Paul Gingerich, 18, received his requested sentence modification today in Kosciusko Circuit Court.
Special Judge James Heuer of Whitley County Circuit Court presided over the hearing. Judge Heuer noted this is not your typical case and his decision took a great amount of consideration.
Gingerich originally received a 25-year sentence, he will now serve 300 days at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility, after that he will be transferred into the Allen County Reentry Program where he will be in a firmly structured program for at least one year. This requires Gingerich to live with his mother in a house arrest setting wearing a monitored anklet bracelet. Then, he will placed in the Allen County Corrections program until 2020 at the soonest. After that he will then go into formal probation.
Gingerich was 12 years-old when he and his friend Colt Lundy, who was 15 at the time, murdered Phillip Danner on April 20, 2010. Danner was Lundy’s step-father. Gingerich was sentenced in late 2010 on a plea agreement of conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 30 years with five years on probation.
Lundy was denied a sentence modification earlier this year.
Gingerich, his lawyer, Monica Foster of Indianapolis, and his family were all happy with the judge’s decision.
The family of Phillip Danner were present in the courtroom and are trying to make sense of sentence modification after such brutal crime was committed. Danner’s sister and daughter wrote letters to the judge expressing the loss they have experienced that can never be replaced.
The Danner family spent a considerable amount of time after the hearing discussing the case with Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Hampton, who addressed their concerns.
