FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO): A Fort Wayne man accused for a role in a shooting that killed a man back in 2016 was sentenced to 16 years Friday, but won’t spend any of it behind bars.
Devyn Yancey, 21, previously pleaded guilty to aggravated battery last month instead of murder in connection to the shooting death of Brian Quintana at the Woodbridge Apartments.
However, our Partners in News at ABC 21 report that 14 years and 182 days of his sentence are suspended and four years will be spent on probation. He already served the one year and 183 days in jail he was sentenced to while awaiting his sentencing.
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Yancey was originally charged with murder and robbery in the case. However, that trial ended with an acquittal on the robbery charges and a hung jury on the murder charge.
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Previously, Kevin Hamilton was sentenced to 74 years for shooting and killing Quintana.
The Allen County Prosecutor’s Office released the following statement:
Devyn Yancey pled guilty to Aggravated Battery, a Level 3 Felony, on August 23, 2020. Today, Mr. Yancey was sentenced to 16 years; 1 year and 183 days executed and 14 years 182 days suspended. After the executed portion of the sentence, Mr. Yancey will be placed on probation for 4 years.
Since the Defendant was not the shooter, our best opportunity for a conviction was the Felony Murder charge. Given the jury verdict in January we were forced to dismiss that charge. Between the last trial and the recent trial date we fought to put ourselves in the best possible position to win the remaining count. Ultimately given the remaining available evidence we felt that we had a chance to succeed at trial but that there was significant risk in trying the case. We made a strategic decision to enter into this plea.
We hurt for the victim’s family. We spoke to them before the Defendant pled guilty and we cannot imagine what this process has been like for them. We respect and in many ways share their frustration.
Our office charges and tries hard cases. While this result is not what we hoped for when we filed the case, the record shows how hard we fought.
