By Tom Coyne, The Associated Press
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) -- The father of a slain state trooper said Wednesday he wanted prosecutors to seek the death penalty against the Chicago man accused of killing his son.
Ron Patrick, father of Trooper Scott Patrick, said at the very least, the person who shot his son on Dec. 22 should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“If asked my druthers, I’d rather see him get the death penalty,” said Patrick, a Pulaski County sheriff’s deputy.
Patrick and about a dozen friends and family members, including the slain officer’s pregnant widow, sat through 90 minutes of sentencings and hearings to see Darryl J. Jeter, 19, enter his innocent plea before Lake County Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr.
“We’ll be here for every hearing,” Patrick said.
Stefaniak asked Deputy Prosecutor David Urbanski whether his office planned to seek the death penalty.
“At this point in time, it’s being reviewed in our office and should be determined shortly,” Urbanski said.
Stefaniak also asked Jeter’s attorney, Alex Woloshansky, whether he was familiar with death penalty proceedings. David Schneider, Lake County’s chief public defender, told Stefaniak that Woloshansky had attended a death-penalty seminar and that the attorney assisting him, Cathy Lake, would be attending a seminar.
Aside from entering an innocent plea for Jeter, Woloshansky did not comment on the murder charge.
Stefaniak told Jeter that if the death penalty was not sought, if convicted he could face 45 to 65 years in prison. The judge also officially approved a gag order, preventing police officers or attorneys involved in the case from discussing it in public outside of court.
Patrick, 27, a three-year state police veteran, was shot in the neck while responding to a report of a disabled car along Interstate 80/94 in Gary.
Police say Patrick and Jeter scuffled on an exit ramp. When a tractor-trailer driver pulled up, Jeter ran to the other side of the patrol car and fired two shots at Patrick.
Jeter was shot by a second state trooper and arrested. Investigators later determined the car Jeter was driving had been reported stolen in Chicago six days earlier.
His left arm remained in a cast on Wednesday.
Trooper Michael Gayer, who helped recruit Scott Patrick to the department and told Patrick’s family of his death, said Wednesday he could not take his eyes off Jeter or keep from feeling sorry for Jeter’s family.
“I felt for both families,” he said. “Two families were changed forever by a split-second decision by the defendant.”