***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 6, 2015

ELKHART MAN RECEIVES MAXIMUM SENTENCE AFTER VIOLENT ASSAULT

Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. (574) 296-1888

Defendant, Erich J. Conran, was charged with Aggravated Battery, a Level 3 felony, on December 18, 2014. According to police reports, during an incident on August 3, 2014, Conran entered the victim’s, Jason Barsoda’s, home through a window and repeatedly kicked Barsoda in the face. When the defendant finally left the residence, Barsoda ran into the street flagging down a Goshen police officer who observed Barsoda to be covered in blood. Barsoda sustained multiple facial and mandibular fractures which ultimately resulted in his jaw being wired shut and a tooth being removed so he could feed himself through a straw several weeks.

According to police reports, The defendant originally told the police that he had been protecting his girlfriend, who he believed Barsoda had been assaulting, only hitting him twice. He then changed his story during a recorded phone call with his girlfriend’s father, bragging that he put Barsoda into a coma and acknowledging that Barsoda could not eat solid food, breathe, sneeze, or cough, after the “hurting” he had put on him. He also stated he had tried to kill Barsoda. During sentencing, the defendant changed his story yet again, telling the judge that he had “over-reacted” when he believed his friend and girlfriend were involved in an intimate relationship.

The defendant entered into a plea agreement on June 29, 2015, pleading guilty as charged with a possible executed sentence of up to fourteen years with parties free to argue where the executed time would be served. This provided the Court an opportunity to impose an additional two years of probation for a total possible sentence of sixteen years.

At the sentencing hearing on August 3, 2015, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kathleen Gring entered photographs taken of Barsoda on the date of the incident and of the crime scene which depicted copious amounts of blood throughout the residence. She argued that considering the defendant’s criminal history, which included three juvenile adjudications, eight misdemeanor and three felony convictions, combined with his actions in this incident and the victim’s written statement asking for a maximum sentence to be served at the Indiana Department of Correction, the defendant should be considered a dangerous individual who deserved the highest penalty the law provides.

Subsequently, the judge sentenced the defendant to the maximum sentence for a Level 3 felony, sixteen years, during which time the defendant will be incarcerated at the Indiana Department of Correction for ten years, then given an opportunity for an Elkhart County Community Corrections Work Release commitment for four years, followed by a probationary period of two years. This sentence will provide an eventual opportunity for the defendant to begin paying back the substantial amount of restitution he owes the victim for medical bills.

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“Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”