NOBLE COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) - A man convicted of murder in the 1975 killing of a North Webster teenager – a case that went cold until 2023 – will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
A judge in Noble Circuit Court handed Fred Bandy Jr. a life sentence with the possibility of parole. That's in accordance with the statute as it stood in 1975, before a sentence of life without parole existed in Indiana.
Laurel Jean Mitchell was 17 when she disappeared decades ago and was found in the Elkhart River. An autopsy showed she drowned, but had struggled. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Both Bandy and another man, John Wayne Lehman, were arrested in February 2023 in connection to the homicide. Advancements in lab technology allowed investigators to connect the two to Mitchell’s killing.
Lehman, 68, was sentenced Oct. 11 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.
Bandy was found guilty of murder at a bench trial Oct. 8. He waived his right to a jury trial in September.
Because Bandy had to be sentenced by 1975 standards - even his charge of "first-degree murder" is outdated - the potential outcomes were either life with the possibility of parole or the death sentence, Noble County Prosecutor James Mowery explained. The state's death penalty as of 1975 was declared unconstitutional at some point afterward, ruling out that option and leaving Bandy with the sentence he received.