17 1/2 year sentence in Big O fatal shooting

Aprile Rickert, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·1 min read

Mar. 2—JEFFERSONVILLE — A man who pleaded guilty to the shooting death of a co-worker in Jeffersonville in 2019 has been sentenced in Clark County to 17 1/2 years.

Bobby Powell, 20, appeared for a hearing Monday in Clark County Circuit Court No. 4, where he was sentenced according to the plea agreement entered in late 2020 related to the death of co-worker James Winters Jr.

Clark County Circuit Court No. 4 Judge Vicki Carmichael accepted as part of the plea an amended charge to level 2 felony for voluntary manslaughter and a level 5 felony for carrying a handgun without a license within 500 feet of a school. Powell was sentenced to the 17 1/2 years for the level 2 charge, with all but 10 years of that suspended and on strict probation.

For the level 5 charge, he was sentenced to three years, to run concurrent with the first charge. He must serve at least the first seven years of the sentence in prison and then may be eligible for the final three years to be served on home incarceration.

Powell was arrested July 10, 2019 at his workplace on Allison Lane, near the scene of where he had shot James Winters Jr. who also had worked there. He was initially charged with murder, a level 3 felony for aggravated battery, a level 5 felony for carrying a handgun within 500 feet of a school and a class B misdemeanor for possession of marijuana.

If he had been convicted of the original murder charge, Powell could have been sentenced to 45 to 65 years for just that charge.