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Last updated on Monday, February 27, 2017
(SPENCER) - Owen County Circuit Court Judge Lori Thatcher Quillen received numerous letters in response to a proposed plea agreement limiting the sentencing to 60-years in the abduction, rape and slaying of 15-month-old Shaylyn Ammerman.
Judge Quillen will sentence Kyle Parker at 10:30 a.m. today.
The maximum prison sentence for murder in Indiana is 65 years; the agreement calls for Parker to serve 60. He will be sentenced to 16 years on the kidnapping charge, the maximum, but the plea deal calls for that sentence to be served at the same time as the murder sentence. This means 23-year-old Parker could be out of jail in 45 years with good behavior.
In exchange for the guilty plea, all additional charges against Parker would be dismissed, including rape, child molesting, strangulation, aggravated battery, obstruction of justice, and failure to report a dead body.
A medical examiner said in court documents that this was "the worst case of sexual trauma she had seen in her career."
Residents are outraged over that possible sentence and sent numerous letters to Judge Quillen to reject the plea agreement.
In September, Prosecutor Don VanDerMoere filed a motion seeking a sentence of life in prison without parole for Parker, but five months later, on the afternoon of February 3, Parker pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping in a negotiated plea deal.
During that court hearing, Parker was to give a detailed account of what happened so if there ever an appeal, the details were in the court's record in the accused's own words. However, Judge Quillen kept the hearing short and Parker gave no details of the crimes.
His public defender, Jacob Fish, just asked Parker if he killed the child and Parker responded - yes. He then asked if Parker kidnapped the child and again he responded - yes.
The Crime
Parker was at the Ammerman home the night Shaylyn disappeared in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 23.
Her grandmother, Tamera Morgan, told police she had put the toddler to bed, wearing a footed-sleeper with owls on it around 10 p.m. Tuesday night. She stated the baby was tucked in with her purple pacifier and a Winnie the Pooh blanket.
The next morning around 8:40 a.m. Morgan dialed 911 to report Shaylyn was missing from her crib. They believed the former girlfriend of Shaylyn's father may have taken the toddler. They also told police about Parker being at the Jefferson Street home drinking with other family members.
Parker departed in the early morning hours and Adam Ammerman later told police he thought he may have seen a foot dangling at Parker's side as he walked away from the house in the dark.
Parker was brought to the police station for questioning. He blamed Adam Ammerman saying he killed Shaylyn. He then told police that Shaylyn's body could be found by a fallen tree along an access road near the White River in Gosport.
When police arrived they found the toddler's body propped up against a tree. She had been raped and strangled.
Parker then admitted he had Shaylyn and had raped and killed her and left her body by the river.
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