NW Indiana man gets 58 years in friend’s killing

CROWN POINT, Ind. — A northwest Indiana man has been sentenced to 58 years in prison in the shooting death of a friend he said he shot in self-defense.

A Lake County, Iniana, judge sentenced 19-year-old Aqueeli Walton on Friday in the July 2013 killing of 18-year-old Cameron Sanders of Hammond.

Defense attorney John Cantrell had argued for a sentence of 45 years, noting that the Hammond man was 17 years old at the time of the shooting.

Earlier this month, Lake County Criminal Judge Salvador Vasquez found Walton in contempt of court for his outburst after jurors found him guilty of murder in Sanders’ killing.

During Friday’s sentencing, Vasquez told Walton his “character is absolutely irresponsible at many levels.”