A Delaware County circuit court judge sentenced a Muncie teenager to 50 years in prison Friday for his roll in a robbery that resulted in the fatal shooting of a Ball State University student.
Brandon Patterson, 19, was sentenced on charges of armed robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, which is a class-A felony, but he was not charged with murder for his role in the March 2004 death of Ball State sophomore Karl Harford.
By pleading guilty to those charges, he was able to avoid a murder charge as part of the plea agreement.
"It's amazing to me that three guys can do what they did to our son and end up with any possibility for parole," Tom Harford, Karl Harford's father, said. Patterson could be eligible for parole in 25 years, according to Indiana law.
"I would have liked to have seen life without the possibility of parole," Tom Harford said.
Karl Harford offered to give Patterson, Damien Sanders and a juvenile a ride home after he met the three at a party near campus.
Once at their destination, Patterson pulled a gun on Harford, which instigated the robbery during which Patterson and the two others stole $2, killed him, hid his body in the car and then ditched the car, according to police reports.
Sanders, who took the gun and fired the fatal shot after a struggle with Harford, was sentenced in March to 85 years in prison for murder and armed robbery.
Sanders had 11 previous felony convictions before the Harford case and had been arrested three months earlier, along with Patterson, in Henry County on cocaine-related charges.
The juvenile, who was 14 at the time, is not expected to face any felony charges, according to reports from The Associated Press.
Prosecutors dismissed murder charges against the juvenile in May, but he will still face two counts of theft as a minor, according to earlier statements by juvenile court reporter Debbie Biby.
"Our fear right now is that nothing will happen with this and that he will be released from juvenile when he's 18 or 21, but we just don't know yet," Tom Harford father said.
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