Man arrested as suspect in murder of jail officer

An Indiana man was arrested Wednesday in connection with the death of Monroe County Jail officer William Brand.\nBenjamin H. Steinberg, 28, faces a preliminary charge of murder.\nBrand was fatally shot in the head Feb. 8, 2005, while driving south on State Road 37, according to the probable cause affidavit filed Wednesday. A vehicle pulled up alongside Brand’s vehicle and fired two shots. One hit him in the back of the head.\nBefore the murder took place, Steinberg had paid $800 for an AR-15 assault rifle from Martinsville resident Lonnie Griffin. Officers confirmed the purchase with Griffin through telephone records and police statements, according to the affidavit.\nA day after the murder, Steinberg’s roommate, Kenneth Craft, contacted law enforcement, saying he had information regarding Brand’s murder. Craft told officers he was “100 percent sure” Steinberg had committed the shooting, according to the affidavit. Craft told officers that Steinberg told him there was gun powder in his vehicle and that he intended to gut the vehicle and report it stolen.\nSteinberg fled town the day after the murder and checked into a hotel in New Albany, Ind. After Steinberg was arrested in an unrelated case in Floyd County, he called his mother and told her he had given his gun, cell phone and car to an unknown masked man that framed him for the shooting, according to the affidavit.\nIn June 2005 Croydon Bowers, Steinberg’s cellmate at the Lawrence County Jail, contacted police saying Steinberg told him he had killed Brand and the police would not be able to prove it, according to the affidavit. Steinberg told Bowers he was worried about a possible videotape from a convenience store in Bedford, Ind.\nA year later, Steinberg sent a letter to his friend, Mel Mordoe, requesting Mordoe impersonate a law enforcement officer to inquire about the surveillance tape from the convenience store. Indiana State Police performed a controlled delivery of the letter and Mordoe did not reply to Steinberg’s request, according to the affidavit.\nIn February, Brand’s widow, Stacy, filed a wrongful death suit in the Monroe County Circuit Court against Steinberg, according to a press release by Shean Law Offices. The Monroe County Prosecutor’s office filed a single count of murder against Steinberg \nWednesday.\nSteinberg is being held at the Monroe County Jail without bond.