AUBURN, Indiana — A judge sentenced a woman to 38 years in prison Monday for her guilty plea in connection with her boyfriend's shooting of a northeastern Indiana deputy town marshal.
DeKalb Superior Court Judge Monte Brown sentenced Julie King, 34, of Auburn to 45 years in prison with seven years suspended — the maximum sentence allowed under terms of a plea agreement. King pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding in attempted murder, and prosecutors agreed to drop charges of felony murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
King apologized in court, saying she thanks God every day that Waterloo Deputy Marshal Steve Brady did not die in the Dec. 15, 2011, shooting by her boyfriend, Ralph Hardiek, 41, of Auburn.
On the morning of the shooting, King and Hardiek, knocked on the door of a woman's home in Waterloo, asking for help in getting their car freed from the mud. The woman declined to help, but she later told Brady at a gas station about the incident, and he went looking for the couple. When he found them and asked King for identification, Hardiek shot him in the face, police said.
Brady underwent surgery to repair his jaw and mouth. He returned to work last November.
King and Hardiek were shot by police while hiding under a porch in Waterloo. King survived, but Hardiek died.
King testified in March that Hardiek was due to report to jail to begin serving a sentence of 12 years for methamphetamine charges and wanted to avoid jail at all cost. She said Hardiek provided guns and that she purchased bullets for at least one of the guns.
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