Man found guilty but mentally ill in Indiana officer’s killing gets time served in officer’s death

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man found guilty but mentally ill in the killing an Indianapolis police officer has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting his then-girlfriend but to time served for killing the officer.

Elliahs Dorsey, 31, of Indianapolis, was found guilty but mentally ill of reckless homicide in February of killing Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Breann Leath in 2020 as she responded to a domestic violence call.

A jury also found him guilty but mentally ill of criminal recklessness regarding the three other officers who responded to that call, and guilty but mentally ill in the attempted murder and confinement of his then-girlfriend, Aisha Brown.

A Marion County judge sentenced Dorsey on Thursday to just over five years for killing Leath but gave him credit for good behavior and counted the years already spent in jail since his arrest as time served, The Indianapolis Star reported.

The judge sentenced Dorsey to 40 years, with 15 years suspended, for shooting Brown as she ran from an apartment on the city’s east side. He will serve 25 years in the state Department of Correction and be required to spend 15 years on probation with specific mental health treatment requirements following his release.

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In January, the judge granted the state’s motio n to dismiss death penalty charges after doctors found Dorsey to be mentally ill.

Chief Chris Bailey of the IMPD said in a statement he is “deeply disappointed” by Dorsey’s sentencing, saying it “fails to deliver the justice that Officer Leath, her son, and her family deserve.” He added that Dorsey also tried to kill other officers and Brown.

Mayor Joe Hogsett said that as a former federal prosecutor he respects the justice system.

“However, as the Mayor of the City of Indianapolis, as the chief elected official to whom IMPD directly reports, as a father, and as a member of this community, I am shocked and terribly disappointed in the decision of the court today,” he said in a statement.

Leath, 24, and three other officers were responding to a domestic violence call in April 2020 involving Dorsey when Leath was shot twice in the head through the door of an Indianapolis apartment, police said.