JACOB MICHUDA - 4 yo - Bluffton IN

Charge in death of boy on pier is now murder

August 07, 2011

BLUFFTON — A northeastern Indiana man accused in the shooting death of a 4-year-old boy fishing with his father now faces a murder charge.

Wells County prosecutors initially charged 46-year-old Bruce Pond, Ossian, with reckless homicide, saying a murder charge wasn’t expected because of the difficulty of proving Pond intended to kill Jacob “Jake” Michuda.

But The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne reports that prosecutors upgraded that charge to murder because investigators now believe the boy’s killing was a “knowing” or “intentional” act.

Jake was fishing July 22 off a pier with his father when, authorities say, Pond fired a shot from his rifle at them because a light they were using bothered him. The boy was struck in the head and died at a Fort Wayne hospital.

http://www.indy.com/articles/crime-courts/thread/charge-in-death-of-boy-on-pier-is-now-murder

Published: December 17, 2011 3:00 a.m.
Slaying of boy on pier cut to manslaughter
Rebecca S. Green | The Journal Gazette

BLUFFTON – After he fired two shots into the Wells County darkness on July 23, Bruce Pond looked over at his son and a family friend and said, “that will teach them.”

A few hundred yards away, 4-year-old Jacob “Jake” Michuda fell silently to the ground, the bullet from a .22-caliber rifle having pierced his brain.

Pond, 47, was angry about a light on the neighboring property, so he fired into the dark. Inside a nearby house, Jake’s mother heard the gunshots and a ping. Five minutes later, she heard people yelling and saw Jake in his father’s arms.

That light on the pier reflected off the pond in rural Wells County so Jake, his father and friends could see and better attempt to catch catfish. Jake stood between his father and a family friend just a little after 11 p.m. The boy had never seen a catfish before, so his father took him fishing, according to court documents.

On Friday afternoon, Pond pleaded guilty to a single charge of felony voluntary manslaughter, admitting that he acted in “sudden heat” when he got the gun, complete with a scope, sat down and fired off a pair of shots in the “general direction” of the light.

After he fired the shots and heard the wail of emergency workers rushing to the scene, he pushed the gun toward his son, telling him to hide it, according to court documents.

As he waited for Friday’s hearing to begin, Pond fidgeted and squirmed in his chair. At times, when asked questions by Wells Circuit Judge Kenton Kiracofe, Pond seemed to become a little emotional.

As a result of the plea agreement, should Kiracofe accept it, charges of murder and reckless homicide will be dismissed when Pond is sentenced early next year.

Kiracofe asked Pond’s attorney whether he saw any benefit of proceeding to trial.

“No, your honor,” Pond’s attorney said.

When he killed Jake, Pond had a few days left on a term of unsupervised probation from a suspended sentence in a domestic battery conviction in Allen County.

That sentence may be revoked, according to court records.

According to court records, Pond has a history of arrests for domestic battery, invasion of privacy, perjury, and drunken driving.

If Kiracofe accepts the plea agreement, Pond’s total sentence will be no more than 40 years.

As part of the plea agreement, Wells County prosecutors will obtain a letter from federal prosecutors promising that no federal charges will be filed against Pond for the gun, which he was barred from possessing as a convicted domestic batterer.

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20111217/LOCAL03/312179991/1039/LOCAL03