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Judge gives 35-year term in South Bend toddler’s killing

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – A northern Indiana judge has sentenced a 20-year-old man to 35 years in prison in the 2014 shooting death of a South Bend toddler.

Tarez Buchanon had pleaded guilty in April to attempted murder charges. On Wednesday St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jerome Frese sentenced Buchanon saying he “participated in creating a great evil.” The judge told Buchanon he “can’t make up for the past.”

Buchanon made a statement in court apologizing to his family and the family of 2-year-old John Swoveland Jr., who died in the 2014 shooting.

Buchanon is one of eight men and teenagers charged in the toddler’s death. Police say the boy died when he was struck by a stray bullet from a gunfight between two rival gangs several blocks away.