About the only piece of evidence the prosecution didn’t have in the murder case against 20-year-old Patrick Fluker was an eyewitness testifying that he was seen shooting 29-year-old Tiffany Mendez in the head.With an early-morning Kosciusko Circuit Court filing, it became official: 15-year-old Colt Lundy and 12-year-old Paul Gingerich are now formally charged with murder.
And Kosciusko County Jail officials have had to make a few adjustments to accommodate the youngest inmates in recent memory, if not in the county’s history.
In spite of the boys’ small size, jail staff found uniforms that fit them, said Sgt. Chad Hill with the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department.
Per Kosciusko Superior Court Judge Duane Huffer’s orders, accommodations are being made for Lundy’s and Gingerich’s education.
Teachers from Wawasee Community Schools, where both boys attended, will bring materials to the jail and help them continue their education, Hill said.
But other than keeping them segregated from the adult inmates, much of their experience is no different from any other resident of Kosciusko County’s jail. Visitation is limited to specific times of the day on certain days of the week.
Their meals are the same. Cameras monitor their nearly every move.
They are handcuffed anytime they are taken anywhere, and their days are full of hours of empty time.
On Friday, one of the boys shot a little basketball and the other drew a picture, but other than that, there’s not much to do.
“They are technically adults at this point,” Hill said.
And to pass muster with the state jail inspector and to avoid rankling the other inmates, no special treatment is given to any inmate, regardless of age or size.
“They have to have the same standards as adults,” Hill said.
Less than 24 hours after they were waived into adult court to face charges for the fatal shooting of Lundy’s stepfather, Phillip Danner, 49, the two boys again appeared in court Friday, this time for an initial hearing on the formal murder charges.
Police allege Lundy hatched a plan to run away to the Southwest but first needed to kill his stepfather.
According to court documents, Lundy and Gingerich shot Danner, and then fled the Lake Wawasee area in Danner’s car along with Chase Williams, 12, last week.
They were picked up in Peru, Ill., after a store clerk became suspicious about the three in the early-morning hours of April 21.
Williams’ case has been separated from the other two boys’, and no decision has been made on whether to waive him to adult court, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, the boys’ next appearance is set for early June.
If convicted, Lundy and Gingerich could each face 55 years in prison.
