INDIANAPOLIS — A Marion County judge sentenced Mylik Hill to 87 years in prison for the attempted murder of metropolitan police Officer Thomas Mangan and other crimes.
Mangan took the witness stand and spoke to a hushed courtroom Monday about the incident two years ago that changed his life forever.
"Your honor, Mylik Hill has endangered countless lives," Mangan said, speaking in the raspy whisper that's become his new voice since a bullet tore through his neck two years ago.
"When faced with the choice between his wants and the life of another person, he chose himself, his wants."
Hill was running from officers in a Fountain Square neighborhood on Feb. 27, 2022, when jurors found that he shot Mangan just as the officer was about to catch him.
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Hill fired two shots at Mangan. One destroyed Mangan's vocal chords and ability to speak, eat and breathe normally. The other round struck his police radio, which exploded on Mangan's hip as fellow officers were trying to get him help.
Mangan testified he's has had eight surgeries and more than 160 medical appointments. He's had to relearn how to talk, swallow and breathe with his broken and surgically reconstructed throat.
A Marion County jury last month found Hill guilty of two counts of attempted murder, six counts of resisting law enforcement and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
Hlll has denied shooting at Mangan or at Officer Daniel Majors, the second officer he was convicted of trying to kill. He tried to claim that Majors shot Mangan and all the officers conspired to frame him.
The jury didn't buy it, but Hill stood by that story during Monday's sentencing hearing.
"This all was state-created danger," Hill said. "I am a victim just like Mangan."
The evidence presented at trial showed that Hill did in fact pull the trigger that night. Security video footage captured Hill climbing a fence with a handgun in his hand.
Police found that handgun, tossed just over a fence from where they arrested Hill. A DNA expert testified the gun had Mangan's DNA on the barrel and Hill's blood on handle.
Hill was bleeding after being shot twice in an exchange of gunfire with Majors.
Manan was a rookie officer in his third week of on-the-job field training when he and Majors, his field training officer, took the call that night.
Hill was a suspected drunken driver who had struck a parked car. The officers found the suspect's parked vehicle and Hill, the driver, ran.
Majors and Mangan chased him through some yards.
Mangan closed in and testified he tried to "go for a high tackle" when Hill turned his shoulders.
Mangan testified he remembers seeing "a dark object" in Hill's hand, then "a flash of light."
Then he remembers waking up in Eskenazi Hospital, no longer able to speak.
Mangan testified for about 50 minutes Monday, his words slow and raspy. The courtroom's pool camera was turned off during his testimony because Mangan is considered a victim of a violent crime.
Mangan testified he relearned to speak using different parts of his throat. He gets migraines. He has to be careful when he eats or food goes down his windpipe. He can't exercise or run without having trouble breathing.
He has to sleep on an incline so he doesn't choke.
His wife, Emory Mangan, testified that she had to quit her health care-related job to help care for her husband. The couple has put on hold their plans to buy a house and have a child.
"I miss Tommy's voice and his beautiful singing," Emory testified. "I miss him scooping me up in his arms and spinning me around."
She urged the judge to issue a sentence that sends a strong message to Hill and others like him.
"We have witnessed what happens when repeat violent offenders do not face appropriate justice for their actions," Emory Mangan told the judge.
"It looks like a courtroom full of devastated family and friends, police officers, including rookie officers, traumatized by witnessing a colleague’s neck blown open.
"There are more victims of Mylik Hill's actions that night than could fit in this court room."
Hill had a lengthy record with prior convictions for crimes including robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm.
About four weeks before the shooting, Hill had been arrested for stealing from a Walmart and freed on bond because of a spelling mistake in Indiana Department of Correction records.
On Monday, the DOC's website still shows Hill's first name misspelled as "Mylak."
That mistake meant Hill should have been in jail when he shot Mangan. In that incident, Hill was charged with two counts of attempted murder, six counts of resisting law enforcement and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
"You chose to violate the law. You chose to run again and again. No one made you out to be the bad guy. You attacked people you didn’t even know," Judge Davis told Hill. "You were the coward that night."
Davis sentenced Hill to 75 years in prison on the two charges of attempted murder and 12 years for unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
Sentences on the remaining charges were folded into the more serious crimes.
READ | Officer Mangan released from hospital | Attempted murder trial begins for man accused of shooting officer in neck | Man accused of shooting officer gets attorney despite his objection | 'A dark object and a flash of light': Officer Thomas Mangan recounts the night he was shot in the neck | Jury finds man guilty of attempted murder in shooting IMPD Officer Thomas Mangan | DOC name misspelling allowed suspected shooter of IMPD cop to be out on bond, despite being on parole
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on X/Twitter: @vicryc.
