A former Kentucky man was sentenced to 20 years Tuesday under a plea deal in connection with a 1994 Gary cold case murder.
Gerald L. Smith, now 62, previously of Madisonville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty April 30 for Class A felony rape in the June 17, 1994, death of Gloria Hansell, 69.
No family spoke in court.
Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar said Hansell was attacked in her own home. Court records show Smith had dated one of Hansell’s daughters decades earlier and was back in town.
Defense lawyer Angela Jones said Smith’s health was now “poor” and it would “likely be a life sentence.” He was remorseful, and was on drugs when it happened, she said.
“I’m sorry for what I did,” Smith said in brief comments.
Judge Natalie Bokota accepted the plea deal, noting it happened three decades ago, he had no criminal history since then and was “very young” at the time.
Smith was arrested in October 2022 after a DNA hit.
Hansell was a widow who lived alone at 3966 Buchanan St. and used an in-home oxygen machine due to poor health, a release stated.
On June 17, 1994, Hansell was raped and found strangled with an electrical cord, according to Post-Tribune archives.
A witness had told police that Smith, who was 32 when the incident occurred, had offered to cut her grass for money, but she declined, according to the release.
Hansell had also told the witness that Smith had tried to kiss her neck inside her house, which was unwanted and made her uncomfortable, according to the release.
The break in the case happened in 2020, when the FBI’s Gang Response Investigative Team requested that Indiana State Police Lowell Regional Laboratory reexamine evidence collected in this case, the release states, and Smith was developed as a suspect from the analysis of male DNA found in Hansell’s sexual assault kit, which was collected at her autopsy.
Smith was one of two original suspects, according to court records. A witness said he dated one of Hansell’s daughters when they were teenagers.
He “moved around a lot,” went to California, then returned to Gary about five years later, a few weeks before Hansell’s death.
