FRANKFORT, Ind — A Clinton County man pleaded guilty to two counts of murder Tuesday morning in the deadly shooting of two women in a Frankfort parking lot in 2021.
(NOTE: The video above is from a previous report on the case.)
The court dismissed the option for the death penalty and other remaining charges against Gary Cecil Ferrell II, of Frankfort.
Just after 4:15 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2021, Clinton County dispatch starting receiving emergency calls from employees at the plant who identified Ferrell as the shooter.
According to court documents, a surveillance camera shows Ferrell parked next to a car 62-year-old Pamela Sledd was driving in the NHK parking lot on State Road 28 and forced 26-year-old Promise Mays out of the passenger side.
When Sledd, Mays' grandmother, got out and tried to intervene, Ferrell shot her three times.
Ferrell then shot Mays, and while she was motionless on the ground behind the car, he drove over her body before driving away.
“The death penalty notice will be dismissed. The parties reached this agreement after (Ferrell) raised the defense of intellectual disability to the death penalty,” the prosecutor's office said. “Sentencing is tentatively set for an all-day hearing on Aug. 30.”
Police used a description of the blue Ford Focus witnesses said Ferrell was driving to identify him within a minute after he left the plant. Ferrell tried to elude police, but he crashed in a construction zone and surrendered.
Court documents say Ferrell, after he was was arrested and advised of his legal rights, told investigators that he planned the night before to confine and kill Mays.
A search of his car found a gun believed to have been used in the killings. Police also found the trunk release handle inside of the trunk of Ferrell's car had been cut, so it wouldn't work.
Police also learned Ferrell did not have an Indiana handgun license. They found he applied for a Lifetime Personal Protection License July 5, 2021, but Indiana State Police sent Ferrell a response on Aug. 11 advising the application was not complete.