INDIANAPOLIS – A 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for fatally shooting a man outside his Indianapolis apartment.
Prosecutors say Nevin Brooks was 14 when he killed 27-year-old David Hardwick in March 2008. Brooks wasn’t arrested in the case until January, after a juvenile court judge had sent him to a rehabilitation program at Boys Town in Omaha, Neb., for his involvement in armed robberies.
A Marion County judge said Thursday that Brooks’ age weighed heavily in the sentencing decision, but that society must be protected from his violent behavior.
The teen’s father is in prison for a 2001 murder conviction, but Hardwick’s widow says being failed by his family didn’t excuse the shooting.
Hardwick was a jewelry store manager with three children and two stepchildren.
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