A Hammond man will likely avoid prison time for his admitted role in trashing a Hammond church in 2019.
Nicholas Reding, 25, pleaded guilty in April to burglary, a level 5 felony. The agreement called for potentially up to three years in prison.
Instead, a Lake County judge, saying the damage was “just ridiculous,” gave him one year in the Lake County Community Corrections program and a second year on probation.
“I still believe you can end up being a productive member of society,” Judge Gina Jones told him. “Hopefully you will have learned something from this.”
Reding and co-defendant Aaron James Vanoppens broke into Faith United Church of Christ, 3030 175th St., on May 29, 2019, and caused $56,000 worth of damage, according to charging documents and prosecutors.
The extensive damage included several religious relics from the early 1900s “in pieces” and a vintage church organ “toppled,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Patrick Grindlay said. The damage was covered by insurance, he said.
More Top Picks Best Refrigerators Without Ice Makers
A church elder wrote in a letter co-signed by 34 members that the damage was shocking and “unnecessary.”
Prosecutors asked for two years in the Indiana Department of Corrections and a third year served in Lake County Corrections.
Reding’s lawyer Samuel Berkman said the incident was alcohol-fueled and “very shameful.” He asked for three years on probation.
Vanoppens, whom Berkman called the “ringleader” was sentenced to three years in Lake County Corrections in April, which spared him a prison sentence.