LAFAYETTE, IN — Leniency ran out for Iyon Erves, the 2019 Tippecanoe Mall shooter convicted of attempted murder.
As bailiffs led Erves from the courtroom Friday, he sobbed uncontrollably, telling his family through his tears that he loves them. They, in turn, shouted words of encouragement to him until the elevator doors quietly closed, sending the now-24-year-old man to prison for 14 to 16 years. That sentence is on top of his six-year sentence in a Boone County gun conviction.
On Dec. 27, 2019, Erves worked at his mother’s shop at the mall and called out a rival to fight in the mall parking lot.
Several other teens followed Erves and Dondre Hawkins outside to the parking lot, where Erves pulled a gun and fired several shots at Hawkins.
“I feel like it’s important for you to know that I’m not the same person that sat in front of you all them years ago when I was 17,” Erves said Friday before Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Sean Persin revoked the suspended sentence.
“I’m way more mature. I’ve grown in so many ways,” Erves said. “I feel like I’m back in the nightmare, back at the mercy of the court. I’m back in front of you.”
The court, however, showed little mercy for Erves more than six years after his crimes.
In December 2020, Erves was sentenced just days before his 18th birthday. He received 20 years for attempted murder but was allowed to serve part of the sentence in a juvenile facility.
“You got a huge opportunity,” Persin said Friday before revoking Erves’ suspended sentence. “Probably the biggest opportunity I have ever given anybody in 15 years on the bench. And you blew it.
“You went into the juvenile facility and initially you did well, and then you didn’t do well,” Persin said. “They wanted you out.”
But at the time, Persin said he believed Erves had potential, so he ordered him to community corrections, followed by probation. But that ended in September 2024 when Whitestown police found him Erves with a gun in a backpack in his trunk. They also found child porn on his phone, according to police.
Erves claimed a friend of a friend stowed the backpack in his truck as they went into a bar, but he knew the backpack had a sidearm inside it.
Deputy prosecutor Hannah Hudson pointed out that Erves was on probation and should not have been at the bar or with firearm.
Erves pleaded guilty in Boone County to being a serious violent felon in possession of a handgun and received a six-year sentence.
“When you have an attempted murder charge, and you’re on probation, what’s the one thing you can’t do?” Persin rhetorically asked. “Don’t possess a firearm.”
Persin said he expects Erves to ask for post-conviction relief at some point, and the court will review Erves’ prison behavior record to determine whether early release is merited.
Irves still faces possession of child pornography charges pending in Boone County.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette mall shooter’s suspended sentence revoked
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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