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Last updated on Monday, March 19, 2012
(INDIANAPOLIS) - The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the 65-year sentence imposed on a woman who shot and killed her boyfriend outside a Bedford apartment complex in 2009.
Susan May had contended that the "nature, extent and depravity" of her crime did not call for the maximum sentence of 65 years in prison. But the appeals court disagreed and let the maximum sentence stand.
Lawrence Superior Court I Judge Michael Robbins imposed that sentence after May was convicted of murder.
The court says May admitted and intended to murder Jason Joy. In their findings they say May knew what she was doing and acted calmly and deliberately in her actions.
May told police "I am sorry I had to do it, but not sorry that I did it."
ON Sept. 2, 2009, May, then 38, and Jason Joy, 39, lived together in a tent in the Hoosier National Forest, according to the court paperwork.
May, who was on probation for theft, reported to her probation officer that Joy was abusive toward her and had threatened to kill her and her children.
On Sept. 2, 2009, May called her ex-husband, Roger May Jr., and asked to borrow his gun. He refused. Later that day, Joy and Susan May went to Roger May's apartment on the west side of Bedford. May went into the building while Joy remained outside. Susan May took the gun and asked Roger May to call her probation officer.
"While walking out," the paperwork states, "May said, 'He isn't threatening me and my girls no more.'
"May 'started firing as she went out the front door.' She fired several shots at Joy. Joy fell face-first to the ground beside a car. May walked up beside Joy, aimed at his head and shot him again. After firing two shots, May began to walk away, then she stopped, turned around and fired two more shots at Joy. May shot Joy a total of eight times, with four of the shots producing injuries that would be fatal."
Roger May, who told authorities he was afraid of his ex-wife, called 911. After the shooting, Susan May returned to the apartment, took the phone and told police she had just shot someone. Then she went back outside and waited for police to arrive. She was arrested without incident.
May claimed that Joy had abused her, raped her, threatened to torture her and her children, and to kill her probation officer.
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