An Indiana man convicted of three counts of murder in connection to a 2018 triple homicide in Fort Wayne received the maximum sentence allowed Thursday.
An Allen Superior Court judge sentenced 30-year-old Jacquail Belcher to 215 years for the killings a jury found him guilty of in late May.
Shaking his head like it couldn’t possibly be true, Belcher told the judge yes, he’d read the sentencing report and yes, he understood the sentencing procedure.
Belcher even told Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull he was pleased with the way defense attorney, Ryan Gardner, had represented him.
A jury convicted Belcher in May.
Belcher got the maximum sentence possible for the shooting deaths of three men – 26-year-old Breondon Pinston, 28-year-old Deshaun Devon Richards, and 26-year-old Dernail Ivory Brown nearly five years ago to the day.
The three had picked up Belcher at his residence and were driving on Fourth Street between Harrison and Wells streets when gunfire erupted inside the small passenger car Pinkston was driving. Witnesses driving in the area around midnight July 28, 2018 reported the crime in real time.
A jury ignored a couple of descriptions – that the assailant was tall and dark-skinned – that didn’t fit the much shorter Belcher after viewing video that placed him walking north on Cass Street, away from the scene. At the time witnesses saw Brown on the sidewalk with Belcher leaning over him, and even trying to flip over the mortally wounded Brown.
One question that hung over the trial was why the assailant yelled “where is it?” twice at Brown, something that may never be answered.
No one gave a decent motive for the shooting deaths.
“Three lives were taken,” Gull said directly to Belcher. “For what? Nothing. Absolutely no reason.”
Gardner hoped Gull would take into consideration mitigating circumstances such as Belcher’s mental history. Gardner called Belcher “disabled,” and that he was a special education student, but he didn’t say what Belcher’s diagnosis was.
Belcher has a considerable juvenile history and two felonies as an adult, according to Tesa Helge, Allen County Prosecutor’s office chief counsel. She argued that the nature of the crime – three people dead in a matter of minutes – outweighed any mitigating factors.
At a sentencing, families are allowed to address the court and two mothers had their say.
“I could call you all kinds of names,” Eavonda Pinkston, mother of Pinkston said. “But I forgive you. If I don’t (then) my son will never rest in peace.” Some peace came from “knowing you’re not going to kill anyone anymore.”
Pinkston left behind three sons. “Three sons who loved their father dearly,” Eavonda Pinkston said. Numerous family members came to the sentencing but didn’t speak.
Belcher’s family was there, too and somehow decorum was maintained.
“I hope you see Ivory’s face, Beans’ face and Bre’s face, every night when you go to sleep,” Eavonda said. Beans was the nickname, for Richards.
Tonda Rogers, the mother of Dernail Brown, known by his middle name, “Ivory,” was brief and to the point.
“You took my baby from me for no reason,” Rogers said. “It’s so senseless. (I hope that) every day of your life you think of what you did for the rest of your life.”
Helge said she was satisfied Belcher got the maximum.
“He’s been given chances in the system to fix himself. Obviously, this case is so egregious where he gets into a car, really gets these victims in the car, just to shoot them,” Helge said after the sentencing. “And he killed multiple people in one instance and that seemed to be his goal. It wasn’t a situation where there was any allegation of self-defense. He literally set out to kill three people and he accomplished it.”
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