BLOOMINGTON — A man will spend just under eight years in prison after pleading guilty to stabbing another man in a Bloomington hotel parking lot in 2021 and beating an inmate in the Monroe County Jail in May.
Ian Thorpe pleaded guilty to a Level 3 felony charge of aggravated battery posing a substantial risk of death and a Level 5 felony charge of battery resulting in serious bodily injury. A Level 1 felony charge of attempted murder was dismissed.
Thorpe, who has been in jail since July 2021, was sentenced to nine years for the Level 3 felony and three years for the Level 5 felony. He was given credit for the more than three years he has already served.
Additionally, prosecutors credited Thorpe with over a year of good time credit, reducing his sentence to just under eight years.
2021 STABBING
Officers responded to the Wingate by Wyndham hotel just after 1 a.m. July 29, 2021 after a woman ran through the hotel asking for help with a man covered in blood.
Police found the man in a room on the second floor with stab wounds to his arm and chest. He was taken to the hospital for his injuries.
Investigators say Thorpe and the man got into a fight in the hotel parking lot when Thorpe reportedly pulled out a knife and stabbed the other man.
The woman named Thorpe as the suspect and police say during the investigation, a car drove into the parking lot and attempted to drive through the crime scene.
Thorpe was reportedly in the backseat and was arrested. Police reported recovering the knife used in the attack and clothes investigators believe Thorpe was wearing during the stabbing.
MAY JAIL ATTACK
In May, Thorpe, and fellow inmate, DeJuan Lamar Kelley, were charged escaping from their cell and beating another inmate to the point he had to be sent to the hospital.
According to court documents, the victim was being held in the cell next to Kelley and Thorpe and told investigators he exited his cell for his scheduled hour out and remembers being “chased down the stairs to the lower block” by Kelley and Thorpe.
The victim reportedly remembered trying to run to the call button to alert corrections officers but only remembered waking up on the cell block floor.
Court documents say the victim reported that at 2 a.m. that same morning, Kelley and Thorpe were being loud when he was trying to sleep.
The victim said he asked the two neighboring inmates to be quiet and mentioned he thought the two had a “bromance,” but denied having any other confrontations with the Kelley and Thorpe.
Investigators say Kelley and Thorpe are seen in surveillance video heading back into their cell that morning after their scheduled hour out and closing the cell door behind them.
According to a report by a corrections officer, the door was showing as “unsecure,” and the officer used the PA speaker to tell them to rattle the door, which reportedly helps fix the door sensor issue.
Court documents say it is not uncommon for the cell door locks in the jail to be faulty and show as “unsecure” to the corrections officers when it is actually locked. Police also said it is common that the doors show as “locked” when they actually aren’t.
Later, the victim was let out for his scheduled hour out.
Just minutes later, Kelley and Thorpe are reportedly seen using a hardback book cover slide to pick at the door jam before running out of the cell and chasing the victim down the stairs.
Court documents say Kelley is seen punching the right side of the victim’s face from behind. Thorpe is also seen in the footage reportedly punching the man while he laid unconscious on the cell block floor. Kelley reportedly gave a final punch before officers entered the cell block and arrested the two men.
The victim was taken to the hospital for swelling to his face and blood coming from his ears, police say. Kelley and Thorpe were taken into questioning, but didn’t answer questions while asking for an attorney.
When Thorpe left his interview, he reportedly told investigators that “there were two words that were unacceptable to him: “the bitch word and the n word.”
