A possible violation by an Elkhart County judge has clouded the sentence Amber Pasztor received for killing her two children.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, the former Elkhart County Prosecutor, has filed a motion to correct an error Circuit Court Judge Michael Christofeno may have made during her case. He claims that the judge did not have the authority to send Pasztor to mental health treatment prior to imprisonment.
Pasztor underwent three medical evaluations before she was declared to competent to understand the criminal proceedings. The very hearing where she was declared competent, she pleaded guilty to murdering 7-year-old Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor.
The Goshen News reports that the issue Hill and Deputy Attorney General Patricia Huber Strachan appear to have is that the judge didn’t have the authority to direct the location or manner of her imprisonment. They say, once Pasztor was imprisoned, any decision on mental health should have been done by the Department of Corrections, not the judge.
Instead of issuing an immediate repeal, Judge Christofeno has instead been ordered to retract his judgement of guilty on June 29 and instead, give Pasztor a new sentence that’s “consistent with procedures and authority,” including ordering Pasztor to be evaluated at a state mental health facility.
Pasztor was sentenced to 130 years in prison in prison by Judge Christofeno for the murders. She’s currently in Allen County Jail as she goes through court proceedings for the murder of 66-year-old Frank Macomber.
