HARTFORD CITY, IN — A Hartford City man convicted of dealing drugs and later attacking a fellow inmate in the Blackford County Jail has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
After signing an agreement with prosecutors, Layne A. Mahon, 28, entered guilty pleas in three pending Blackford Circuit Court cases — to charges of dealing in meth, resisting law enforcement and battery resulting in bodily injury.
The dealing conviction, a Level 5 felony carrying up to six years in prison, stemmed from a meth transaction involving an informant for the Blackford County sheriff’s department at a home in the 800 block of Greenbriar Drive on Dec. 2, 2024.
The resisting charge, also a Level 5 felony, was filed after Mahon, while operating a moped, led a deputy on a chase on July 18, 2024. The Hartford City man escaped that day, apparently after the moped crashed into a creek, but was arrested the following day.
The battery conviction, a misdemeanor, was the result of an incident in the Blackford County Jail in May 2025 that saw Mahon strike a fellow inmate, leaving a “large contusion protruding out from the back of his head,” according to an affidavit.
The dispute was over the prisoners’ use of an electronic device that allows inmates to send and receive messages.
Surveillance video captured the attack, and also showed Mahon — who briefly claimed the other prisoner had attacked him — striking himself in the face.
In recent days, Blackford Circuit Court Judge Brian Bade accepted the terms of the plea agreement, which called for Mahon to receive a five-year sentence — four years of incarceration, followed by a year on probation — for both the dealing and resisting-law-enforcement convictions.
Those sentences will be served consecutively. A one-year sentence for the battery conviction will be served at the same time.
According to court records, Mahon had earlier convictions for crimes including criminal mischief, criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement and possession of meth.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Hartford City man sentenced for dealing meth, attacking fellow inmate
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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