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Court upholds 15-year term for crash that killed 13-year-old

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — An appeals court has upheld a 15-year prison term for a northwest Indiana man who led police on a pursuit that ended with a collision that killed a 13-year-old girl.

The Times reports the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled 33-year-old Donnell Howard Jr. got an appropriate sentence given his "extreme indifference to human life throughout the chase."

Howard was sentenced in January after he pleaded guilty to two counts of resisting law enforcement. The Highland man led police on a high-speed chase on Feb. 15, 2017, that ended when his car collided with another vehicle in Hammond, killing Julianna Chambers and seriously injuring her grandmother.

The pursuit began after Howard's girlfriend, Jessica S. Pichon of Danville, Illinois , stole a case of beer from an East Chicago supermarket.