The Associated Press
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) -- Lake County Prosecutor Bernard A. Carter said Friday he would seek the death penalty if he can win a conviction against a Chicago man charged in the shooting death of Indiana State Trooper Scott Patrick.
In announcing his intention, Carter noted that one of the aggravating circumstances qualifying a case for the death penalty is the killing of an on-duty police officer.
Darryl J. Jeter, 19, also is charged with one count of auto theft.
Jeter pleaded innocent Wednesday in Lake County Superior Court in the Dec. 22 killing of Patrick, 27. A trial date could be set at the next court hearing, Feb. 10.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. told Jeter that if the death penalty were not sought, he could face 45 to 65 years in prison if convicted. 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, 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 the two 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, police say.
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.