A Franklin man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to stabbing a woman he was in a relationship with.
Brandon Hallgarth, 35, pleaded guilty to felony counts of aggravated battery and being a habitual offender. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and the soonest he could be released is in 2032, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
Hallgarth was arrested earlier this year after a woman told police he had stabbed her in the eye and cut her throat when he wanted to get off the couch and she didn’t move, according to police reports. The woman had told police she and Hallgarth were in a relationship.
The woman suffered serious injuries, including a broken nose, and she lost some of her eyesight from the eye injury.
Police were called to the Countryview mobile home community early one morning in July. A neighbor called police and officers found the woman outside, covered in blood. They also found a pair of scissors and a lot of blood inside the home.
Hallgarth had left, and was later stopped in Indianapolis by Indiana State Capitol Police, who found blood on his clothing. He also told officers he had nearly killed a woman in Franklin. Tests showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .213 percent.
At the time he was arrested, Hallgarth was on parole for the rest of the year after being released from state prison on Jan. 1. He had served five prison stints for multiple felony convictions in Shelby County since 2001 and multiple parole and probation violations. His convictions include mischief, battery causing injury to a pregnant woman and resisting law enforcement, according to state records.
The sentence from Johnson County Superior Court 2 Judge Peter Nugent is the longest Hallgarth has received, according to department of correction records.
He was also sentenced to five years on probation.
