GOSHEN — A man who admitted to his role in a 2008 fatal burglary has been returned to prison because he obtained a handgun while working as a security guard.
Bryant Martin, 42, was sentenced to 40 years in prison with 20 years suspended after pleading guilty in 2009 to burglary resulting in serious injury, a Class A felony. His term of probation was revoked and he was returned to prison for the remaining 16 years of his sentence on Thursday, a decision Martin struggled to understand.
“Your honor, I was only trying to protect myself,” he said during the hearing in Elkhart County Circuit Court. “I was doing security, I was working.”
Martin was arrested after the death of 65-year-old Theodore Woodward during a Sept. 15, 2008, burglary. Jarrell King, 43, was charged with the murder of Woodward, who died from his injuries after he was dragged by a pickup truck as the suspects fled.
King received a 40-year sentence after admitting to voluntary manslaughter.
Martin finished the incarcerated portion of his sentence in 2017. In February, he was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, a Level 4 felony, in St. Joseph County.
He pleaded guilty and received a 12-year suspended sentence.
The new charged triggered the violation of probation in his Elkhart County case. He admitted to the violation in August.
Attorneys could not explain Thursday why Martin’s new job as a security guard allowed him to get a handgun.
In reimposing the remaining 16 years of his sentence, Judge Michael Christofeno ordered that Martin serve the last four years in a community corrections program. The judge also indicated he may consider a sentence modification based on good behavior.
“You don’t give me much of a choice,” Christofeno said. “You said it yourself, you made some really bad decisions.”