13 WTHRSentence upheld for Elkhart boy, 13 at time of murder
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Elkhart - A state appeals court has upheld the murder conviction and prison sentence of a northern Indiana boy who was 13 at the time of the killing.
A jury convicted Dentrell Brown and then-18-year-old Joshua Love for the March 2008 shooting of Gerald Wenger in Elkhart during a drug deal, and a judge sentenced Brown to 55 years in prison.
According to court testimony, Wenger was trying to buy crack cocaine when he realized what the teens sold him was fake. They got into a fight and Love shot Wenger in the head.
Brown's defense attorney appealed both the conviction and the sentence, arguing that such a long prison term was inappropriate.
The appeals court refused to change the sentence, calling the crime a "particularly heinous murder of an unarmed man."
Information from: The Elkhart Truth
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