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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA 19-year-old man who pleaded guilty in the fatal shooting of a prominent Indianapolis doctor was sentenced to 50 years in prison after telling a judge that he “got railroaded.”
Devon Seats agreed in January to plead guilty to murder and three counts of burglary in the November 2017 slaying of Dr. Kevin Rodgers. He was sentenced Thursday after trying unsuccessfully last month to back out of that plea deal and proceed to trial instead.
A Marion County judge sentenced Seats to 50 years on the murder charge and eight-year terms on each of the burglary charges, to be served concurrently, The Indianapolis Star reported.
Seats had admitted breaking into Rodgers’ home and shooting him to death, according to court documents.
He told the court Thursday that he felt he was treated unfairly and was unhappy with his counsel.
“I didn’t have a fair shake because everything was against me. I got railroaded,” Seats said.
Three other co-defendants had previously pleaded guilty in connection with Rodgers’ slaying.
The 61-year-old Rodgers was the program director emeritus of the emergency medicine residency at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He was also the president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine.
Gov. Eric Holcomb posthumously awarded Rodgers the Sagamore of the Wabash, the state’s highest civilian honor, in May 2018, saying that he lived an “exemplary life.”
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