INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a 60-year prison sentence for a 21-year-old Gary man in the beating death of a 60-year-old woman.
The (Munster) Times reports the appeals court released its ruling Monday in the case of Ahkeem Scott-Manna. He was convicted and sentenced last year in the 2012 death of his neighbor, Dorothy Griffin, who died three days after she was attacked.
Scott-Manna argued in his appeal that Griffin identifying him in the attack shouldn't have been allowed as evidence at trial because it violated his right to confront witnesses against him. The appeals court ruled that the identification was admittible because it was needed to resolve an ongoing emergency situation.
The defense also argued that Scott-Manna's sentence was too long because he didn't mean to kill Griffin, among other reasons.
