Byfield attorney makes court appearance, petition filed for post conviction relief

Feb. 29—GOSHEN — A man who was sentenced in 2023 for a murder that occurred Feb. 14, 2022 is returning to Elkhart County Circuit Court.

Samuel Byfield was sentenced to 55 years in prison, after pleading guilty but mentally ill. In August 2023, he filed for post-conviction relief and was appointed a state public defender.

Deputy Public Defender Deidre R. Eltzroth was appointed in September and filed for the court to prepare transcripts of the guilty plea and sentencings.

During sentencing proceedings, Byfield initially asked to withdraw his guilty plea but Judge Michael Christofeno did not allow it.

Byfield, 23, was charged in the murder of Wayne Bontrager, owner of Bontrager’s Meadowlark Cars which took place Feb. 14, 2022. According to court documents, Byfield was test-driving one of Bontrager’s vehicles in the area of C.R. 26, east of C.R. 22, when the two got into an altercation which resulted in Byfield pulling Bontrager, 73, Goshen, from the vehicle and attacking him with a knife.

Indications during court proceedings implied that Byfield may have wished to change his plea based on a claim of self-defense, per comments made by Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker.

Following the stabbing, Byfield reportedly got back into the car and proceeded east on C.R. 26 before eventually crashing in the area of C.R. 33 and C.R. 20. He then fled on foot into a nearby wooded area where he was tracked and eventually apprehended by police, according to the report. Bontrager was hospitalized but died of his injuries Feb. 22.

A witness of the murder, Stacy Miller, as well as Wayne’s brother David Bontrager and sister Ruth Yankey, spoke ahead of the sentencing. Yankey recalled that she was discharged from the hospital after having surgery the day Bontrager was fatally stabbed.

Byfield filed a Petition for Post Conviction Relief pro se.

“I was not sent to R.D.C. (Reception Diagnostic Center) for a mental health evaluation to verify whether I was competent to stand trial or understand the plea agreement,” Byfield wrote, calling it a violation of his due process and constitutional rights, and also noting ineffective counsel. R.D.C. is a maximum security intake facility for adult males sentenced to the Department of Corrections. There, they are classified and then transferred to long-term facilities.

Byfield was appointed a public defender for the case and pleaded guilty but also mentally ill in January 2023.

“I have the right to be evaluated for my mental health stability especially since it had already been reported that I had mental health diagnosis ADHD, ADD, PTSD, bipolar, on spectrum of autism, reactive attachment disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome,” he wrote.

On Thursday, Eltzroth met with Elkhart County Circuit Court Judge Michael Christofeno for a counsel-only status conference, but it was rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 29.

SHAWN D. ENSIGN

A man caught on a Bikers Against Predators video was sentenced in Elkhart County Superior Court 3 Thursday.

Shawn D. Ensign, 48, Goshen, was sentenced by plea agreement on a charge of Child Solicitation, a Level 5 Felony, to 3 years on reporting probation with the Indiana Department of Corrections.

According to a probable cause affidavit, a man associated with Bikers Against Predators, contacted Goshen police around 2:30 p.m. May 4 to report that Ensign had attempted to meet with what he believed to be a 14-year-old girl at Dunkin Donuts, 906 W. Pike St., Goshen.

A man affiliated with the group told officers that Ensign was attempting to meet up with a 14-year-old, only the person he was actually speaking with lived in California and was not a child. They met through the MeetMe app and gave officers a cell phone containing Ensign and the alleged teen’s conversation, some of which included sexual content, affirmations to the teen that her age was permissible to him, and discussions about meeting at the location.

Speaking to Ensign at the scene though, police said Ensign claimed not to remember her age, but that the profile was issued to someone over 1, and claimed their conversations involved discussions about cuddling and meeting up for coffee, but officers found more explicit messages sent by Ensign to the alleged teen.

DEREK M. SHULTS

A man was sentenced to five years on alternative placement after he attempted to abscond with his ex-girlfriend’s dog.

Derek M. Shults, 35, was arrested Aug. 25, 2023 after his ex-girlfriend accused him of stealing her dog. Police were called to her home in the 200 block of Manor Avenue in Elkhart and immediately found Shults in the doorway, holding the dog. He was arrested without incident.

The woman told police that Shults had moved out in February of 2023 and hadn’t been back since, but had been texting her asking to see the dog, but she refused and told him not to come over several times, the charging affidavit reads.

Later, after she didn’t answer the door when he knocked, Shults entered, but the woman said she wasn’t sure how, as the home was locked and he didn’t have a key, the report reads. The woman was in another room but heard Shults take the dog outside and put him in his vehicle and she and Shults got into a scuffle. The “scuffle,” she explained in the affidavit, was that she had Shults’ car keys in her hand, and he put her into an arm lock and took the keys from her. Police noted bruising on her arm, but the woman said she didn’t feel it and arm bruises easily.

Police said in the affidavit that they found evidence at the scene that Shults came in through a window, and also that the car had recently been crashed and all the airbags were deployed. The woman noted that the dog was worth about $1,500.

Shults was charged with domestic battery with a prior, a Level 6 felony; and burglary, a Level 4 felony but pleaded down to burglary, a Level 5 felony.

During his sentencing, the judge learned about how Shults and his ex-girlfriend had gotten a dog together during the midst of their separation, and after the formal separation, he and his children had been permitted to still see the dog, but as they went their separate ways, visitation became scarce until ultimately ending.

Shults acknowledged to the judge problems with alcohol and drugs, attributing to his poor decision.

“My only focus is to complete the terms set by the court, become a better man as well as a better father,” Shults said.

Shults was sentenced by plea agreement to Burglary, a Level 5 Felony, to a total of five years in alternative placement, two with the Indiana Department of Corrections and three with Elkhart County Corrections, the court recommending home detention.

EMILIANO GARCIA VARRIOS, Jr.

A man charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting his daughter’s boyfriend did not see his bond reduced Thursday in Elkhart County Circuit Court.

It all started when Emiliano Garcia Varrios’ wife received a call from the Elkhart County Jail notifying her that, William Pritt IV, 18, was being released from the jail at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 17.

Pritt IV was arrested on Dec. 15 on a battery charge against the woman. Pritt IV was also in a relationship with Garcia Varrios’ 14-year-old daughter, of which he and his wife did not approve, according to a probable cause affidavit.

By 5:23 p.m., Elkhart County deputies were responding to a call of a shooting on Oak Hills Drive in Middlebury, where Pritt IV and his father had been shot. Pritt IV told police that his mom had given him a ride home from the jail, where Garcia Varrios and another man approached him soon after, and that he ran toward the house when Garcia Varrios started shooting at him, the affidavit reads.

Pratt IV’s father was inside the home and sustained a gunshot wound to his ankle, but Pritt IV was shot in the shoulder and at the time of the probable cause affidavit, was reportedly paralyzed from the chest down.

Garcia Varrios was charged with attempted murder, a Level 1 felony; and criminal recklessness, a Level 5 felony.

Garcia Varrios’ remains set at $2 million corporate surety due to a number of violent charges against him historically. His jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 23, with a trial status conference Aug. 29.

ALAURAEVE A. ALLEN

A woman charged with killing her own baby had her jury trial continued for Thursday’s Circuit Court proceedings.

Alauraeve Allen, 24, Elkhart, was found competent to stand trial during court in early February.

On July 7, at approximately 7:46 p.m., the Elkhart police and Elkhart fire departments were dispatched to an apartment at 324 Middlebury St., Elkhart, concerning a 6-month-old baby unconscious and not breathing. Upon their arrival, police and firefighters rendered aid to the baby.

The baby was transported to Elkhart General Hospital, and subsequently to South Bend Memorial Hospital, where she died July 8. Investigators of the Elkhart County Homicide Unit said they observed numerous visible injuries on the baby’s body.

A forensic autopsy was performed on the baby at the Homer Stryker School of Medicine located at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The cause of her death was ruled a homicide.

Allen initially advised investigators that she had left the baby in the care of friends July 8 and after returning home, the baby had vomited on her so she took a long bath. Upon finishing, she was told the baby was not breathing so she called 911.

Allen was interviewed again July 19, at which time she advised that she had been angry with the baby and shook her July 6 in their apartment on Middlebury Street, as well as having struck the baby and caused injuries prior to this on other occasions, court records show. Allen’s jury trial was continued from April 15 to Nov. 18, with a trial status conference Oct. 24.