Fort Wayne man sentenced for deadly 2024 shooting

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - A 21-year-old Fort Wayne man was sentenced Monday for his role in a deadly 2024 shooting.

BACKGROUND: FWPD investigates fatal shooting on Fort Wayne’s southeast side

In September, Allen Superior Court Judge David Zent found Dairyon McClendon guilty of murder, felony murder, and a firearm sentencing enhancement in connection with the death of 20-year-old Damarion Tywan Lundy on Aug. 26, 2024.

Zent handed down a 60-year sentence for murder, enhanced by 18 years for using a gun in the crime. Online court records show McClendon is planning to appeal.

He was charged alongside 20-year-old Donavon Gonzalez, who initially took a plea deal that would have dismissed the murder and felony murder charges against him in exchange for him pleading guilty to robbery and a firearm enhancement.

RELATED: Fort Wayne man takes plea deal in deadly 2024 shooting | Plea deal rescinded after Fort Wayne man didn’t ‘testify truthfully’ against co-defendant in deadly shooting

However, prosecutors said Gonzalez didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, claiming he didn’t testify truthfully, and that his “testimony materially differed from statements he previously provided.”

Gonzalez is scheduled to go to trial in April.

Both men charged in the case were 18 years old at the time of the murder.

MORE: 18-year-old Fort Wayne man charged with murder in connection to August shooting | 18-year-old Fort Wayne man second to be charged in fatal August shooting on Winter Street

According to court records obtained by 21Investigates, they were caught on security camera near the scene. Audio captured a voice saying, “Hey Don,” before gunshots rang out.

Court documents say the suspects were seen running from the scene after possibly taking a phone from near the victim. Gonzalez allegedly returned to the scene to take a photo of the victim’s body, which investigators later discovered.

McClendon was identified by a witness as the shooter.

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