A Gary man was sentenced to 24 years Wednesday after he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to killing his brother inside the man’s barbershop.
Denzel Lackey, 33, admitted on May 22 to voluntary manslaughter. The sentence was agreed in the deal.
A charging affidavit alleges a video showed Lackey pulling out a gun on July 14, 2022, at Lackey’s Barber Shop, 2057 Grant St., inside the stairwell at Corey “C-Fresh” Lackey, 36. The two fought, then Denzel stepped back, looked at the camera, and shot Corey once in the head.
A sentencing hearing in July was delayed for missing paperwork proving mental health conditions so Lackey would get specialized treatment in prison.
Defense lawyer Scott King said Denzel Lackey was hospitalized for a mental health condition after a 2012 arrest, but the hospital had destroyed those records after a decade. Sometime after, Lackey went off his meds, King said.
On Wednesday, he presented a packet of records from the Lake County Jail. That could be confirmed by Lackey’s family, he said.
Joann James, the Lackey brothers’ mother, testified Denzel had been institutionalized in the past. After he was put on medications he was “almost like a zombie,” she said.
Do you think the shooting was due to a mental illness, Judge Salvador Vasquez asked her.
“Yes, sir,” she replied.
Denzel said Corey was his best friend, King said. It was a combination of mental illness, self-medicated with illegal drugs, including PCP, he said.
It was like “throwing gas on a fire,” King said.
Deputy Prosecutor Jacquelyn Altpeter said the killing clearly “devastated the family,” but they preferred dealing with King, not prosecutors.
Lackey apologized to his family and the court.
“I know I needed help,” he said. “I wasn’t taking the help I was given.”
“Imagine how different life would be for you,” Vasquez told him.
“Nobody knows what happened but you,” he later added.
mcolias@post-trib.com
