A plea agreement was proposed Tuesday and will be taken under advisement by a Dubois Circuit Court judge for a man arrested after a December 2014 battery that ended with the death of a 17-month-old child in Jasper.
The agreement calls for 22-year old Charles Hopf of Jasper to serve a 40-year sentence at the Indiana Department of Correction if the court accepts the agreement in which Hopf pleads guilty to a Level 1 felony count of aggravated battery causing the death of a child younger than 14 years old.
Hopf was arrested by officers with the Jasper Police Department in the early-morning hours of Saturday, December 20th, 2014 after 17-month old Xavier Miller of Jasper was brought to the emergency room at Memorial Hospital at 12:30 am.
Police who were originally summoned to look into the possible physical abuse of the child determined that the boy was under Hopf’s care the previous evening at Hopf’s Dewey Street residence when the victim suffered multiple injuries.
He was taken to Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville where he died around 7 o’clock the morning of December 20th while being treated for a head injury.
Hopf was originally charged with the Level 1 count of aggravated battery. Then, in October, a murder count was added in addition to the original charge. The proposed plea agreement in which he agreed to plead to the lesser charge first came before the court December 30th.
A Level 1 felony is punishable by a 20- to 40-year sentence, with the advisory sentence being 30 years.
Hopf, who has remained lodged at the Dubois County Security Center since his arrest, would have to serve 75 percent of a 40-year department of corrections term.
Hopf appeared in court Tuesday and a Feb. 4 date was set for formal acceptance of the plea and sentencing.
