S. Indiana Judge: Murder Convict Can't Legally Change Name

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) — A southern Indiana judge has ruled that a man convicted of murder cannot legally change his name.

Forty-five-year-old Jeramy Heavrin of New Albany was convicted of killing 23-year-old Jennifer Rose Johnson in 1994. He served 21 years of a 50-year sentence and was released from prison in November 2016.

Since then, Heavrin says he's had trouble keeping jobs because of the conviction and in February he petitioned Floyd Circuit Court to change his name to Jayson Lee Archer.

The News and Tribune reports Judge Terrence Cody ruled Thursday that Heavrin cannot change his name because, in part, doing so would defraud the public and because state policy holds that violent offenders may not change their names.

Prosecutors and Johnson's family opposed the name change during a May 18 hearing.