Staff Report

 WARSAW — A Warsaw man was sentenced Monday, Dec. 21, for his involvement in an October 2019 attempted robbery. 

Naquan Williams

Naquan Rasheed Williams, 18, 1613 East Clark St., Warsaw, pleaded guilty to theft, a class A misdemeanor, in Kosciusko County Superior Court 1. 

On Oct. 8, 2019, an officer with the Warsaw Police Department went to a residence regarding a report of shots fired in the area of Canterbury House Apartments. While en route to the scene, the officer was informed that Williams was being taken to Parkview Hospital with a gunshot wound.

Upon arrival at the scene, the officer found a juvenile in possession of a large plastic bag of marijuana. The juvenile told the officer that one of his friends had been shot.

According to court documents, the officer spoke with a man at the scene who said he had been shot in the right triceps area by Russell Keigan Harty, 18, Claypool.

The man said he was at the scene with the juvenile and two other people to meet with Harty in order to sell him marijuana. They arrived and met with Harty and Williams when Harty pulled out a handgun. Williams and Harty told the four people to empty their pockets and give them the marijuana. While attempting to flee the scene, Harty fired three rounds from the handgun. One of the rounds struck Williams in the shoulder and chest area, and a second round grazed a man in the right tricep.

Through interviews with the four people, police learned they were meeting with Harty to sell him two ounces of marijuana and that Harty and Williams attempted to rob them. During the investigation, officers learned that Williams was an accomplice with Harty in the robbery and was shot in the confusion.

Officers later discovered that Harty had stolen a 45 caliber handgun from a relative.

Williams was sentenced to one year at the Kosciusko County Jail, with the sentence suspended and ordered to be served on formal probation. 

Williams was ordered to pay $200 in fines and court costs and order to pay $450 to the county. 

“We could prove that Naquan was aware that a drug deal was going to happen,” said Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brad Voelz. “But we couldn’t prove he knew there was going to be a gun.”

Pursuant to a plea agreement, a second charge was dismissed.