Man gets 37 years for shotgun slaying

• Edward Thompson was sentenced to 37 years in prison Thursday for a fatal Henry County shooting.
• The 35-year-old Thompson fatally shot fellow Indianapolis resident Zackery Soots, 22, last April.
• The victim’s body was thrown from a bridge on Grant City Road into Montgomery Creek.

NEW CASTLE – James Soots made it clear Thursday how he felt about the man who fatally shot Soots’ 22-year-old son, Zackery, last April.

Both Soots and the gunman — Edward W. Thompson, 35, being sentenced in Henry Circuit Court 1 Thursday after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter — were Indianapolis residents, but they were in Henry County when the slaying took place.

After the younger Soots was shot three times with a shotgun, Thompson threw the victim’s body off a bridge carrying Grant City Road over Montgomery Creek.

The victim’s father called Thompson “worse than Satan, the devil,” who had left his son’s remains “in a creek, for the rats.”

“If I can’t ever see my son again, how is it fair for Ed to eventually be released?” he asked.

Judge Mary Willis accepted the terms of a plea bargain in the case, imposing a 45-year prison term with eight years suspended. Thompson will be on probation for eight years after leaving prison.

According to a Henry County sheriff’s department report, the slaying victim was riding in a vehicle with Thompson and two women when the defendant suddenly stopped the vehicle, got out and shot Soots.

The victim’s father said he didn’t accept a suggestion Thompson had acted in “sudden heat.”

“You killed my son,” he told Thompson. “You shot him three times. You wanted him dead. You could have let him live, but you didn’t care.”

The Indianapolis man — whose criminal record includes a Marion County battery conviction — said he was “sorry for my actions.”

“I pray that some day... you may forgive me,” he told his victim’s family.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.