Published: November 09, 2009 05:15 pm      

Man pleads guilty in New Albany shooting

Agreement calls for 20-year sentence in Jeffersonville man’s death

A 25-year-old Louisville man pleaded guilty on Thursday to killing a Pekin man at a New Albany apartment complex in 2006.

Thomas R. Gunter Jr. shot 21-year-old Jeremy W. Gibson once in the chest on Dec. 8 outside Carriage House Apartments, across from Indiana University Southeast. Gibson was taken to University Hospital in Louisville where he was pronounced dead.

At a hearing in Floyd County Superior Court No. 1 on Thursday, Gunter pleaded guilty to class A felony voluntary manslaughter. According to the terms of the plea agreement, Gunter would be sentenced to 20 years at the Indiana Department of Correction.

Gunter had been charged with murder and could have faced 45 to 65 years in prison or life without parole if convicted. The case had been set to go to trial later this month.

Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said in a press conference following the shooting that evidence and witness statements indicated the incident occurred during an attempted drug transaction.

According to court records, Gunter picked up Gibson’s gun and shot him with it. During a reading of the facts in the case, Gunter admitted that he was not acting in self defense after he took possession of the gun.

A voluntary manslaughter charge means that Gunter was “acting under sudden heat.”

As part of the plea agreement, the prosecutor states no charges will be filed against Gunter’s family members in the case. George Streib, Gunter’s attorney, said that was added as part of the plea agreement only for Gunter’s comfort and not because his family members would have faced charges.

When asked at the hearing if he had ever suffered a mental illness, Gunter said that he was diagnosed in 2005 with paranoid schizophrenia but never took his medication.

Orth asked if Gibson’s family had been notified that a plea agreement had been reached. Floyd County Deputy Prosecutor Tim Gray said he would review the case file to check.

“We want to make certain the (victim’s) family has been contacted before sentencing,” Orth said.

No members of the victim’s family were at the courthouse on Thursday. Three of Gunter’s family members were present. After the hearing, they said they had no comment about the case.

Gunter has been incarcerated in the Floyd County Jail since his arrest shortly after the shooting.

Both parties also declined to comment on the case until after Orth decides whether to accept the plea agreement. That decision will be announced at a sentencing hearing on Dec. 10.