INDIANAPOLIS — Frustrated and exhausted is how a mother felt after learning her son's killer won't be put on trial for his murder, but instead was offered a plea deal.
Tonya Arnett is heartbroken after learning the fate of her son's alleged killer - 27-year-old Briana Wilson.
"She said they offered her a plea bargain for manslaughter, not murder. I don't know what to say," Arnett said. "I was stunned."
For two years since her 28-year-old son, Maurice Martinez, was killed over an argument about stolen money at Wilson's apartment on the south side. She was told they'd put the woman on trial for murder.
But the day the trial was supposed to begin, Arnett received a phone call. The woman who is accused of shooting her son - a father of four - three times, would not get a trial.
"Very disappointed. I felt deceived," Arnett said. "The system I felt like failed."
Call 6 Investigates obtained data showing only three percent of major felony cases actually make it to a jury in Marion County. Majority of which result in a plea deal. Others get dismissed or end in a bench trial, which allows a judge to make the final verdict.
"It's not even the fact that I would want her to do more time. Because I feel like she's already suffering. She is," the mother said. "But it's just the unfairness about the whole justice system."
In Arnett's case, the prosecutor told her the woman might get off with a lighter sentence if she went before a jury and there were problems with witness testimony.
The amount of time Wilson will serve has yet to be determined.
Arnett believe the process isn't good enough, and wants better for families like hers.
"If we stand together and fight maybe something can be changed," Arnett said.
RTV6 also reached out to the Marion County Prosecutors office with questions regarding how and why they decide to enter into plea agreements.
They say their office resolves 30,000 cases each year. Not all resolutions by plea involve dismissing charges and, in some agreements, a defendant may agree to plead guilty to the highest level charge. Which results in the same sentencing.
Wilson is scheduled to be sentenced March 29.
