MUNCIE, IN — The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the convictions and 21-year sentence of a former Muncie resident who shot a dog while participating in an armed home invasion.
A Delaware Circuit Court 5 jury in July found Quintin Alan Kennedy, 24, guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary while armed with a deadly weapon, intimidation, domestic battery, criminal recklessness and killing a domestic animal.
Kennedy — more recently of Rockville in western Indiana — was later sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison by Judge Thomas Cannon Jr.
During his trial, prosecutors said Kennedy in July 2022 accompanied Michael Lawrence Abbott, a 45-year-old Muncie man, into a West Main Street home, where Abbott battered his estranged wife.
Testimony indicated Kennedy began shouting at a barking dog in the house and fired about nine gunshots, killing the canine.
Abbott last May was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to burglary resulting in bodily injury.
In an appeal, Kennedy maintained there was insufficient evidence to support two of his convictions, and that his sentence was “inappropriate.”
In a 3-0 ruling tissued on May 18, the state appeals court found there was sufficient evidence to support each of Kennedy’s convictions.
In the ruling, Judge Rudolph Pyle II wrote that the ex-Muncie man’s sentence was not excessive, noting he had received a penalty “well below the maximum sentence that the trial court could have imposed.”
Pyle also noted Kennedy was on probation at the time of his arrest in the case, and while jailed awaiting trial was accused of threatening to kill potential witnesses in the case.
“In addition, Kennedy’s four disciplinary write-ups for fighting inmates in the county jail and refusing to obey corrections officers also reflect poorly on his character,” Pyle wrote.
Kennedy, incarcerated the the Correctional Industrial Facility in Pendleton, has a projected release date in September 2038, according to a state Department of Correction website.
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: Court upholds convictions of ex-Muncie man in home invasion, dog death
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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