A Gary woman pleaded guilty, but mentally ill Wednesday to the murder of her child’s father.
Shasta Young, 40, faces 45 years if the plea is accepted by a judge.
The victim, Willie Perry, 59, of Gary, was shot once in the chest. He was pronounced dead June 14, 2024 in his apartment at 12:10 p.m. His death was ruled a homicide.
The sentencing hearing is Jan. 12.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Young appeared hesitant. Why was the sentence “so high,” she asked. Judge Salvador Vasquez told her it was the lowest possible sentence for murder.
“I guess I’m guilty of it,” she said.
What do you mean “guess,” he responded. When asked, under standard questioning, if she was forced or intimidated to sign, she said no.
“I’m guilty of it,” she later said.
Police responded at 11:20 a.m. June 14, 2024 to the 5700 block of Cypress Avenue in Gary.
Lake County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force Detective David Moran wrote Young sat on the sofa while her 18-month-old daughter watched TV. She nodded to the door — where Perry lay outside — when he asked who the toddler’s father was.
“It’s up here,” Young yelled earlier to police officers who first arrived.
The gun was on the kitchen table.
“I was just defending myself, so it’s not a problem,” she told police later in an interview at the Gary Police Station.
Young was getting ready and Perry walked inside, holding the girl and a “camera.” He shoved it in her face and they “started tussling,” she said.
Three men sentenced in check-cashing scheme
Federal prosecutors said that three men were recently sentenced after plea deals in a multi-state check cashing scheme.
Carlos Aquino Sosa, 26, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He was sentenced to 41 months and would have to pay $533,000 in restitution.
Edwin Palazios Sosa, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of illegal reentry. He was sentenced to 27 months and one year on supervised release. He would also repay $533,000 in restitution.
Delvin Velasquez Romero, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and illegal reentry. He got time served and was ordered to repay $233,000 in restitution.
All three were charged in an eight-man indictment. The three men are from Honduras and face deportation after their federal sentences.
Court documents allege the men and co-defendants used fake IDs in January 2023 to cash nearly 170 fake checks at a bank in Northwest Indiana for $233,000. The checks appeared to be issued by a “company that operates (local) dairy farms.”
The men went back in June 2023 to cash another 178 fake checks for nearly $300,000 at the local bank and a trio of Oklahoma check-cashing businesses. The checks looked like they were issued by a building supply company in Oklahoma.
“The sentences imposed by the court send a message that there are real consequences for engaging in fraud, particularly in Northwest Indiana,” Acting U.S. Attorney M. Scott Proctor said in a release.
In court filings, defense lawyer Mark Psimos wrote Aquino Sosa “deeply regrets” his involvement.
Defense lawyer Marc Laterzo wrote that Velasquez Romero fell into the check-cashing ring in Houston after work painting houses dried up. He left Honduras “to pursue a better life” and make money after a cartel moved into the area.
The scheme spanned over a dozen states, according to a release.
Former Gary cop’s disability fraud case dismissed
A former Gary police officer’s disability fraud case was dismissed Tuesday after he successfully finished a pretrial diversion program, filings show.
Nicholas T. Sanchez, 48, of Hobart, was charged in May 2023 with two counts of Level 6 felony fraud and two misdemeanor counts of fraud.
Prosecutors said he lied about his injuries — saying he slipped on snow-covered stairs on duty — while collecting $17,000 off duty, according to an affidavit.
Court records accuse him of gaming the system, caught on video playing pickleball, while on “no duty.”
Sanchez, a nearly 10-year veteran, quit the Gary Police Department on April 22, 2023, a mayor’s office spokeswoman said previously.
A pretrial diversion program is typically reserved for defendants who have little or no prior criminal history.
Appeals Court upholds man’s sentence in Cedar Lake robbery
The Indiana Court of Appeals recently upheld a Gary man’s conviction in a Cedar Lake robbery.
Alexander T. Marshall, 27, was sentenced to seven years in May for robbery and a separate auto theft case.
In a 3-0 decision, Appeals Judge Stephen Scheele rejected Marshall’s argument that the sentence was too harsh.
He and co-defendant Javonte Camell, of Matteson, Illinois, were each charged in the robbery.
Both men walked into the victim’s home July 27, 2020 on the 14000 block of Wheeler Street where they found him and the victim’s girlfriend in his bedroom, records state. After asking to “smoke some weed,” the victim was getting it out of a small safe when Marshall and Camell drew guns at him, documents show.
“That’s mine,” they said, referring to $600-$800 in the safe, according to charging documents.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.