Cervantes Sentenced
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
BY GREG BROWN, Times-Union Staff Writer
The man who supplied the gun in last year's Leesburg shooting will serve the same term as the man who pulled the trigger.
Adan Cervantes, 34, of 3699 N. CR 175E, Warsaw, was sentenced to 10 years, with two years suspended, for his part in the shooting of Ortie Manns, Leesburg. Cervantes was charged with assisting a criminal.
Authorities feel his sentencing sends a message to the community about being present when a crime is committed, or even helping in the commission of crime.
"It was a very important philosophical debate - to what extent is assistor of the crime culpable for the crime," Kosciusko County Prosecutor David Kolbe said.
The court indicated that the culpability is as serious as committing the crime with their sentence of Cervantes, Kolbe said.
The tavern gunman in the May 7, 1996, shooting of Manns was sentenced in November. Hugo Brito Delgado, 31, Warsaw, will serve eight years in prison and spend two years on probation.
The similarity of the sentences indicates that assisting in a crime is just as punishable as committing the crime, Kolbe said. "If you are not involved in the crime you definitively step out of it, get away from it," Kolbe said.
Participants should make it clear verbally or physically that they don't want any part of what is going on, the prosecutor said. "You can't ride the fence. Of course, in this case, there was no fence riding," Kolbe said.
There needs to be at least an act of assistance to be culpable in a crime, Kolbe said.
Delgado shot Manns three times - twice in the chest and once in the hip - during a confrontation outside the bar. He and three others had been kicked out of the Keg Tavern for fighting.
Manns had told the four men to leave after a fight over a pool game, but the four returned about 30 minutes later. Delgado admitted he was the shooter in the incident. [[In-content Ad]]
BY GREG BROWN, Times-Union Staff Writer
The man who supplied the gun in last year's Leesburg shooting will serve the same term as the man who pulled the trigger.
Adan Cervantes, 34, of 3699 N. CR 175E, Warsaw, was sentenced to 10 years, with two years suspended, for his part in the shooting of Ortie Manns, Leesburg. Cervantes was charged with assisting a criminal.
Authorities feel his sentencing sends a message to the community about being present when a crime is committed, or even helping in the commission of crime.
"It was a very important philosophical debate - to what extent is assistor of the crime culpable for the crime," Kosciusko County Prosecutor David Kolbe said.
The court indicated that the culpability is as serious as committing the crime with their sentence of Cervantes, Kolbe said.
The tavern gunman in the May 7, 1996, shooting of Manns was sentenced in November. Hugo Brito Delgado, 31, Warsaw, will serve eight years in prison and spend two years on probation.
The similarity of the sentences indicates that assisting in a crime is just as punishable as committing the crime, Kolbe said. "If you are not involved in the crime you definitively step out of it, get away from it," Kolbe said.
Participants should make it clear verbally or physically that they don't want any part of what is going on, the prosecutor said. "You can't ride the fence. Of course, in this case, there was no fence riding," Kolbe said.
There needs to be at least an act of assistance to be culpable in a crime, Kolbe said.
Delgado shot Manns three times - twice in the chest and once in the hip - during a confrontation outside the bar. He and three others had been kicked out of the Keg Tavern for fighting.
Manns had told the four men to leave after a fight over a pool game, but the four returned about 30 minutes later. Delgado admitted he was the shooter in the incident. [[In-content Ad]]