Paul Henry Gingerich

The date has been set between all the parties involved and the teen involved in a 2010 murder is returning to Kosciusko County court.

Paul Henry Gingerich, 15, Cromwell, will reappear in Kosciusko County Juvenile Court at 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 4, for a new juvenile waiver hearing. Gingerich was only 12 years old when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in adult court and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The Indiana Court of Appeals and state’s Supreme Court remanded the case back to the juvenile court system finding that inadequate time was allowed for his defense attorney to prepare for a waiver hearing.

While the hearing will be held in Kosciusko County Juvenile Court, Whitley County Juvenile Court Judge James Heuer has been approved as a special judge in the matter and will preside. Duane Huffer, county juvenile judge who originally heard the case, granted Gingerich’s attorney’s request for a special judge.

The waiver hearing will determine if Gingerich should remain in juvenile court on murder charges or transferred to adult criminal court. Monica Foster, who has represented Gingerich through his appeal process will continue representing Gingerich in the local proceedings.

Foster notes Gingerich will remain at Pendleton Juvenile Facility for the time being.

According to the county prosecutor’s office, the state is seeking a waiver of juvenile jurisdiction in an endeavor that Gingerich be tried as an adult on a charge of murder.

Gingerich was detained April 21, 2010, for the April 20 murder of Philip Danner at Danner’s Enchanted Hills home. Colt Lundy, who was 15 and the stepson of the victim, Gingerich and another 12-year-old, Chase Williams, were originally charged with murder. A delinquency hearing was held April 22, with those involved ordered detained at Pierceton Woods Academy.

A waiver hearing was set for April 29, 2010. The court waived Lundy and Gingerich to adult court on Aug. 30. A second charge of aiding or causing murder was filed on June 2.

Williams, who was also 12, was not waived to adult court for his participation. He was charged with aiding or causing murder and served his sentence in the South Bend Juvenile Facility and was released within six months of his sentence.

Lundy plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit murder on Sept. 1, 2010, with all other charges dropped. The court accepted his plea and sentenced him to 30 years, five years suspended. However, Gingerich’s case continued with various motions filed by his attorneys. A guilty plea was entered by Gingerich on Nov. 3, 2010, and pursuant to a plea agreement that guilty plea was for conspiracy to commit murder, the same as Lundy. On Jan. 4, 2011, he received the same sentence as Lundy, 30 years with five years suspended.

It was shortly after that sentence was handed down that Monica Foster took the case and filed an appeal with the Indiana Court of Appeals. In October 2012 oral arguments to have the matter returned to Kosciusko County Juvenile Court for a new waiver hearing was heard. The state justices ruled in December to send it back to the courts for a new waiver hearing. The state filed a request for the highest court in the state to hear the case. That request was rejected in March.