't be easy for Stanley to get a new court-appointed attorney. 

"And here, what's different about this case is that from the very beginning stages, the defendant is speaking out and telling his story and giving a glimpse into his defense and his reasoning for committing this murder," Slosar said. 

Stanley, telling ABC57 via email from behind bars, he wants the case to go to trial with a local jury of his peers.

"Should this go to a jury, what will happen is the state and the court and the defense attorney are going to have serious questioning of any prospective jurors to see what information they know about the case, whether they ever observed his confession, whether they formed any opinions or have any biases," Slosar said.

He said it could be a rare case where the state could argue for a change of venue because of pre-trial publicity.

"That would certainly be unusual to see the state do something like that," Slosar said. "It's almost always defendants who believe that they can't get a fair and impartial jury. But I would say jury selection in this case is going to be key to whether he spends the rest of his life in prison, or whether he can get a jury, convince a jury to convict him of a lesser included offense, or jury nullification and a not guilty verdict."

Another unusual aspect of Stanley's case is the additional charge he received: possession of a firearm by a domestic batterer. It was added about a month after his arrest by the Elkhart County prosecutor, based on Stanley's prior record, which he had successfully gotten expunged earlier this year. 

"How often do you see someone's expunged record get unsealed to add charges to maybe another, another crime?" ABC57's Annie Kate asked Slosar, to which he replied, "I mean, only in Elkhart. I've never seen it before anywhere else."

"I've never seen an expunged crime unsealed for purposes of indicting, essentially indicting somebody on additional charge and really enhancing the murder. I mean the purpose of the second charge is to raise the stakes as to a sentence and add pressure for a potential plea," Slosar said. 

"I don't know whether it is ethically permissible. In terms of, when a record is expunged, who can have access to it, what the process would be for using expunged record. I mean, expunging should mean it's like it never existed." 

That is contradictory to what prosecutor Vicki Becker previously told ABC57, "Expungement is not a situation where it goes away forever. It is a situation where if certain conditions or exceptions apply, then the court can unseal the records."  

ABC57 reached out to Becker, who is unable to comment on the pending case, but maintains that Indiana Criminal Code allows prosecutors to request sealed records when relevant to a case.

Slosar suggested a possible motivation for adding the second charge is a concern that a sympathetic jury could actually go easy on Stanley.

"He admitted to committing murder," Slosar said, "and I think most people will sympathize with his justification for doing so, whether his defense is going to be legally cognizable before a jury, whether he could get jurors to keep an open mind, that'll be a process that plays out at a trial, but it's a really, really sad case."

Stanley currently has a jury trial set for March 2, 2026.