A Jasper County man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for his role in a Kouts shooting, while the woman charged with instigating the crime was given an April 25 hearing date.
Before Porter County Superior Judge Mary Harper sentenced Joseph T. Potts, 32, of the North 17300 block of County Road 700 West, for his Feb. 7 plea to Level 1 burglary causing serious bodily injury. The victim, Jeffrey Miller, gave a statement blasting Potts and the mother of the victim’s children, Andrea Renee Wert, 36, of the East 400 block of County Road 1000 South near Kouts.
Miller broke into tears as he described his children’s state after they saw him severely beaten and shot in the leg.
Miller said he also had feared for his children on Sept. 6 when Potts and his alleged accomplice threatened them if Miller didn’t open his safe in the barn.
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Potts later faced Miller and apologized a few times in his official statement.
When they couldn’t break into the safe the night before, and they returned the next night and the men forced him to open the safe through beatings and threats and eventually shot him in his left leg as he tried to run off, according to the charging information.
At his Feb. 7 plea hearing, Potts implicated Kackos as the one who shot Miller.
Andrea Wert and her twin sister, Leslie Alison Wert, 36, of the 300 block of West Division Road in Valparaiso, had allegedly recruited him and Chad Bryant Kackos, 36, of the North 10600 block of County Road 1100 West near DeMotte, to steal the money in the safe, estimated at $170,000, according to court records. The Wert sisters are charged with Level 1 felony burglary causing serious bodily injury, Level 2 felony robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and Level 5 felony burglary.
Kackos is charged with Level 1 felony burglary causing serious bodily injury, Level 2 felony robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and Level 3 felony criminal confinement, is due to appear in court on Friday and set for a trial to start April 24.
James D. Wolf Jr. is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.