Jailed at 12 for killing, Paul Gingerich could return to his mother's home soon

Paul Henry Gingerich was 12 when he helped an older friend kill someone.

Robert King, robert.king@indystar.com
Paul Henry Gingerich was 12 when he arrived at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in 2011. He is pictured on his 14th birthday there.

WARSAW, Ind. — Paul Gingerich, who entered prison at 12 for his role in killing a friend’s stepfather and who has spent nearly six years locked up, could be returned home to live with his mother within four months.

Gingerich will remain under electronic monitoring through April 2020, and on probation for 10 years after that, but his stay in prison could end in February after a judge modified his sentence Friday in Kosciusko County.

Gingerich, who is believed to be the youngest person in Indiana ever sentenced as an adult, went to jail in 2010 as a scrawny sixth-grader with a baby face. He appeared in court Friday still with the baby face but, at 18, standing 6 feet tall and with broad shoulders. In court Friday, he read a statement about his remorse for his role in the 2010 death of Phil Danner, and his voice was shaky.

Paul Henry Gingerich: A chance at freedom for former 12-year-old killer

“I know I committed a truly horrible crime and I am sorry for that,” Gingerich said. “I will never stop being sorry and I know sorry will never be enough.”

Danner’s family did not speak to the court, but his sister and daughter offered letters to Judge James Heuer describing what the loss of Danner meant to their families. They asked that Gingerich, who so far has served time only in juvenile facilities, be given an extended stay in an adult prison.

Based on Heuer’s sentence, Gingerich could spend as little as three months at the Correctional Industrial Facility, an adult jail in Pendleton. Even then, he would be in a program for inmates with disabilities. Gingerich has Crohn’s disease, an incurable illness that causes inflammation in the lining of the digestive tract. He’s had multiple surgeries, portions of his colon have been removed and he has worn a colostomy bag.

Paul Henry Gingerich was 12 years old when he entered prison in 2011. He is the youngest person sentenced as an adult in the state's history. He is 12 in the photo.

After the prison time, Gingerich would join a re-entry program in Allen County, where he would live with his mother for a year under what essentially is house arrest, monitored via an ankle bracelet.

Then Gingerich would be transferred to the watchful eye of a community corrections program through April 2020. While he potentially could live elsewhere at that point, he’s most likely to remain with his mother and remain under electronic monitoring, Kosciusko County Prosecutor Dan Hampton said.

Beyond 2020, Gingerich would face 10 years of probation.

“There’s going to be restraints on his liberty,” said Monica Foster, Gingerich’s attorney.

In court, and speaking to the media afterward, Foster argued that Gingerich is worthy of being returned to the outside world. At the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility, where he’s been housed for 5

Gingerich clearly had a lapse in that area in 2010. He was a sixth-grader with parents in divorce proceedings when he and a friend, 15-year-old Colt Lundy, hatched a plan to drive out west. But Lundy’s stepfather, Phil Danner, stood in their way. Lundy produced a pair of handguns from his home and the boys waited for Danner to walk into his living room. They opened fire, shooting Danner four times.

Lundy, 21, has spent his entire sentence in adult prisons — first at Wabash Valley and now at the Correctional Industrial Facility, where Gingerich is headed. Lundy never filed an appeal and has at least another six years in prison.

Foster, who has defended death row inmates, took up Gingerich’s cause at no cost and, in 2013, won a new trial for him. Gingerich  pleaded guilty again, receiving the same 30-year sentence, but this time under the light of a law passed that year which gives judges greater flexibility in sentencing young offenders. Enacted in the wake of Gingerich’s steep sentence as a 12-year-old, it was dubbed “Paul’s Law.”

At least 10 juvenile offenders have had their sentences reviewed in light of Paul’s Law. But Heuer, a Whitley County judge who took the case after Gingerich was awarded the retrial, said this was his first case under the law. He admitted to feeling as if he were in uncharted territory.

Colt Lundy, the co-defendant in the Kosciusko County murder of Phil Danner,  in the library at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, Monday, April 7, 2014.

“This case doesn’t fit any cubby hole or niche I’ve ever dealt with,” Heuer said.

While Heuer set Gingerich on a path to freedom, he warned that any misstep on the outside could again put Gingerich behind bars — and, this time, in an adult prison.

Foster, who has expressed confidence in Gingerich’s rehabilitation, described him as “a kid with a conscience” whose crime “will weigh on him the rest of his life, as well as it should.” In court, she said Gingerich has had nightmares about the killing of Danner. She considers the sentence to be just, and the outcome a win for Gingerich.

“We kept this 12-year-old boy from ever having to go to an adult facility as a juvenile,” she said, “and when he does go to an adult facility it will be for a short period of time.” Foster said Gingerich’s family is relieved and happy that he could be home soon, but understanding of the pain Danner’s family endures.

Hampton, the Kosciusko prosecutor, couldn’t bring himself to say that justice had been served. He said Heuer acted within his authority and praised him for keeping Gingerich under the state’s watchful eye for the next 10 to 15 years. But he noted that the Danner family wanted adult prison time for Gingerich.

And what does he expect from Gingerich?

“Paul’s future from here on — we all wish we had a crystal ball,” Hampton said. “We all want to know if what Judge Heuer did today will be the effective measure to make sure the criminal does not re-offend.

"But to that end, we’ll never know.”

Call IndyStar reporter Robert King at (317) 444-6089. Follow him on Twitter: @RbtKing.

Gingerich Timeline

2010

April 20 – Paul Gingerich, then 12, and Colt Lundy, then 15, shoot two bullets each into Lundy's stepfather, Phil Danner, killing the 49-year-old Cromwell man instantly.

April 22 – Prosecutors in Kosciusko County ask, during a detention hearing, that Gingerich be tried as an adult in criminal court.

April 29 – Kosciusko County Superior Judge Duane Huffer moves Gingerich's case into (adult) criminal court. The next day Gingerich is charged with murder.

Nov. 3 – Gingerich pleads guilty to a lesser charge, conspiracy to commit murder.

2011

Jan. 4 – Kosciusko County Circuit Judge Rex Reed sentences Gingerich to 30 years, with five of those years suspended to probation.

Jan. 18 – Gingerich enters the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility after Department of Correction officials conclude he wouldn't make it in an adult prison.

Jan. 26 – Indianapolis attorney Monica Foster becomes Gingerich's attorney and files a notice of appeal.

Feb. 17 – Gingerich turns 13.

2012

Feb. 17 – The Indiana Court of Appeals agrees to hear Gingerich's appeal. The news comes on his 14th birthday.

Oct. 30 – The three-judge Court of Appeals panel hears arguments in the case and expresses skepticism about the swift move by the prosecutor and judge in Kosciusko to move Gingerich's case to the adult criminal court.

Dec. 11 – The Court of Appeals issues its decision, saying the court in Kosciusko erred by not giving Gingerich's attorney enough time to make the case he should have been tried as a juvenile. The court reversed the conviction and orders the case back to Kosciusko for a do-over.

2013

Jan. 10 – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller announces he will appeal the Court of Appeals ruling.

Feb. 17 – Gingerich turns 15.

Mar. 7 – The Indiana Supreme Court declines to hear Zoeller's appeal, forcing the case to start over in Kosciusko.

July 1 – A new law, passed by the General Assembly earlier this year, takes effect and offers courts greater flexibility in sentencing juvenile cases.

Dec. 16 – Gingerich, 15, pleads guilty to the same conspiracy to commit  murder charge as he had three years earlier as part of a deal that calls again for a 30-year prison sentence, with five suspended, but a chance to be re-evaluated when he turns 18.

2016

Feb. 17 – Gingerich turns 18.

April 22 – Gingerich appears in a Kosciusko County courtroom, where his attorney asks a judge to release him to probation for what’s left of his sentence or place him under home detention to more gradually allow him to re-enter society.

Oct. 28 – Judge James Heuer, after reviewing the case following Gingerich’s 18th birthday, sets Gingerich on a path that could see him returned to his mother as early as February 2017.

About Paul Henry Gingerich

Gingerich, 18, served 5½  years at the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility. Prior to conspiring to kill Phil Danner, a man he’d never met until the moment of the shooting, Gingerich had had no run-ins with the law. He entered prison as a sixth-grader and graduated from the prison high school with a 3.8 GPA. While in prison, he developed Crohn’s disease, an incurable illness that causes inflammation in the lining of the digestive tract. A large portion of his colon was removed, forcing him to wear a colostomy bag.

About Colt Lundy

Lundy, 21, is imprisoned at the Correctional Industrial Facility in Pendleton. His earliest possible release, according to the Department of Correction website, would be May 30, 2022, when he would be 27. Lundy was 15 at the time he conceived a plan to kill his stepfather, Phil Danner, with the help of his friends, only one of whom, Gingerich, joined him in going through with it. Like Gingerich, he received a 30-year prison sentence, with five years of that suspended.