When he left Northwestern five years ago, Mundt had been overseeing a major university-wide IT project to modernize its financial records system. He was convicted last month of helping to bury the body of a man who was killed during the three-way sex and drug orgy. Even though Mundt received eight years in prison, his boyfriend Joey Banis has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing.
Both men acknowledged putting the victim's body in a five-foot hole in the basement of the Old Louisville home they shared. Mundt's attorneys argued Banis was solely responsible for stabbing and shooting the victim in mid-December 2009. Mundt testified that Banis slit Carroll's throat and shot him. He then forced Mundt to help mop up and threatened to kill him or his family if he said anything about what had happened, Mundt testified during trial.
Prosecutors argued that both men smashed the corpse with a sledgehammer so that the pieces would fit in a 48-inch plastic container. That faux-casket was then buried in the basement.
Mundt received credit for the time he already served in jail and therefore is eligible for parole. He could be released from prison next month after a parole board hearing.
The sentencing, which was announced Wednesday in Jefferson Circuit Court, amounted to three years for facilitation to robbery and five years for tampering with physical evidence for helping bury victim James Carroll's body.
A jury found Mr. Mundt not guilty of Carroll's actual murder last month and his lawyers on Wednesday continued to say that he was innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. They have appealed.
"We are very disappointed he was convicted of anything," said Mundt's attorney Ted Shouse. "We think Mr. Mundt should have been acquitted on all of the charges" Shouse said.
The case prosecutor maintains that justice was done, despite the fact that Mundt could soon be back on the streets. "We have always believed that it was an appropriate punishment for him to go to prison," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ryane Conroy.
