A Griffith man got 35 years Friday for shooting his ex’s new boyfriend — his one-time best friend — in the head and arm.
A jury convicted Aaron Belcher, 37, on Feb. 10 of attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon.
“He essentially lost his life,” Judge Salvador Vasquez said of the victim, Aaron Swelfer.
The case took several twists and turns — including when Vasquez rejected the first plea deal in August after he saw how severely debilitated Swelfer was. During that hearing, Swelfer next slowly walked to the witness stand with huge surgery scars visible on his head underneath his buzzed haircut. He was left blind in one eye and had a shattered memory.
Prosecutors then effectively spiked any follow-up deal — moves that Belcher’s defense lawyer Mike Woods previously said was due to their fears the victim’s family would go back to the press, saying a plea deal was too lenient.
Multiple police agencies responded just before 2 p.m. Aug. 2, 2023 to the 1100 block of E. Highway 330 in unincorporated Griffith for a reported assault with a firearm. They saw Gabrielle Shea, Belcher’s ex, screaming for help from a window. She said her ex-boyfriend, Belcher, took off in a red truck.
Officers found another Swelfer shot lying in front of a back housing unit, charges state. He was bleeding heavily, shot in the head and arm. He had a “bandage” wrapped around his head. The woman told police Belcher lived with her and was angry after they broke up two weeks earlier. That day, he reportedly argued with the new boyfriend in the kitchen before the shooting.
“You’re not going to break up my family,” Belcher reportedly told the man.
Swelfer said Belcher maced him before opening fire. Police learned Belcher had been in a relationship with another woman for a few months.
At Friday’s hearing, Ria Swelfer, his sister, said Belcher “never had an ounce of remorse” and that her 8-year-old niece had to deal with those consequences.
Uriah Swelfer said his brother spent 40 days in a coma, only surviving by the “grace of God.” He had undergone multiple brain surgeries to relieve pressure, had a bullet lodged in his head and had to relearn to walk, talk and eat.
His niece was left with a “combative father,” who was “cruel” and “mean.”
At trial, Belcher admitted he wrote a letter to Shea, his child’s mother, from jail saying he wished Swelfer had a slow, agonizing death.
Only a “monster” would do that, Uriah Swelfer said.
Woods said a lot of Belcher’s criminal past — for burglary and some drug possession cases — was linked to substance abuse, which led to his life unraveling. He got addicted to pain medication after he was shot in the past. He had to leave a nursing program.
The letter Uriah Swelfer referenced — presented at trial — was due to Belcher’s resentment that he hadn’t seen his child for a year while in jail, the lawyer said.
He argued his client acted in self-defense, even if the jury rejected that explanation.
Belcher claimed Swelfer threatened him with a knife about two days before the shooting. He went to the house to see his daughter and said it looked like Swelfer and Shea were having a party. Belcher said he was concerned about his daughter, so he and Shea began arguing.
Belcher had “no choice” but to go to trial as all avenues for a plea deal closed, Woods said.
He asked for 22 years.
Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson asked for 35 years, arguing Swelfer would “never been the same again.”
Belcher was a “drug addict,” and “now he’s a violent drug addict.”
The letter couldn’t be ignored, Anderson said, calling it “so disgusting.”
Belcher apologized in court to his family.
It was “never supposed to happen that way,” he said. “I was in fear for my life.”
He later added he forgave “the people who were a part of this.”
Vasquez said Swelfer was left to live as a debilitated man — unlike a murder.
“That’s what makes this so much worse,” he said.
Would this have ended up better if Belcher didn’t have a weapon, Vasquez asked, but we don’t know.
After the verdict, Ria Swelfer said Belcher “did get a proper sentencing.”
When he was “spraying bullets,” it could have struck Belcher’s own daughter, who was in the house.
Now, her family was left with the uncertainty of his health, for example, if he fell if that could aggravate the bullet still stuck in his head and potentially kill him.
Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce tried the case with Anderson. Co-counsel Maryrachel Durso assisted Woods.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
