Dan Carden
Criminals beware: Indiana judges seemingly are unsympathetic to the pain you cause yourself.
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals decided a Chicago man shot by police when he rammed his getaway van into three police vehicles after stealing from a Schererville store is entitled to no reduction in his prison term due to the chronic pain he suffers from being shot.
Robert E. Thompson Jr., 30, pleaded guilty last year to theft and attempted theft, both level 6 felonies, in exchange for prosecutors dismissing several other charges, including attempted battery with a deadly weapon and resisting law enforcement, according to court records.
He was sentenced to concurrent 2½-year prison terms for each of his convictions.
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Records show Thompson was part of a crew of three men who stole several thousand dollars worth of goods Aug. 20, 2022, from Dick's Sporting Goods shops in Valparaiso and Hobart.
But store employees and police were ready when the trio showed up later that day at the Dick's store in Schererville in the same black minivan used to flee their earlier thefts, according to court records.
Records show police nabbed Thompson's accomplices inside the Schererville store. But Thompson managed to get outside, get back to the van and try to drive away, even though police officers and police vehicles were blocking his escape route.
Thompson, nevertheless, drove at the officers who then fired at him in self-defense. Thompson was struck three times; none of the officers were hurt, according to court records.
In his appeal, Thompson urged the three-judge panel to reduce his prison sentence because he said Lake Superior Judge Gina Jones failed to consider the chronic pain he suffers from being shot as a mitigating factor when she sentenced Thompson to the maximum for a level 6 felony.
Thompson also claimed he's suffering behind bars because he's not provided free pain medication and he's having trouble sleeping due to the pain of being shot.
The appeals court, however, was unpersuaded. Appeals Judge Paul Mathias said the pain from Thompson's gunshot wounds is due entirely to "his decision to ram three law enforcement vehicles in his attempt to escape capture."
"We cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion when it did not find Thompson's chronic pain and injuries to be mitigating circ*mstances," Mathias said.
The appellate judges also rejected Thompson's assertion that the length of his prison term should have been mitigated by the undue hardship his incarceration is imposing on his ailing mother and daughter.
Mathias said Thompson presented no evidence he previously helped his mother in any meaningful way and nothing to show his mother is unable to care for Thompson's daughter when she occasionally does so.
Instead, Mathias found Thompson's criminal history, including six felony convictions, two misdemeanor convictions and two juvenile adjudications, along with recent probation violations, weigh in favor of a extended prison term, notwithstanding his guilty plea.
"We cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion when it sentenced Thompson," Mathias said.
Thompson still can ask the Indiana Supreme Court to consider reviewing his case.
Otherwise, he's scheduled to be released from the Westville Correctional Facility, assuming good behavior, as soon as Nov. 6, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
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Dan Carden
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