GUILTY IN - Phillip Danner, 49, shot to death, Cromwell, 20 April 2010 *2018 Resentenced to home detention*

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Two young friends from a quiet, middle-class neighborhood in northern Indiana wanted to run away to Arizona so badly, prosecutors say, that they gunned down a stepfather who stood in the way of their plans.
The two alleged triggerman — ages 15 and 12 — hadn't shown any signs of violence before the older boy's 49-year-old stepfather, Phillip Danner, was shot to death in his home last week, according to neighbors and family members who testified at a hearing Thursday in which a judge ruled the boys would be tried for murder as adults.
But sheriff's Detective Jonathan Tyler testified that the boys and two of their friends, who didn't take part in the actual slaying, plotted for at least a month to kill Danner, so they could run off to Arizona.

More at link:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iL6FpC2rKcPsm5hLIkkvp3fFXvAgD9FDC6780
 
Since when is murder a prerequisite to run away? Sounds like these boys have some serious problems. What a shame.
 
Feature article from May 2014:

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/05/10/prison-making/8949971/

The last time [Colt] Lundy had a good long look at the night sky was four years ago, when he was 15. He and two other boys took off into the night in a car none of them was legally old enough to drive. He was anxious to head west, to put some distance between himself and Cromwell, a little town in northern Indiana between Fort Wayne and South Bend. Most of all, he was interested in putting some distance between himself and the dead body he'd left behind on the floor.

The crime was less sensational than the criminals and how they were punished. Two boys, ages 15 and 12, were each sentenced as adults and to 25 years in prison. The younger of the two boys, 12-year-old Paul Henry Gingerich, was believed to be the youngest child in Indiana ever sentenced as an adult.

Gingerich was so small that corrections officials took one look at him and assigned him to a prison for juveniles. It was no summer camp, but it had a school and counselors and a chance at a diploma. It even had monthly birthday parties.

In the tempest over the sentencing of the 12-year-old Gingerich, Lundy soon became an afterthought. He wasn't much bigger than Gingerich, but he was three years older. And corrections officials shipped him to the maximum-security prison at Wabash, home to 2,000 of the worst criminals in the state. There was no chance at a high school diploma at Wabash. There were certainly no birthday parties.

Their handling became a case study — of two ways to reform two boys who committed the same crime.
 
Paul Henry Gingerich, sent to prison for his crime as a 12-year-old, is now free

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/07/31/paul-henry-gingerich-sent-prison-his-crime-12-year-old-now-free/519617001/

Paul Henry Gingerich was released in March, a few weeks after his 19th birthday after having spent nearly seven years behind bars, most of it at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility.

Under the terms of his release, Gingerich will wear a GPS-monitoring device on his ankle and be tracked 24 hours a day until July 2018. He will be able to work and make court and legal appointments outside home. With a pass, he can go to church, go shopping or do things such as get a haircut. He's also meeting a couple of times a month with Allen Superior Court Magistrate Samuel Keirns, who will monitor his progress and who has the power to send Gingerich back to prison if he missteps badly enough. So far, Keirns said, Gingerich has complied with the terms of the program.
 
Colt Lundy, the convicted killer who shot his stepfather to death at the age of 15, will ask a judge for an early release from prison.

Lundy will appear in Kosciusko County court Oct. 4 for a sentence modification hearing - his second such try.

Killer imprisoned as teen to ask for trimmed sentence
 
A Judge will hear Colt Lundy’s request for a sentence modification Thursday. Lundy and a friend, Paul Gingerich, 12, shot Philip Danner in his Cromwell home in April 2010.

Indiana man convicted as teen seeks sentence reduction

Gingerich, now 20, was released from prison last year after spending seven years behind bars. He was resentenced under “Paul’s Law,” a 2013 law named after him that allows juveniles who commit serious crimes to receive alternative sentences.

Gingerich will be under 24-hour electronic monitoring until next year and court supervision until 2020. He’ll then begin 10 years of probation.
 
A northern Indiana judge is allowing a man who was 15 when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the fatal shooting of his stepfather to enter home detention earlier than expected.

Cates will allow Lundy to finish his sentence out of prison starting March 15. He later will be on probation.

Colt Lundy to end murder sentence at home
 

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