Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The gunman in the May 7 shooting at the Keg Tavern in Leesburg was sentenced to eight years Thursday in Kosciusko Superior Court.
Judge Robert Burner accepted the plea agreement sentencing Hugo Brito Delgado, 31, Warsaw, to eight years in prison with two years on probation.
Delgado was also ordered to pay a $300 fine, restitution, court costs and the costs of probation.
Delgado was originally charged with attempted murder, a Class A felony, which is punishable with up to 50 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in October to attempted voluntary manslaughter, a Class B felony, as part of a plea agreement. A Class B felonies is punishable by 6 to 20 years in prison, depending on circumstances of the case.
Delgado shot Ortie Manns three times - twice in the chest and once in the hip - during a confrontation outside the bar. He had been kicked out of the Keg Tavern, Leesburg, along with three others 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 a few days after being arrested that he had fired the gun at Manns as he was shutting the door to the bar.
Delgado told the court through interpreter Kenneth Kelley that it would have been better judgment to call police following being beaten and thrown out of the bar.
In his closing comments, Burner instructed Kelley to give Delgado one last message. "I do not wish to beleaguer the point, but the defendant should consider himself lucky that the situation is not worse than it is."
Hugo Brito, 20, and Adan Cervantes, 33, are awaiting trial on charges of aiding a criminal. Marcello Brito, 27, was released recently to await sentencing after pleading guilty to assisting a criminal.
