Jeremy Sweet
A bond reduction hearing for Jeremy Sweet, accused of felony neglect in the drowning death of his 2-year-old daughter Emma in November, has been rescheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday in Bartholomew Superior Court 1.
The hearing had been postponed earlier this month after the jail cellblock where Sweet is being held was locked down due to multiple cases of COVID-19.
According to court records, a change of plea hearing in the case is scheduled for 4 p.m. April 4 and a trial is set for 8:30 a.m. May 10.
Sweet, 39, of 1415 N. County Road 850E, is charged with Level 1 felony neglect of a dependent resulting in death and other counts, accused of intentionally placing Emma in a situation that endangered her life and health and resulted in her death.
Sweet also is facing a Level 6 felony charge of possession of a hypodermic syringe, which investigators said was found on his person by paramedics when he was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital on Nov. 26. CRH paramedics located a syringe and an empty corner cut baggie (drug paraphernalia) on Sweet’s person, the probable cause affidavit states.
Sweet also faces a habitual offender enhancement that stems from a 2007 conviction of operating an illegal drug lab, as well as a March 2016 conviction of dealing in methamphetamine, according to court records. If convicted of all charges, Sweet could be sentenced to more than 62 years in prison with the habitual offender enhancement.
He is being held in the Bartholomew County Jail in lieu of $1.2 million bond (or 10% cash). He was arrested Thanksgiving Day weekend after Emma’s body was recovered from the East Fork White River, downstream from where hunters days earlier had found him in the river in his submerged truck.
