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BROWNSTOWN, Ind. — A teenager who pleaded guilty to killing one man and wounding another in a series of 2006 Indiana highway sniper shootings was sentenced Thursday to 42 years in prison.
Defense attorneys tried to portray 18-year-old Zachariah Blanton as troubled and the victim of teasing, but the judge said his emotional problems were no excuse for killing someone he’d never met.
Prosecutors said Blanton fired his hunting rifle into Interstate 65 traffic on July 23, 2006, from an overpass about 60 miles south of Indianapolis, killing 40-year-old Jerry L. Ross of New Albany.
An Iowa man traveling in another pickup truck also was injured.
