By Emma Rausch
emma@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH COUNTY,IN A North Manchester man tied to a 2015 rural Wabash County shooting has accepted a plea deal for the charges.
Joshua L. Wright, 25, pled guilty to felony aggravated battery on Wednesday, July 27, for charges stemming from a shooting at a residence on CR 950 N. on March 4, 2015.
According to a Wabash County Sheriff’s Department press release, Wright called the department at approximately 3:49 p.m. informing officers of the 2015 shooting.
A preliminary investigation showed Wright was in an altercation with his great-uncle when he retrieved a .22 caliber rifle from his bedroom and shot his great-uncle in the face.
Wright was preliminarily charged with felony attempted murder, felony aggravated battery and illegal possession of precursors.
On July 27, Wright also pled guilty to felony burglary in a secondary case that had charges stemming from several 2012 North Manchester and Wabash City police department investigations.
Officers tied Wright to two North Manchester investigations for auto theft and trespassing in November 2012 as well as a Wabash Big R burglary in December 2012, in which seven handguns were stolen.
Wright was initially charged with felony auto theft, felony burglary, felony theft and misdemeanor trespassing.
Earlier this year, on June 18, Wright was convicted of the felony burglary and felony theft of Manchester Intermediate School in 2011.
According to a press release from Prosecutor William C. Hartley, Jr.:
The allegations in the case were that during the early morning hours of May 8, 2011, Wright broke a window, entered the school and stole a laptop computer.
During the course of the burglary, he apparently cut himself and left behind a flashlight with blood on it.
Four years after the break-in, law enforcement received an investigative tip linking Wright to the case. After obtaining a search warranty, Wright’s blood was submitted for comparison to the blood found on the flashlight and the results of that tied him to the burglary.
On July 18, Wright was sentenced to four years in Indiana Department of Corrections for burglary. The Court vacated judgment on the conviction of theft as it was the lesser included offense.
Wright’s sentencing hearing for the aggravated battery and burglary charges is set for Aug. 22 at 1 p.m. at the Wabash Circuit Court.