Tribune staff and wire reports
A federal judge has sentenced an Indianapolis man to 60 years in prison for his role in the robbery and slaying of a Hayden gun dealer.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker sentenced Darryl Worthen, 25, on Monday in connection with the September 2014 death of Scott Maxie, 60, at his shop, about 50 miles south of Indianapolis.
Worthen entered a plea agreement in July in U.S. District Court in New Albany.
Worthen, his brother, Dejuan Andre Worthen, 24, and their cousin, Darion Dashon Harris, 21, all were charged with four crimes — discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and theft of firearms — in connection with the death of Maxie.
Dejuan Worthen is awaiting trial on similar charges, and Harris is scheduled to stand trial on similar charges Dec. 28 in federal court. Neither has entered into any plea agreement at this time, according to Tim Horty, a spokesman with the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis.
Prosecutors say Darryl Worthen shot and killed Maxie with a handgun, and then the three stole firearms from the gun shop, returned to Indianapolis and sold some of the weapons while keeping some for themselves.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Glickman said Maxie’s family, which includes his father, a son and two sisters, who all live in Crothersville, have been kept informed of the plea agreement and are OK with it. Maxie also has another son who lives in California and a second daughter who lives in Jennings County with her mother.
On the afternoon of Sept. 21, 2014, Darryl Worthen entered the shop and shot Maxie, a Crothersville native, in the head with a Smith and Wesson .22-caliber handgun, according to court records.
He and the other two men stole 45 guns and a laptop computer, according to court documents.
The three men told police they tossed a computer and the weapon used to shoot Maxie into a cornfield near Maxie’s store, according to the probable cause affidavit. Darryl Worthen gave a number of the guns to another person to pay off a drug debt.
The three men later sold or disposed of the weapons before their arrest a day later. Eight of the weapons have been recovered, including one found during a drug investigation Feb. 26, according to court records.
The three men initially were charged with two counts of murder and robbery resulting in serious bodily injury to someone other than a defendant in Jennings Circuit Court, but those charges were dropped in March and refiled in U.S. District Court.
A federal conviction requires defendants to spend 85 percent of any sentence in prison instead of the 50 percent required by state law in Indiana, Horty said.
The plea agreement called for Darryl Worthen to plead guilty to two charges — discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death and robbery.
Glickman said the first charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison, while the robbery charge carries a potential sentence of 20 years.
Darryl Worthen was a contracted employee with FedEx who had delivered to Maxie’s store, Muscata-tuck Outdoors, located on the outskirts of Hayden, on other occasions, police said. He had made a delivery to the shop Sept. 19, 2014, two days before the murder and robbery.
The day before the crime occurred, Darryl Worthen, along with the two other men, visited Maxie’s store in the late afternoon, police said. That visit was caught on Maxie’s surveillance video.
In addition, Maxie’s friend, who stopped by the store around the same time, told police he noticed a green vehicle, which was used by the men, parked in the driveway.
Maxie, who had attended Crothersville High School and completed a trade school to become an electrician, was a lifelong resident of Jennings County. He retired from Cummins Engine Co. on July 1, 2009.