FRANKFORT, Ind. (September 7, 2023) – Gary Ferrell, 28, will spend 110-years in state prison for the “brutal and heinous” murders of Promise Mays and Pamela Sledd in the parking lot of NHK Seating of America outside of Frankfort on August 18, 2021.
Clinton County Superior Court Judge Justin Hunter read the sentence aloud today after hearing final arguments from both Prosecutor Anthony Sommer and Stacy Uliana, defense attorney for Ferrell.
Judge Hunter, who had the discretion of sentencing between 45-years and 65-years per murder, handed-down the recommended guideline sentence of 55-years for each of the murders and ordered Ferrell to serve the sentences consecutively, one sentence immediately after the other. The Judge did note the Court rejects any characterization of the sentence as a “DeFacto LWOP sentence,” life without parole sentence.
Ferrell had previously faced the death penalty; however, the death penalty was removed upon Ferrell’s change of plea to guilty.
Judge Hunter wrote, “On motion of the State, the request of the State for imposition of the death penalty is withdrawn, which is appropriate in this case because of the evidence of the defendant’s intellectual disability.”
He further wrote in the sentencing order, “The Court further finds that it is appropriate that the sentences for Murder in this case be treated consecutively, and the Court would have rejected any plea agreement that did not call for consecutive sentencing for the two murders. To fail to treat the sentences consecutively would be a denial of justice to the victims and their families and only diminish the seriousness of defendant’s conduct.”
Ferrell received credit of 750 actual days served in jail from the date of the offense together with Class B credit time.
In coming to his decision, Judge Hunter noted both seven aggravating and seven mitigating factors – coming to the conclusion that each set factors “balance.”
The seven aggravating factors were noted as:
1. The Murders were brutal and heinous.
2. Defendant premeditated the Murder of Promise Mays, and Defendant was lying in wait for Promise Mays at a location where he could reasonably expect that she would not have any weapon, device or instrument to be able to protect herself.
3. The victims were both much physically weaker than the defendant himself.
4. The harm, injury, loss or damage suffered by the victims was significant and greater than the elements necessary to prove the commission of the offense. More specifically, both victims watched the other being shot, and defendant committed the murders while he was committing an offense of confinement with a deadly weapon.
5. Defendant deliberately chose to inflict his pain and harm upon his victims with a gun, during shift change at NHK, when he knew that many other workers at NHK would be in the immediate vicinity and thereby subject to the risk of harm from the use of a weapon.
6. Defendant acted out an entitlement to control and possess Promise Mays, whether in life or in death, even though she had demonstrated only kindness for the many people whom she encountered in her short and precious life.
7. With respect to the Murder he inflicted upon Pamela Sledd, Defendant shot Ms. Sledd after she had named her back and was retreating from the scene of the offense she had witnessed against her granddaughter. She was of no threat whatsoever to the defendant and his plan to murder and commit suicide.
And, the seven mitigating factors noted were:
1. Defendant led a law-abiding life for a substantial period before commission of the crime.
2. Defendant was cooperative with law enforcement, with the Court process, with his attorneys, and he accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct by confessing and entering a plea of guilty to both murders.
3. Defendant has made an expression of remo
4. Defendant suffers from an intellectual disability which profoundly affected his judgment and actions.
5. Defendant suffered from trauma in his childhood.
6. The defendant had an alcohol use disorder that contributed to his depression.
7. Prior to the murders, Defendant had an otherwise good character.
In coming to the decision that the “aggravating factors and the mitigating factors balance,” Judge Hunter wrote, “Although the Court assigns a substantial weight to mitigating factors recited above, the weight does not exceed the weight the Court gives to the aggravating factors; and the Court further finds that seriousness of the offenses-multiple murders committed at a workplace against helpless co-workers-carries an impact on not only the victims’ families but a community of many.”
Ferrell was remanded into the care of the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office for transport to the Indiana Department of Correction for service of the sentence.
Pursuant to the Pleas Agreement, Ferrell has waived his right to any appeal.
