State court cuts 100-year cocaine term
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Court of Appeals on Tuesday sliced a 100-year cocaine sentence nearly in half and upheld two felony murder convictions in unrelated Allen County cases.
The appellate judges first ruled that Allen Superior Court Judge Kenneth Scheibenberger’s 100-year sentence for convicted drug dealer Sharico Devon Blakely was inappropriate.
After Blakeley rejected a plea agreement, a jury found him guilty in 2007 of three counts of dealing cocaine and possession with intent to distribute. During his sentencing hearing, he often interrupted his lawyer and the prosecutor, and challenged Scheibenberger.
For instance, Blakeley, 29, at one point told the judge, “I’ll be back. Soon.”
Scheibenberger replied, “The last guy that said that to me is still in prison.”
“I’m an innocent man,” Blakely protested.
“So is Charles Manson,” Scheibenberger responded.
In the end, Scheibenberger sentenced Blakely to 100 years in prison – 50 years for the three dealing charges, to run concurrently, and an additional 50 years for the possession with intent charge, to run consecutively.
“The jury found you guilty,” Scheibenberger said. “The reality is you’re a dealer for profit. You’re a person who spreads this poison in our community. Given your record, you have proven you can’t reform your actions, thereby forfeiting your right to live among the law-abiding citizens.”
But the appeals court said “ordering consecutive, enhanced sentences is appropriate for only the worst of crimes by the worst of offenders.”
“Here, while Blakely’s character as reflected in his prior criminal history justifies enhancing his sentence or making the advisory sentences consecutive, it does not justify doing both, and we conclude that a one-hundred-year sentence is inappropriate,” the appeals court ruled.
Blakely’s record, which starts as a juvenile, includes three convictions for delinquency, one of which was for cocaine possession; and as an adult, 13 misdemeanors and four felonies, three of which were for dealing cocaine.
The appeals court remanded the case and ordered Scheibenberger resentence Blakely to a total of 60 years in prison. Under Indiana’s good-time-credit rules, this means he will likely serve only 30 years.
In another case, the appellate court upheld two felony murder convictions of Theodore Johnson, 23, who is currently serving a 140-year sentence in relation to the double slaying of Percy Riley and Derious Fuqua in February 2007.
The appellate court said there was sufficient evidence to prove guilt in the case.
On Feb. 20, Riley and Fuqua, along with Fuqua’s girlfriend and her sister, were hanging out in an apartment at the Three Fountains complex when they were joined by Antwain Hines, Johnson and Jonathan “Two-One” Rhodes.
According to testimony and court documents, tensions grew as the day wore on. Johnson and Rhodes were both armed and pulled guns on Fuqua and Riley, ordering them to empty their pockets and remove their clothing. While Johnson and Rhodes held Fuqua and Riley at gunpoint, witnesses testified that Hines rifled through the closets in the apartment, possibly looking for something to steal.
The two girls managed to flee out the back door of the apartment, and as they ran through the snow, each unaware the other had escaped, they heard gunshots coming from the apartment. Prosecutors believe Johnson shot Fuqua three times, once in the head, and then shot Riley once in the chest. Riley died at the scene, and Fuqua died the next morning at a hospital.
nkelly@jg.net
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