Marion Superior Court Judge Kurt Eisgruber handed down a 53-year prison sentence a few minutes ago for Brian Kendrick. Kendrick, 31, was convicted by a jury late last month after a five-day trial. Prosecutors said he robbed a Huntington National Bank branch on Indianapolis’ Far Eastside in April 2008, jumping over teller Katherin Shuffield’s counter and shooting into her abdomen. She was about five months pregnant. Shuffield survived, but her unborn twin girls did not.
Kendrick faced a maximum of 87 years in prison for attempted murder, robbery, two counts of feticide and a handgun possession charge, but the judge noted that a couple of misdemeanor convictions in Kendrick’s criminal history were insufficient to merit maximum penalties. Here’s how the sentence breaks down: 30 years for attempted murder, 14 years for robbery, four years each for the feticide counts and one year for the handgun violation.
Shuffield read from prepared remarks on the witness stand, her voice calm as she spoke about the deep-reaching effects of the shooting. She and her husband, Jason, had been excited about the twin girls’ coming births. Her voice began to crack when she spoke about what it might be like to be raising 1-year-olds now. “We will never hear them laugh,” Shuffield said, “or speak their first words or take their first steps.”
Kendrick’s mother, Dolma Kendrick, embraced Jason Shuffield in the gallery after the sentencing concluded. She had asked the judge to show mercy on her son, noting his rough childhood. She had spent much of it in prison, and so had Kendrick’s father, leaving him to be raised for long stretches by an abusive grandmother.
