Young sentenced to 20 years

A Portland woman will serve two decades in prison after pleading guilty to a charge related to her son’s death.

Jennifer Young, 35, was sentenced Monday in Jay Circuit Court to 20 years in Indiana Department of Correction for a Level 1 felony charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in death.

Senior Judge Max Ludy, filling in for vacationing Jay Circuit Court Judge Brian Hutchison, accepted the plea and handed down the sentence as agreed to by the defense and prosecution. (In Indiana, a Level 1 felony charge carries a sentence of 20 to 40 years with an advisory sentence of 30 years.)

“Given the circumstances, I think this was the best outcome for both sides,” said Aaron Henderson, Young’s attorney. “There’s no win for anybody (here).”

As part of the plea agreement, two other charges against her –– a Level 5 felony for possession of methamphetamine and a Class C misdemeanor for possession of paraphernalia –– were dismissed.

Ludy indicated both sides had expressed they had evidentiary issues regarding the case.

Jay County prosecutor Wes Schemenaur explained after Monday’s hearing that while the initial autopsy determined 3-month-old Hayden Markle’s cause of death to be acute methamphetamine intoxication, the pathologist involved later also listed asphyxiation as a cause. (That detail came during a deposition in the case of Hayden Markle’s father Ryan Markle, who also faces a neglect of a dependent resulting in death charge.) Hayden Markle was sleeping with his mother at the time of his death.

The fact that the pathologist would not definitively say whether or not methamphetamines were the cause of death complicated the case for both the prosecution and the defense. That led to the plea agreement.

“Both Mr. Henderson and I, recognizing that a trial on that issue would be perhaps a coin flip, (believe) that this was a decent outcome,” Schemenaur said. “We compromised a little bit on the sentence. She gets a sure thing in the form of … 20 years, knowing that the result could have been a lot worse for her if she’d gone to trial. … It’s not the preferred outcome for me, but a conviction nonetheless and a significant sentence.”

Portland police and Jay Emergency Medical Service were called March 6, 2020, to an upstairs apartment at 221 S. Meridian St., Portland, where a 3-month-old child was not breathing. Hayden Markle was then transported to IU Health Jay, where he was later pronounced dead. His parents were arrested April 15 following an investigation by Portland police, Jay County Prosecutor’s Office, Indiana Department of Child Services, Jay County Coroner’s Office and Indiana State Police.

As part of Monday’s hearing, Schemenaur said had the case gone to trial he would have sought to prove that Young placed her son in a situation that endangered his life by possessing and/or consuming meth in the apartment.

Young, appearing in court via video conference, acknowledged that she was guilty of that crime.

She mostly offered one-word answers during the hearing, often given in between sobs. She also read a prepared statement.

“They say forgiveness is the key to feel better,” she read. “What happens when it’s yourself you need to forgive? … I will never be able to forgive myself. If I did not have drugs in my house and if I did not sleep with my son, he would still be here.”

She said she would live with the guilt for the rest of her life and that she would do anything to have her son back.

“I’m sorry that I failed you,” she said to her son. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about you.”

In sentencing Young, Ludy told her that she had gotten a good deal given the circumstances of the crime and her previous convictions. She pleaded guilty to dealing in methamphetamine, a Class A felony, along with two Class D felony counts of neglect of a dependent, in 2013. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of battery resulting in bodily injury in 2008.

“This is a real tragedy, especially when it involves a young child,” Ludy said.

He added that some people refer to doing drugs as a victimless crime. “But this is a prime example as to why drugs are not a victimless crime,” he said.

Young was given 396 days credit for time served. She was ordered to pay $185 in court costs.

A separate trial for Ryan Markle on the same charges is scheduled to begin Sept. 2.