Pictures showing how Ashley Bitikofer died with her eye “shot out of her head” were some of the most “horrifying” images she’s seen on the bench, Judge Natalie Bokota told Dejuan McIntyre.
McIntyre, 45, was sentenced to 117 years Wednesday for the June 8, 2023, shooting that killed Bitikofer, 34, and wounded her new boyfriend, Mike Lehman. A jury convicted him in April.
“You hunted her down like a deer in hunting season,” Bokota told him.
His lawyer Michael Lambert said he would appeal.
Merrillville Police were called to the Menards parking lot, 6300 Mississippi St., at 11:13 p.m. June 8, 2023, after the car crashed into the store’s east fence.
Lehman testified at trial the couple was staying at a nearby hotel – which McIntyre paid for – when the other man confronted them. As they tried to shake him on the road, McIntyre fired a gun at his car, causing the crash, before McIntyre shot them both.
Bitikofer lost custody of her two sons a few years before her death.
Her only goal, Debra Bitikofer, her mother, who attended, wrote in a letter read in court, was “to see her boys again,” she said. “You took that from her.”
After her death, Ashley’s dog didn’t eat for a week, the mother wrote. She recalled asking her daughter two weeks before her death why she didn’t file a restraining order.
“He’d kill me if I ever did that,” Ashley said, she recalled.
Family members called McIntyre a “coward” and “monster,” asking for a maximum sentence.
Jennifer Hawkins, Ashley’s sister, said one of her own children still asks Santa to bring her aunt back.
“They thought they had more time,” she said of her kids.
Hawkins’ daughter Isabella, 17, said she was awake when the police came to the house in the middle of the night. She still remembers her mother’s reaction. At her wedding, she plans to have an empty seat with a memorial sign.
“No amount of time sentenced will bring her back,” she said.
Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar asked for 115 years, noting McIntyre left Lehman “to die,” then moved on to Bitikofer.
She “pleaded for her life” as heard on the 911 call, he said.
Lambert said the shootings were “one act” and asked for a “fair sentence.”
McIntyre said he was innocent, saying his due process rights were “violated.”
“I refused to be labeled a monster,” he said. That word was “ugly.”
“It wasn’t me,” McIntyre said. “I’m not that monster.”
The evidence “supported” the verdict, Bokota told him.
It was “heartbreaking” to hear a child ask Santa to bring her dead aunt back, she said. Lehman, who was left with permanent injuries, had to ask a 911 operator to apologize to his kids in case he died.
Their mother died in 2021, the judge said.
After the hearing, Debra wrote she was “glad” Bokota “saw through (McIntytre’s) lying eyes,” in a text sent by a relative. She missed her daughter deeply.
“I wanted you dead, but I couldn’t handle every appeal you could have,” she wrote of McIntyre.
Ashley’s younger sister Brianna wrote in the text chain that she was “elated” with the verdict.
“I’m happy her soul can rest easy now knowing he’ll be stuck behind bars and can’t hurt anybody else,” she said, according to the text.
McIntyre was sentenced to 30 years in 2009 for an Indianapolis-area burglary conviction, records show. He was released a few years before the Merrillville shooting.
mcolias@post-trib.com
