Winfield man to enter work release program early after boy shot himself with unsecured gun

A Lake County judge on Friday moved up the date when a Winfield man is scheduled to be transferred to a work release program from state prison after a child fatally shot himself with an unsecured gun inside the man’s home in 2017.

Brett A. Beatty, 33, accepted a 5-year sentence last year after Eric Cole, 4, a boy he was helping to babysit in his house in 2017 found the loaded gun under a bed.

He agreed to plead guilty in April 2021 to reckless homicide, a level 5 felony, and criminal recklessness, a class B misdemeanor. His sentence was a mix of two years in prison, two years in Lake County Corrections Alternative Placement program and one year on probation with the option to reevaluate his sentence after his first year.

At his modification hearing Friday, Judge Natalie Bokota said she would not change the term’s length, but moved when Beatty is transferred to the Lake County Community Corrections’ Kimbrough Work Release Program to late July or early August. It was previously scheduled for November.

His lawyers Paul Stracci and J. Michael Woods said Beatty was a good man who made at tragic mistake, arguing his family and loved ones where impacted by his absence. He had a spotless record as an inmate and argued he could better serve the community instead of sitting in state prison in Westville.

Prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz said Cole’s original term was appropriate and upheld on appeal. Cole’s mother and her family “vehemently” opposed any change to his sentence, Jatkiewicz said.

Beatty and then-girlfriend Rachel Griffin watched Eric Cole, 4, and the boy’s 8-year-old sister for the first time Aug. 5, 2017, at their house on the 7700 block of East 120th Avenue, so that the children’s mother could go to her shift at work, a probable cause affidavit states. Kandice Cole worked with Beatty and Griffin at McDonald’s, and Beatty was Cole’s supervisor, according to the affidavit.

Beatty left to get a haircut, while Griffin was in the bathroom when the child found the gun, charges alleged.

Eric’s sister said she was coloring but went to wait outside the door for Griffin to finish so she could use the bathroom, according to the affidavit. As she was waiting, the girl heard a “boom” that she thought was “a balloon,” the affidavit states. The two found Eric next to a black .40-caliber Smith & Wesson that Beatty said he had left in a case under the bed, according to the affidavit. Beatty said he “thought that it was unloaded,” the affidavit states.

The boy was taken to St. Anthony’s Franciscan Health in Crown Point where he died, court records show. Griffin and Beatty were both charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death is a level 1 felony. Her case was dismissed June 24, 2021.

Beatty appealed his sentence in July 2021. His lawyers argued the term was an “abuse of discretion”. Beatty had no previous criminal record.

Lawyers wrote Beatty “was not raised around firearms” and never used a gun before. He only bought it to “fulfill the wishes of his dying friend” to go target shooting, and staff at the range had to load the gun, due to his inexperience, according to court documents.

After target shooting, he never used the gun again, lawyers wrote. After moving into the Winfield house two weeks before the child was shot, the gun was left under the bed in its case, they said. His lawyers called for his sentence to be cut to three years — one year in Lake County’s Community Corrections program and the rest on probation.

A lawyer for the Indiana Attorney General’s Office argued he was sentenced within guidelines of his plea.

“Beatty’s reckless behavior caused the death of a young child in the presence of his sister and long term emotional harm to the family,” Indiana Deputy Attorney General Myriam Serrano wrote.

“I don’t know how I wake up every morning,” Kandice Cole said at Beatty’s sentencing, according to court documents. “When you wake up and you constantly feel the physical heartache and the pain in your chest, the pain of not having someone that you birthed with you.

“It is not in the natural order of things for a parent to bury their four-year-old,” she said. “I think of all the things I’ll never get to experience with him. No kindergarten. Not putting a tooth under his pillow. No riding a big-boy bike. Never teaching him how to drive.”

The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected Beatty’s appeal in March, writing the sentence was appropriate and “his irresponsible gun ownership resulted in a truly horrific tragedy.”