Plea in 2018 East Chicago shooting

A Hammond man faces up to 10 years in an East Chicago shooting.

Larcell Lockhart, 28, of Hammond, pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony. His sentencing hearing is May 8.

Officers responded around 10 a.m. April 1, 2018, to the 3400 block of Guthrie Street for a report of 15 to 20 shots fired, according to a probable cause affidavit.

A woman was sitting in a car with her boyfriend outside her apartment complex on Guthrie Street when they “heard a loud bang” and saw the “front passenger side window shatter,” followed by gunfire, the affidavit stated.

The woman said she had seen a man walk from one side of a building to another which she said she found “strange, because nobody lived on the side of the building where the man came from,” according to the affidavit.

The woman was shot in her upper right back and was taken to St. Catherine Hospital, court records state. She had spinal and rib fractures, causing “difficulty with her lower right extremities,” the affidavit stated.

At the scene, officers found 32 spent shell casings from two different caliber weapons, according to the affidavit.

Co-defendant Mark Harrison pleaded guilty to aggravated battery. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison and three years in Lake County Community Corrections in January.

Charges against a third man, Marzell Walden, were dismissed in 2018.

Mistrial in rape case

A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in a Gary man’s rape trial for assaulting a 16-year-old runaway girl, court records show.

Kenneth Y. Jones, 46, is charged with rape, a Level 3 felony, and criminal confinement, a Level 6 felony. He pleaded not guilty.

A new hearing is March 14.

Gary detectives responded June 17, 2024, to the home on the 1400 block of Delaware after police got a tip that a girl was held there.

At the house, another girl, “Nikki,” tried to undress her in an upstairs bedroom. The second man tried to have sex with her but she refused. Both Jones and the second man forced her to perform a sex act.

Jones blew smoke from a “glass pipe” in her face, making her dizzy, the affidavit states. She later guessed it was crack cocaine. The second man told her he had sex with young girls, and told her not to “say anything about it” or he would go to jail.

In a police interview, Jones denied touching the girl or blowing smoke in her face but admitted the girl was being held in the home.

Co-defendant Tommie Johnson’s next hearing is April 9.

Plea offer in slaying

Prosecutors said Thursday in court they are offering a 40-year voluntary manslaughter plea deal to a man charged with gunning down a victim with developmental disabilities.

David Carlos Velazquez, 21, is charged with the May 25, 202,1 murder of Aseal Wilson.

The deadline is March 20 if he wants to accept the deal. At a trial, he faces up to 85 years if found guilty.

Wilson was riding his bike south on Indianapolis Boulevard in Hammond near State Line Road sometime after 7:30 p.m. when a man in the back seat of an aquamarine Honda Odyssey opened fire on him, according to an affidavit.

Co-defendant Terrell Bradley is awaiting sentencing. Another co-defendant, Javier Mendez, has a court date on April 15.

mcolias@post-trib.com