In the spring of 2018, the life of 38-year-old Amanda Weir Cordell, a female from Evansville, Indiana, was tragically cut short in an act of domestic violence. On the evening of Friday, May 18th, Amanda was in a car on Delaware Street with her mother and two of her own children when a man opened fire on the vehicle. Both Amanda and her mother sustained gunshot wounds. They were rushed to a local hospital, where Amanda succumbed to her injuries the following day. Her mother was hospitalized with serious injuries but survived. The two children in the backseat were physically unharmed but were witnesses to the harrowing event.
The alleged gunman was quickly identified as 56-year-old Robert Ballard Jr. Police apprehended him at the scene. An armed neighbor had reportedly confronted Ballard and exchanged gunfire with him during the incident, though no one was injured in that exchange. Authorities stated that Ballard had been in a relationship with one of the women and that it had recently ended, leading them to believe this was the motive for the targeted attack. Following the shooting, Ballard was arrested and subsequently charged with murder for the death of Amanda Weir Cordell and attempted murder for the shooting of her mother.
The legal proceedings that followed have been fraught with numerous delays and complexities, prolonging the suffering for Amanda's grieving family. The core of the issue has been Robert Ballard Jr.'s mental competency to stand trial. On multiple occasions, court proceedings have been halted due to Ballard being found incompetent. A trial was eventually held in December of 2022, but it ultimately ended in a mistrial, forcing the process to begin anew. Since then, there have been repeated evaluations of Ballard's psychiatric state, with the court vacillating between findings of competency and incompetency. These legal maneuvers have left Amanda's family in a painful state of limbo, still awaiting justice for her untimely death. As of early 2025, the case against Robert Ballard Jr. remained unresolved, with his trial being repeatedly rescheduled as his competency continued to be evaluated.
