The man who would be King just another lost soul now

When you sit through numerous court hearings and listen to the feeble excuses and the sheer stupidity that accompany many local defendants to the jail and into our courts, it's easy to become more than a little jaded.

You endure little sympathy for someone like the snarky 33-year-old defendant who told Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges the details of his most recent drunk-driving charge sound "like every other charge I've ever had."

Or for the 43-year-old who admitted to "sitting here with shame" while facing yet another drunk-driving count, including one with his young child strapped into a car seat behind him. Tough to allow him any benefit of the doubt, however, when he's on his fifth petition to revoke probation as well.

But at the same time, I find myself unusually drawn to the puzzling case of Jeff King. Let me say right here that I don't know Jeff King; Jeff King is not a friend of mine.

Many Greencastle residents will remember Jeff King. Decent student, fine athlete at Greencastle High School. By all accounts, smart and well liked. Maybe not perfect, but who is?

My lasting memory of Jeff King should be of him throwing that Grant Hill-like baseball bullet pass to Chad Remsburg streaking down the sideline at Hulman Center to hit a clutch shot to tie the semistate game against Evansville Central for the legendary 1988 Tiger Cubs of Elite Eight fame.

Instead, the prevailing image I have now is of Jeff King as a 43-year-old Greencastle man, handcuffed and dressed in Putnam County Jail orange and summarily charged with last May's break-in and burglary at the CVS pharmacy.

The inexplicable madness of that attempt to steal narcotics from a pharmacy right there along the main drag in Greencastle never seemed totally plausible. Certainly even the most criminal of minds would realize the pharmacy would have an alarm system that would alert authorities at the first sound of any intrusion.

Those alarms subsequently alerted police that the front door and pharmacy area of CVS had been breached. And when King was caught inside simultaneously red-faced and red-handed with nearly 1,000 loose pills in his pockets, most of us chalked it up to the need to feed a drug habit overwhelming any ability to think straight.

But in a court hearing in the case, King hinted that he got caught on purpose in order to go back to jail. After all, he was essentially homeless with no job, no driver's license and no place to live, and didn't want to be a burden on his family.

And for that, he apparently will now face six years in the Department of Correction (four years for the burglary and two years reinstated from a prior operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated charge for which his probation is now being revoked). A plea agreement reflecting those terms was all but signed before Monday's court appearance but King's attorney asked for more time to review the document.

So, yes, Jeff King is obviously no choirboy, but neither is he the run-of-the-mill repeat defendant we tend to see on an almost daily basis in Putnam Circuit or Superior court.

By all accounts, from prosecutors to judge to court staff to jail officers accompanying the PCJ team bus to court, King has been characterized as "such a nice guy" and a "really smart guy."

"How are you doing today, sir?" Judge Denny Bridges asked him Monday as the proceedings began.

King smiled where most defendants scowl and said something to the effect of "a lot better than before."

He seemed bright and alert and almost happy Monday afternoon on the south side of the Superior courtroom, while on the opposite side of the room his appearance in court brought back basketball court memories of that 1988 GHS team and teammates like Moose Hecko and Chad Remsburg and Brad VanBibber and Pete Huber and Kevin Barnett.

If memory serves, at one time I believe King was headed to DePauw to play football after a nice athletic career at GHS. What happened there is a distant memory, but the dream died early on.

Instead, he now has apparently agreed to a plea deal that will see him probably spend the next three years of his life in prison, where he may not be an obvious burden to his family but where his lot in life is a classic reminder for all of us.

There, perhaps but for the grace of God, go I -- and the rest of us.

Seems such a shame for a man certainly capable of better things.

But that's where criminal court and the court of public opinion must go their separate ways. A cruel reminder nonetheless.