Indiana teen gets 100 years for gang-hit murder of Dayla Swain

Judge David Happe sentenced Jo'Majze Larry, 15, to 100 years in prison in Madison County Circuit Court 4, a punishment that will keep the Anderson boy behind bars for the rest of his life. The sentence came after Larry was convicted of murder in the shooting death of 26-year-old Dayla Swain.

The Madison County Prosecutor’s Office said a six-day jury trial ended June 29, 2026, with guilty verdicts for Larry and co-defendant Rashawn Samuels on murder and related charges. Swain was shot to death on February 2, 2025, outside Sonny Ray’s in Anderson.

Prosecutors said the killing was part of a planned gang hit tied to a botched attack. Larry also admitted to the Criminal Organization Enhancement, and the sentence broke down into 50 years for the murder conviction and another 50 years for the enhancement. Samuels, 19, was later sentenced to 125 years in prison on July 30.

The case lands in the middle of a long national shift in juvenile sentencing. In Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court barred the death penalty for crimes committed before age 18. Graham v. Florida later prohibited life without parole for juveniles convicted of non-homicide offenses, and Miller v. Alabama held that mandatory life without parole for juveniles was unconstitutional. Montgomery v. Louisiana made Miller retroactive, and Jones v. Mississippi ruled in 2021 that judges do not need to make a separate finding of permanent incorrigibility before imposing life without parole.

Larry’s sentence was not labeled life without parole, but at 100 years it functioned that way for a 15-year-old. Happe had the discretion to impose the murder term and stack the criminal organization enhancement, and he used it to turn a murder conviction into a century-long sentence.