A Gary father was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in prison in a plea deal for two criminal cases, including accidentally killing his son and wounding a second man outside a gas station.
Gregory Turner, 38, pleaded guilty March 3 to reckless homicide and aggravated battery. He also admitted to battery resulting in moderate bodily injury in a separate jail assault case.
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His family called it an unintended tragedy.
Judge Natalie Bokota told Turner he had a hand in what happened, noting she had given him breaks in the past.
“I was the one who released you and now your son is dead,” she said later in the hearing.
Turner said he would appeal.
Gary Police responded just after midnight Aug. 11, 2024, to a Citgo gas station, 901 E. 5th Street.
The surviving victim told police he was waiting for a food pickup nearby when he heard someone call his name and saw a man in a mask with a gun – later identified as Turner’s son, Jody Stallworth, 17.
The man in the mask said, “What you on? … what’s in those pockets,” with what he assumed was the intent to rob him. The man struck Stallworth and started fighting with him, gaining control of the gun, tried to return fire and fled the scene, the affidavit states.
Turner said during the hearing when he opened fire, he was trying to protect his son.
The other victim was shot in the upper left side of his chest and in the jaw. Stallworth was shot in the neck and later died.
Her son’s death was a “big change for me,” Ramona Stallworth said in court Thursday. He “wouldn’t be happy” over the prospect of his father going to prison.
Prosecutors played the gas station footage.
Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Lanham said she had “potential concerns” that she wouldn’t be able to prove a murder case. The reckless homicide plea was “appropriate.”
Turner had an extensive criminal history with three misdemeanor and six felony convictions, she said. He also shot toward the gas station and could have hurt someone inside, she argued.
After the shooting, he got Jody into the vehicle, but left the other victim behind. He didn’t take his son to the hospital and fled, she said. He was arrested in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in December 2024.
She asked for a maximum 18.5-year term.
Defense lawyer Casey McCloskey said it was a “horrible” case. He noted over a dozen loved ones were sitting in the audience.
Turner’s son “gets into a fight” and he has a decision to make, the lawyer argued. He fired warning shots to “scare people away.”
The only reason his client was there was to “get a Coke.”
There was “no greater punishment” than “losing your son in such a manner,” he said.
In jail, Turner took over 400 classes and was working on himself. He was “one of the most remorseful clients” and wanted to be a carpenter at some point.
In court, Turner said he was “very remorseful.” He took his son on a gas station run after work and didn’t see the teen get into the vehicle with an AR-style weapon.
Bokota later dismissed this.
It was the “craziest thing,” Turner said of the shooting, adding he ran, too, when he heard shots. Then, he reconsidered.
“I panicked,” he said. “(I couldn’t) just let someone kill my son in front of my face.”
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He asked Bokota for “leniency,” he said. “I do take care of my kids. I ain’t that bad of a person.”
Turner has been in court “before me for many years,” Bokota said. “I have repeatedly shown you leniency and here we are today.”
She noted the sentence was 15 years for shooting the surviving man, five years for Stallworth’s death, served concurrently — or 15 years total — then another two years for the “mob” jail beating in February 2025.
Your son got into the vehicle with a gun “half his size,” Bokota said. As a convicted felon, Turner was barred by law from carrying a gun.
“No one forced you to carry a gun that day,” she said.
[email protected]; Post-Tribune archives contributed.