A judge Tuesday sentenced a minister’s son to 160 years in prison for killing his father, stepmother and two stepsisters so he could attend his high school prom in 1989.
St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Roland Chamblee Jr. sentenced Jeffrey Pelley, 34, to four consecutive 40-year sentences in the shotgun slayings of his minister-father and the others at the family’s parsonage.
Pelley had faced a maximum sentence of 260 years in prison.
Investigators said Pelley was angry at his father for grounding him just before the LaVille High School prom and a planned trip the next day to a Chicago-area amusement park. After the killings, Pelley cleaned up and went to the dance, police said.
Pelley wasn’t charged until 2002, when the case was reinvestigated. He was living in Dade City, Fla., when he was arrested.
A St. Joseph County jury found him guilty July 21 in the shooting deaths of his father, the Rev. Robert Pelley; his stepmother, Dawn; and stepsisters, Janel, 8, and Jolene, 6. They were killed in the parsonage adjacent to the Olive Branch Church of the United Brethren in Lakeville, about 10 miles south of South Bend.
