Jordan Andrade, the 25-year-old Porter Township man who pled guilty but mentally ill to the stabbing murder of Valparaiso University graduate student Varun Pucha, was sentenced by Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer to 60 years in the Indiana Department of Correction Thursday afternoon.

Whether that sentence will be served in a traditional prison or a mental institution will be determined by future analysis by the IDOC.

The sentencing hearing unveiled a history of severe mental health problems and a family’s quest to solve them that began long before the victim was attacked.

“As part of his agreement to plead guilty I took five years off the cap,” Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Chris Hammer said after the hearing. A murder conviction in Indiana carries a sentence of 45 to 65 years in prison.

Andrade admitted to stabbing Pucha in the head with a half-serrated tactical-style knife while he sat in a massage chair at Planet Fitness in Valparaiso on the morning of Oct. 29 of last year. Pucha, who was two months away from graduation, died of his injuries at a Fort Wayne hospital nine days later.

It wasn’t the first time the defendant had attacked someone. His father testified that he had attacked his two brothers on three occasions in years past. Andrade’s parents both testified he had had a normal, happy childhood. Joe Andrade said through tears that he had coached his son’s sports teams for 13 years.

But in the year following high school graduation Jordan Andrade’s mental health took a dramatic turn. He began laughing and muttering to himself, had trouble sleeping and became paranoid. Because he was legally an adult his family couldn’t force him into treatment and was unsuccessful in getting him to commit himself.

Finally, Andrade’s grandparents got him to check himself into an in-patient mental health hospital in Dyer. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and finally got better on drug therapy and frequent psychiatric sessions.When he moved to Valparaiso and switched doctors his medication was flagged as dangerous to his kidneys and liver. His mental health continued to be stable for a while, Joe Andrade testified, but after a gradual switch in medications, all the old symptoms returned. Over a course of months Joe Andrade said he pleaded with the new doctor that something needed to be done because the new treatment wasn’t working. He said he was told repeatedly to give it time.

Both of Andrade’s parents after taking the stand expressed their deep sorrow for the family of Pucha, the 29-year-old victim from Khamman in the state of Telangana in India.

“I wish the family of the victim was here so we could express how sorry we are,” said Joe Andrade. “The son I knew never would have done this.”

No family members of the victim were in the courtroom and no one had logged in to the livestream of the hearing to Clymer’s knowledge, though he checked multiple times and said it was possible someone somewhere was watching and hearing the apology of the senior Andrade.

Countering the testimony of Andrade’s family was the testimony of Detective Sgt. Chris Allison of the Valparaiso Police who investigated the murder. “He was very calm. He didn’t really show any emotion,” Allison said of his first interview with the suspect. “He did not really inquire as to the status of the victim.”

Allison said Andrade was calm and never got upset or angry during the interview. “Was he aware of the actions he was doing?” Hammer asked.

“Yes,” Allison replied.

“How did you know?” Hammer countered.

Allison said he conducted a second interview with Andrade the day after the stabbing during which he asked Andrade what he thought would happen to someone convicted of stabbing another person in the head, leading to their death, and “he advised that he thought that that person would be charged with first-degree murder.”

Hammer also laid out the timeline of events that show 27 minutes and 30 seconds elapsed from the time Andrade exited the massage room where he stabbed Pucha and emergency medical personnel arrived.

Andrade looked wide-eyed throughout the hearing and entered the courtroom in the gray and black striped maximum security Porter County Jail jumpsuit with his mouth agape.

When Clymer asked him if he wanted to exercise his right to appeal the duration of his sentence and have a public defender assigned to him, he turned his wide-eyed gaze to his defense attorney Mark Chargualaf who answered “yes” for him.

Hammer objected, saying the plea agreement prevented the use of a public defender in an appeal. Clymer disregarded the objection and assigned one anyway.

Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.