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Cherry, Reese each sentenced to 72 years for 2017 robbery
Two of four defendants in a 2017 home invasion and robbery in Madison Township learned their fates Thursday.
In separate hearings, Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matt Headley sentenced Justin Cherry and Paul Reese Jr. each to 72-year sentences, all of it to be executed with the Indiana Department of Correction.
Reese, 29, Indianapolis, was already in custody of the DOC on an earlier conviction and was remanded to its care. Cherry, 29, Indianapolis, was returned to the Putnam County Jail with custody to be turned over to the DOC.
Each hearing took less than 15 minutes and followed similar patterns, with neither Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter nor public defenders calling any witnesses.
When asked by Judge Headley if he had anything to say, Cherry simply responded, "Not really."
In his hearing, Reese returned a simple, "No."
Even the victims in the case, Pat and Terry McCarter, were not called upon to testify, with Bookwalter saying they "wish not to be here today."
"They've been through two trials. They're tired," Bookwalter said of the two septuagenarians.
Indeed, the McCarters' age and health were on Headley's mind as he considered Cherry's sentence, listing their age and their health as aggravating factors.
The judge added to the aggravating factors the fact that the four men tore up the McCarters' home on that early April 2 morning.
"You basically terrorized the McCarters. You tore up their home," Headley said to Cherry, before listing the overturned and torn-up furniture, destroyed a window, destroyed wall coverings and other damage.
"You basically ransacked their home," Headley later said to Reese.
Agreeing with a point made earlier by Bookwalter, Headley said these factors took the case well beyond the minimum requirement for a robbery or burglary conviction, as did the threat of gun violence to the McCarters.
"You also held them at gunpoint," Headley said. "You held a gun to Mrs. McCarter's head, telling Mr. McCarter you were going to blow her brains out."
It has not been established in court which man held the gun, as they were masked and they have not testified against one another.
Also among the mitigating factors were both men's prior criminal records, which Headley labeled as "significant," as well as the fact that after the robbery, sentimental jewelry of the McCarters' was sold that cannot be returned.
The only mitigating factors listed were each man's limited education and their minor children. Cherry has a 10th-grade education and three kids. Reese has an eighth-grade education and four kids.
The judge said the aggravators far outweighed the mitigators prior to announcing the 72-year sentences.
While sentences were determined in all nine charges, those that make the difference are 40 years for Level 1 felony burglary causing serious bodily injury and 16 years each for Level 3 felony armed robbery -- one charge for each victim.
Headley handed down the maximum possible sentence, 40 years for a Level 1 felony and 16 years each for the Level 3 felonies, for the three sentences that are to run consecutively.
The other six charges -- Level 2 felony burglary, Level 2 felony conspiracy to commit burglary, Level 3 felony conspiracy to commit armed robbery, Level 3 felony criminal confinement, Level 6 felony theft and Level 6 felony auto theft -- are set to run concurrent to the others.
The consecutive nature of the sentences was a point against which Reese's public defender Austin Malayer had argued, saying all charges should be concurrent, as it all happened in a single incident.
"This was a single act and the robberies were an element of the Level 1 burglary," Malayer said.
He added that no separate evidence of the crimes was presented at trial, "so we don't believe that the Level 3s (armed robbery) can be concurrent to the Level 1 (burglary)."
Instead, Malayer asked that the base sentence be the advisory sentence for a Level 1 felony -- 30 years, with 25 executed and the last five to be spent on home detention.
Bookwalter countered that there are different elements involved in the robbery and the burglary.
The judge apparently agreed in handing down the consecutive sentences.
The sentence was scarcely out of Headley's mouth and public defender Sidney Tongret was declaring Cherry's desire to appeal the sentence through attorney Joel Wieneke.
Malayer also declared Reese's desire to appeal.
"He wants to appeal, judge, and he asks that the court appoint him an appellate attorney," Malayer said.
While the two men wait to file their appeals, the other two men allegedly involved in the robbery have upcoming jury trials in Putnam Circuit Court.
Charles W. Maybaum, 32, Indianapolis, is to be tried beginning on Tuesday, Aug. 21. Meanwhile, 20-year-old Daltyn Randolph of Indianapolis will face a Monday, Sept. 24 jury trial.
Both trials dates have been moved back in recent weeks.
During the incident, four masked men held the McCarters at gunpoint for close to an hour while they ransacked their home. The men made off with prescriptions, checks, jewelry, a rifle, a handgun, a purse, wallet and cash and even the McCarters' Buick Rendezvous.
Additionally, one of the men struck Terry McCarter in the temple area with the butt of either a rifle or shotgun.
Many of the stolen goods, including the vehicle, were later recovered in Indianapolis, both at the Spann Avenue home where Cherry, among others, is said to have resided, as well as a nearby storage unit.
The men have all been linked to crimes in Owen, Marion and Shelby counties. Representatives from each county were in the gallery on Thursday.
NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Justin Cherry had been given a 73-year sentence.