Doyle
COLUMBUS, Ind. — Five months after being sentenced to 85 years in prison, convicted murderer Patrick Doyle was back in a Columbus courtroom to answer for the remaining local criminal cases filed against him.
On Feb. 17, it took a Bartholomew Circuit Court jury a little over an hour to find the 40-year-old Doyle guilty of the August 2021 killing of his live-in girlfriend, Heather Ann Steuver. The body of the 37-year-old victim was found in a shallow grave on the property of Nugent Sand and Gravel Co. two-and-a-half weeks after she disappeared.
In March, Judge Kelly Benjamin sentence Doyle to 65 years for murder and 20 additional years for being a habitual criminal. He had a total of 23 convictions at the time of his trial.
When he was sent to prison, Doyle still had three unresolved cases pending in Bartholomew County.
- 19 counts of possession of child pornography
- Violation of probation
- Battery by bodily waste
On Thursday, Doyle agreed to plead guilty to three of the 19 child pornography charges as Level 5 felonies. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kimberly Sexton-Yeager asked that Doyle receive five years on each of the three counts for a total of 15 years.
But since it is likely Doyle will spend the rest of his life in prison, Sexton-Yeager agreed the additional time can run concurrently with the murder sentence. That means the two different sentences are served at the same time.
For the complete story, see Saturday’s Republic.
