A Crown Point man avoided a prison term Friday for a plea deal in a 2021 shooting and later exposing himself to a McDonald’s co-worker in an unrelated incident.
Devyn D. Sandifer, 21, pleaded guilty to battery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 5 felony, and battery resulting in bodily injury, a misdemeanor.
For the shooting, he was sentenced to 532 days in prison, however, that was canceled out by time already spent on home detention.
Sandifer will have to complete at least 75% of his remaining sentence — 22 months in the Lake County Community Corrections Program and 1.5 years probation.
For the groping case, he will serve another year separately on probation.
Court documents show Sandifer, then 18, knocked out the front tooth of a male just before 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2021, on the 7700 block of Grant Street in Merrillville.
The victim said he left work to surprise his girlfriend and saw her getting out of a car with Sandifer. When he was talking to her, Sandifer sucker-punched him, knocking his tooth out and they started fighting.
Sandifer left. Soon after, his car came back and someone fired eight shots at the victim, hitting him in the thigh.
Crown Point Police were called on June 2, 2023, to McDonald’s, 501 E. 109th Ave. where the general manager recounted the 16-year-old girl’s story.
Sandifer had kissed her, exposed his penis, grabbed her neck and slapped her buttocks as she repeatedly told him to stop. The incident was captured on camera.
“Let’s go to the bathroom and have sex,” he told her, or asked her to perform a sex act, she told police.
mcolias@post-trib.com