A Burns Harbor man
who admitted punching his friend in the jaw--a blow which caused the man to
fall to the ground in the parking lot of the Shift Change Tap and suffer a
fatal brain hemorrhage--has been sentenced to one year in prison.
Christopher Glenn
Rogers, 50, with a listed address of 1167 Rak Road, was sentenced on Tuesday
to four years in the Indiana Department of Correction, with all but one year
suspended and the balance to be served on formal probation, after he pleaded
guilty to reckless homicide, a Class C felony punishable by a term of two to
eight years.
In exchange for
Rogers’ plea, the original four charges--the most serious of them,
aggravated battery, a Class B felony punishable by a term of eight to 20
years--were dismissed.
In her sentencing
order, Porter Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper made note of two mitigating
factors: that Rogers was “law abiding for a substantial time prior to the
crime and has a very minimal criminal history,” namely, a 25-year-old OWI
conviction; and that incarceration will prove a “hardship” to his wife, as
Rogers is her “sole support.”
There were no
aggravating factors.
According to the
probable cause affidavit filed by the Burns Harbor Police Department, at
4:48 p.m. Feb. 18, 2014, Rogers, his wife, and two friends, one of them
Rodney T. Owen, were drinking at the Shift Change when Rogers and Owen
exchanged words. Witnesses advised police that Rogers left the bar to sit in
his truck and listen to music and, sometime later, was actually leaving the
business on foot when Owen confronted him in the parking lot and “pushed”
him. Rogers responded by punching Owen once, causing him to fall to the
ground and hit the back of his head.
A witness “advised
that he saw Rogers punch Owen but that it was not a fight,” police said. The
witness “advised that it was a ‘one-punch thing.’ (The witness) advised that
Rogers was not the aggressor but he could not say how (Owen) was the
aggressor either. . . . (The witness) said that Owen pushed Rogers and
Rogers hit Owen.”
Owen was
transported to Porter Regional Hospital, where he underwent emergency
surgery to treat “two separate skull fractures with brain bleeding,” police
said. He never, however, regained consciousness.
“While en route to
the Porter County Jail,” police said, “Rogers uttered on several occasions
‘He (Owen) is my friend, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”