Man who pleaded guilty to burning down Indiana barns gets 50 years in prison
A man who pleaded guilty to burning down several barns last year in a northern Indiana county was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison followed by decades of probation.
An Elkhart County judge sentenced Joseph Hershberger to 96 years, but suspended nearly half of that sentence, ordering Hershberger to serve 46 years of probation after his release. He will also have to pay an $80,000 fine.
Hershberger, 42, pleaded guilty in October to eight counts of arson while admitting to burning down eight barns in Elkhart County.
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Garry Weybright, whose 120-year-old barn was among those destroyed, testified Monday to the pain caused by the October 2021 loss of his family’s beloved longtime barn.
A man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison followed by 46 years probation for burning down barns in Indiana.
(FoxNews)
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“Watching the barn burn in the middle of the night felt like my soul, my heart and my mind, and the soul of the family, were torn from me and us,” he said. he told the court.
Hershberger’s girlfriend, Sherry Thomas, was also charged last year in Elkhart County with eight counts of arson in the barn fires. Her case is still pending but she appears to be close to reaching a plea deal with prosecutors, the South Bend Tribune reported.
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Hershberger still faces arson charges in Marshall and Kosciusko counties for additional fires he allegedly started in those counties. Authorities allege that Thomas was also involved in starting these fires.
Fox
