A Gary man got a split term Wednesday after admitting he confined two people inside a Gary home.
Thomas West III, a.k.a. Sheldon Williams, 36, pleaded guilty Sept. 5 to two counts of criminal confinement. West is his legal name, his lawyer Mike Woods said.
He was sentenced to 228 days in the Lake County Jail, with the remainder of the two-year period in the Lake County Community Corrections Program, then another two years on probation.
Under the plea, prosecutors dismissed two rape counts, two counts of intimidation, and one count each of criminal confinement and strangulation.
Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar admitted the rape portion of the case collapsed after the two victims — an adult man and woman — were deposed.
Prosecutors could not “ethically proceed” with the sexual assault portion, he said.
Woods told Judge Natalie Bokota that Balcazar “understates” the “poor quality of the evidence.”
There was an “altercation” earlier in the house that day. Originally, the two victims told cops they were brother and sister. That turned out to be false, he said.
“They are not related at all,” Woods said.
Many of West’s prior eight felonies were largely due to substance abuse, the lawyer said.
West said it was a “wake up call” and he “refused to give up my freedom again.”
Gary Police responded on April 14 to a home in the city’s Midtown section where they heard a woman yelling and the male victim was down the street.
A man named “Cash” assaulted them, the victims alleged in the original criminal affidavit.
The victims told police West was drinking at the house that day. He left for a while, then went back for his glasses.
West went into a bedroom, shut the lights, took off his pants and asked the male victim if he wanted to make $500, the affidavit alleged. The man refused, then Cash threatened to kill him and forced him to perform a sex act.
He then went into the man’s female relative’s room, records state. The man ran out and called the police.
The female victim later told police that West earlier asked if she “wanted to make $100” for performing a sex act. She declined.
When he went into her room, he choked her, pinned her on the bed, then forced her to perform a sex act. Court records state that he told her to stop screaming, or the cops would find her “dead body.”
“You gonna do what … I say,” he told her.
As police arrived, he said to tell them they were “just playing around,” the affidavit alleges.
