BOONE COUNTY, Ind. — John Baldwin Jr. was sentenced Monday to 40 years for his involvement in the killing of Boone County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Pickett. The sentencing comes after Baldwin Jr. took a plea deal last year.
Baldwin Jr. pleaded guilty to dealing in methamphetamine and resisting law enforcement — his 13th and 14th felony convictions. He will also formally be labeled a habitual offender.
Baldwin Jr. will serve 35 years in prison, followed by five years of probation, according to the Lebanon Reporter.
Baldwin Jr. is the third and last defender to be sentenced in Pickett's murder. His accomplices, Anthony Baumgardt — who pulled the trigger — and John Austin Ball — who provided Baumgardt with the gun — pleaded guilty to crimes in 2019. Baumgardt was sentenced to life in prison without parole, in exchange for the state dropping the death penalty. Ball was sentenced to 48 years.
During his sentencing hearing, Baldwin Jr. vocally protested the sentence, believing it was too harsh, according to the Lebanon Reporter. He began the hearing by asking to fire his attorney, which the judge granted, but the judge did not allow Baldwin Jr. to reject the plea deal.
"We wanted to do right by Jake and his family," said Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood. "I'm satisfied we've done that."
Baldwin Jr. is currently serving a separate sentence on a probation violation. He must finish that sentence before he can begin his sentence for the Pickett murder. That sentence will begin exactly three years after Pickett was killed.
