INDIANAPOLIS — One of the men involved in the 2015 killing of Amanda Blackburn will now spend less time in prison after a judge amended his sentence.
Jalen Watson pleaded guilty in 2017 to three charges related to Blackburn's death, but sentencing was delayed for several years while he helped with the prosecution of two other men also involved in the crime.
In March 2021, Watson was sentenced to 29 years for robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and 10 years each for two counts of burglary. The sentences were to be served concurrently.
Friday, a judge amended Watson's sentence after Watson testified against Larry Jo Taylor Jr. and Diano Gordon — the two other men involved in the murder.
Watson will now serve 10 years in prison, followed by five years of home detention in Marion County. The remaining 14 years of his sentence were suspended.
Taylor, identified as the one who pulled the trigger in the murder, was sentenced to 86 years.
Gordon pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary. According to court documents, he was sentenced to 10 years in September 2022.
Blackburn, who was pregnant at the time, was murdered during a home invasion on the northwest side of Indianapolis in November of 2015. Police said suspects broke into the home and shot her to death while her husband, Davey, was at the gym. The couple's toddler was home during the incident but was not injured.
Davey, who was a local pastor, testified at Taylor's trial and said he got up around 4:30 a.m. that morning, read his Bible, then went to the gym at about 6 a.m. Davey said he left the door unlocked because they only had one house key at the time and it was on his wife's key ring.
Blackburn said he was at the gym for about an hour. He was on the phone with a friend when he came home, so he stayed in the driveway so his conversation didn't wake his pregnant wife or their toddler.
He entered the house after 8 a.m., when he found his wife face-down on the floor, dead.