Plea rejected for ex-Purdue student in shooting

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A judge on Tuesday rejected a former Purdue University student’s plea in the fatal shooting of a friend during an alcohol-fueled prank, telling him the charges and his plea were too lenient.

William J. Calderon, 22, of Fort Wayne, had plead guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of pointing a firearm in connection with the August 2009 death of 21-year-old Landon Siela at an off-campus apartment.

But Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Les Meade turned down the plea deal. Prosecutors and Calderon could negotiate a new agreement or the case could go to trial.

Siela, of Fort Wayne, was killed when Calderon’s roommate, Cory Lynch, fired Calderon’s handgun at him and a bullet struck Siela in the throat.

At the hearing Tuesday, Calderon acknowledged under questioning from Meade that he knew the gun was loaded.

“He loaded the gun. He kept it loaded in his nightstand,” Meade said of Calderon. “He knew full well it was loaded.”

Lynch, 23, of Carmel, was sentenced last week to two years on community corrections and one year on supervised probation.

He had faced up to eight years in prison after pleading guilty in January to felony charges of reckless homicide.

Siela was shot two days before classes began for Purdue’s fall semester. Calderon said the three friends had spent the day drinking beer, taking shots of alcohol and shooting at each other with a neighbor’s airsoft gun — a gun that shoots plastic pellets at relatively low velocities.

Calderon said Tuesday that a pistol belonging to Siela was sitting atop a bedroom dresser and that it originally was Lynch’s idea to prank Siela. But when pressed further by Meade, Calderon admitted it was his idea to use real handguns.

He said he grabbed Siela’s handgun and Lynch then retrieved Calderon’s .45-caliber handgun, which Calderon kept loaded in their apartment for protection.