***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 2, 2014

RODGERS SENTENCED TO SIXTY YEARS FOR 2013 MURDER OF EDDIE JOHNSON

Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. (574) 296-1888

On Thursday, May 1, 2014, Leeshawn Rodgers was sentenced to sixty years in prison for the April 20, 2013, murder of Eddie “Mississippi” Johnson. The sentence was handed down by Judge Terry Shewmaker after an Elkhart Circuit Court jury convicted Rodgers of Murder in February of this year. The verdict came after jurors heard evidence that Rodgers shot Johnson, without provocation and without reason, in broad day light, and then immediately fled the scene, only to be found two weeks later hiding in an apartment in Indianapolis, Indiana.

At the sentencing hearing, Rodgers’ counsel argued for less time due to Rodgers’ age at the time of the murder and his troubled youth. Judge Shewmaker, citing to Rodgers’ extensive contacts with the criminal justice system, both as an adult and juvenile, quickly discounted those arguments. The Court went on to note that Rodgers laid in wait for Johnson, committed the shooting at approximately 4:00 pm as children were walking home from school and immediately fled the scene as Johnson lay dying; justifying the sixty year term of imprisonment.

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“Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”