Appeals Court overturns firearm conviction in Cooley murder case
The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned a lower-level firearms conviction in Richard Cooley’s murder case, citing the risk of double jeopardy.
Cooley, now 66, was sentenced to 55 years in July 2024 for the Feb. 13, 2023, shooting death of his wife, Dana Cooley, 47.
He was convicted of murder and pointing a firearm. In a 3-0 decision on Nov. 25, Appeals Judge Melissa May sent the case back to a lower court for resentencing. His prison term is not affected, since both felonies were sentenced concurrently.
His earliest release date is in 2064.
“This is a tale as old as time,” Deputy Prosecutor Harry Peterson said in his closing remarks at trial. “Man loves woman. Woman wants to leave man. Man gets mad.”
Around 10:45 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2023, Portage police responded to the 2100 block of Damon Street in connection with a man calling that he had accidentally shot his wife in the chest, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Defense lawyer Russell Brown said Dana Cooley was accidentally shot when she and her husband “tussled” over a firearm.
An autopsy confirmed that Dana Cooley died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, with the pathologist calling it a “hard contact wound,” meaning that the gun had been pressed against her chest, court records state. There was soot with no stippling and muzzle abrasion on the gunshot wound.
Richard Cooley can appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Yarbrough prison term upheld
The Court of Appeals also upheld a sentence for a Gary man who took an overdosed Griffith woman’s body to an abandoned building to burn.
Emmit Yarbrough, 58, got the maximum 10.5 years under a plea deal in May.
Deborah Leslie, 30, was found Sept. 23, 2022, in a torched-out house on the 5300 block of W. 8th Avenue in Gary. She was last seen alive on camera at a Hammond Motel 6.
Yarbrough and his late co-defendant Heather Richardson were the last people seen with her. Richardson died of a drug overdose in January 2024.
In a 3-0 decision, Appeals Judge Elizabeth Tavitas wrote the prison term was appropriate.
Yarbrough “declined” to help Leslie, afraid he was on probation, she wrote, and instead “looked for a place to dump her body.” He bought the wheelchair used to take her out, then “callously disposed of the body as if it were trash.”
He can also appeal.
His earlier release date is in August 2032.
Horton sentence upheld in Gary slaying
The Court of Appeals upheld Terry Horton’s conviction in a drive-by shooting.
Horton, 28, got 75 years in February for the murder and a gun enhancement in the May 7, 2022, death of Nehemiah Martin, 25. The man’s child was shot in the arm.
His earlier release date is in 2080.
In a 3-0 decision, Appeals Judge Paul Mathias wrote the evidence, including testimony from Martin’s fiancée and sister, was enough for a conviction.
The sentence was appropriate, he wrote.
“Horton, in an apparent act of road rage, fired multiple shots at a family traveling in a minivan, killing the father of three children right in front of the children,” Mathias wrote.
“He also shot a one-year-old child. Regarding his character, Horton has an established criminal history despite his age, and prior attempts at leniency did not deter the instant offense. We affirm his sentence accordingly.”
mcolias@post-trib.com