Aaron Phelps gets 15 years in prison

The 17-year-old Valparaiso boy who was charged as an adult after police said that he drove a car into a semi while fleeing a detective in August 2007—an accident in which one of his passengers died—has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In January Aaron Lee Phelps pleaded guilty to two of the six charges filed against him: resisting law enforcement by use of a motor vehicle and causing the death of another, a Class B felony punishable by a term of six to 20 years in prison; and resisting law enforcement by use of a motor vehicle and causing serious bodily injury to another person, a Class C felony punishable by a term of two to eight years in prison.

Phelps was facing a maximum of 28 years in prison. On Monday Porter Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper sentenced him to 15 years: to 18 years on the Class B felony, three years suspended; and to seven years on the Class C felony, one year suspended. Phelps will serve the two sentences concurrently.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Bennett told the Chesterton Tribune on Tuesday that, to avoid putting the families of the victims through the rigors of a trial, he agreed to drop four of the six charges filed against Bennett and then further agreed to cap the sentence imposed at a maximum of 20 years, with the Class B and Class C felony sentences to run concurrently.

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