A Hope resident received a 12-year prison sentence after admitting to a carjacking that seriously injured an elderly woman and her daughter last year.
Kenneth Wentworth Jr., 28, Columbus was ordered Tuesday to serve a dozen years behind bars after he entered into a plea bargain agreement in the carjacking case. Wentworth pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempted robbery resulting in bodily injury and misdemeanor battery resulting in bodily injury.
The sentence, handed down Tuesday by Bartholomew Superior Court 1 Judge Jim Worton, was just four years short of the maximum allowed by Indiana law for the Level 3 felony.
Although the judge also gave Wentworth an additional year on a misdemeanor battery charge, Worton ordered that extra time be served concurrently with the longer sentence.
The defense and prosecution, as well as the judge, acknowledged that the defendant had long suffered from mental illness. Wentworth said while testifying Tuesday he had been prescribed a medication to control his symptoms, but stopped taking it because he didn’t feel it was working.
The offenses occurred on New Year’s Day 2018 in the Columbus Regional Hospital parking lot. While testifying, Wentworth said he had a friend drive him to the hospital because he thought he was having a heart attack.
But once released by medical personnel, Wentworth said he heard voices in his head telling him to return home to hurt his family.
Those voices prompted Wentworth to get into the driver’s seat of a 2016 Chrysler Town and Country minivan while the 56-year-old vehicle owner, Lorrie A. Crouch of Hope, was there with other members of her family, according to police reports.
When Wentworth first put the minivan in reverse, an open passenger door struck Crouch’s 88-year-old mother, Sara Smith, who was seated near the vehicle in a wheelchair, police said.
But it was Crouch who received the worst injuries, according to Bartholomew County Deputy Prosecutor Greg Long.
While Crouch said she was trying to stop the defendant from stealing her vehicle, she also testified was trying to grab her purse and her mother’s medication while in the passenger door area.
When Wentworth accelerated forward and struck a parked car, Crouch was thrown out of the minivan and struck her head on the concrete parking lot.
She was later airlifted to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, police said. Besides head injuries, physicians also determined that Crouch had suffered a broken wrist, broken ankle and a fractured shoulder blade, she testified.
While on the stand, the Hope woman estimated the family’s total medical bills resulting from the attempted carjacking reached more than $200,000.
As part of the sentencing, Worton ordered that Wentworth pay Crouch $9,140 restitution for her out-of-pocket medical expenses, as well as $27,903 to the Hartford Insurance Co. for their losses.
During his testimony, Wentworth said he was a former heroin user who was frequently using methamphetamine prior to his arrest. But when asked why he didn’t seek addiction treatment or employment, the defendant cited a lack of transportation three different times.
“You found ways to get drugs, but not a car?” Crouch later asked Wentworth while delivering a prepared statement. “God wants me to forgive you, Kenneth — but I am so angry with you for all the drama you’ve put my family through.”
After the hearing was adjourned, Crouch said she felt Worton’s sentence was appropriate. She also said her elderly mother is continuing to slowly improve, but that Sara Smith’s legs are still discolored from her injuries a year after the incident.
Although Wentworth admitted his guilt to only two charges during a plea agreement in early December, he was originally arrested on a variety of charges that included leaving the scene of an accident.
Crouch said it was her grandson who was able to chase Wentworth down after the defendant attempted to flee the hospital parking lot on foot. The grandson was able to hold the suspect down until police arrived on the scene, she said.
