Lake County Prosecutors said Friday they would file to withdraw a second plea agreement offered to Aaron Belcher.
Belcher, 36, of unincorporated Griffith, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery for shooting his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in August 2023.
Deputy Prosecutors Keith Anderson and Jacqueline Altpeter said that two supervisors declined to greenlight the agreement. Further information was not immediately available.
Anderson, Altpeter and defense lawyer Mike Woods went to the bench for a private conference with Judge Pro Tempore Matt Fech with Woods appearing visibly upset the deal was in jeopardy.
A new hearing is set for Monday before Judge Salvador Vasquez.
Records show the plea was formally filed in court Thursday. It called for Belcher to plead guilty to aggravated battery with a gun enhancement with a total 20-year sentence.
Vasquez rejected Belcher’s prior plea deal for an 11-year sentence on Aug. 8 after the victim appeared in court. He had huge visible surgery scars on his head, spoke of his damaged memory and other injuries including blindness in one eye.
Prosecutors admitted then they hadn’t been able to contact him and didn’t realize how bad his injuries were. The judge ordered the man to testify in a deposition.
Multiple police agencies responded just before 2 p.m. Aug. 2, 2023 to the 1100 block of E. Highway 330 in unincorporated Griffith for a reported assault with a firearm.
They saw a woman screaming for help from a window. She said her ex-boyfriend, Belcher, took off in a red truck. Officers found another man shot lying in front of a back housing unit, charges state. He was bleeding heavily, shot in the head and arm. He had a “bandage” wrapped around his head.
The woman told police Belcher lived with her and was angry after they broke up two weeks earlier. That day, he reportedly argued with the new boyfriend in the kitchen before the shooting.
“You’re not going to break up my family,” Belcher reportedly told the man.
The victim said Belcher maced him before opening fire. Police learned Belcher had been in a relationship with another woman for a few months.
