Judge Salvador Vasquez wanted to know what made Cardia Combs go from no arrests to getting charged with killing a man driving away from him.
“I’m just asking,” the judge said.
“I’m not sure why,” Combs responded.
Combs, 29, got 12 years in the Jan. 23 2022 death of Gabriel Akins, 28, of Gary. He will also be on parole for the rest of his life.
He faced up to 16 years after signing a plea deal in May for voluntary manslaughter, under sudden heat (i.e. provoked).
He was charged originally with murder. Once he was shot, Akins crashed his vehicle into an auto yard’s chain-link fence, court records show.
Defense lawyer Cipriano Rodriguez said afterward he didn’t think Combs would appeal.
During the hearing Friday, Rodriguez argued Combs had no criminal history and was “extremely” remorseful.
He asked for a split sentence, or up to 10 years in prison.
Deputy Prosecutor Jacquelyn Altpeter asked for 16 years, saying they already gave him a break in the plea for never running afoul of the cops before.
Combs shot at victim Gabriel Akins “four to five” times through the back windshield, she estimated, saying different witnesses gave different numbers. One bullet fatally struck Akins in the head.
In court, Combs apologized, saying he was “sorry for everything that happened.”
The murder case against Comb’s co-defendant Aaliyah Collins, the alleged driver, was dismissed last month.
Gary police were called at 10:16 a.m. on Jan. 23, 2022, to King’s Auto Yard, 2642 W. 5th Ave., where Akins was found slumped over in the driver’s seat of a black Jeep. The engine was still running.
A witness told police they were out drinking earlier, when they returned home around 10 p.m. Akins left the house and called about 11:30 p.m. to say he was returning.
A relative said he was with Akins around 12:40 a.m. in a separate car at a Clark gas station, 2725 W. 5th Ave., when a man in black clothes started shooting at them, the affidavit states. They took off in different directions and he believed Akins could have been hit by gunfire, charges state.
Security footage from the gas station showed Akins putting air into his tire, then pulling around toward the front when a gray Chevrolet Malibu with damage to a back passenger door pulled up. Two people got out from the back seat, both wearing face masks.
One wore a silver-and-black jacket, while the other had a black hooded sweatshirt. The driver – later identified as Collins – wore a black-and-white jacket with an “8 ball” on the back, charges state.
She stepped out briefly, then got back into the driver’s seat. One man went into the store, then returned. The man in the sweatshirt walked the “perimeter,” appearing to wait for the other customers to leave. The men then came back to the car. The man with the sweatshirt pulled a semi-automatic gun from his waist and fired at the Jeep, charges state.
Akins tried to drive away but appeared to lose control as he got near the auto yard.
A witness told police they “put it all together” after hearing that Combs shot at a gas station and learning about Akins’ death, alleging Akins and others sold marijuana at the gas station, charges state.
mcolias@post-trib.com
