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Daniel Messel sentenced to 15 years for 2012 attack on IU student

Posted at 11:17 AM, Apr 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-24 22:08:29-04

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The man convicted of killing an Indiana University student in 2015 has been sentenced for an unrelated attack on an IU student in 2012.

Daniel Messel was sentenced to 15 years for the attack on a 22-year-old IU student that occurred Sept. 1, 2012. 

According to court documents, the victim came into contact with Messel, who then forced her into a secluded parking lot and into a vehicle. She was then driven to Griffy Lake, where she was allegedly beaten and sexually assaulted. The student managed to walk to a nearby home to ask for help and was transported to a hospital.

IU police recovered evidence from the scene and found the DNA matched Messel's.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to battery resulting in bodily injury, for a sentence of eight years. He also pleaded guilty to being a habitual offender, for a sentence of seven years. The 15-year sentence will be served consecutively to his 2016 sentence.

In 2016, Messel was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the murder of IU student Hannah Wilson. Wilson's body was found hours after she was reported missing in a wooded Brown County area. She died due to blunt force trauma to the head. The Brown County coroner said she was struck three or four times in the back of head with an unknown object.

Messel's cell phone was found near Wilson's body and investigators found her blood in his SUV.

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