Ron Wilkins and Steven Porter

Journal & Courier

Cody Cousins' actual motive remains murky, but what is now clear is that the criminal justice system determined that the Purdue University shooter should spend the next 65 years of his life behind bars.

"I killed Andrew Boldt because I wanted to, and I do what I want," Cousins, 24, said in a chilling statement near the end of his sentencing hearing Friday. "I will deal with the consequences later."

Cousins' seemingly callous comments came barely minutes after the victim's mother, Mary Boldt, took the stand and directed a barrage of point-blank questions at Cousins.

"Mr. Cousins, did you even know my son, Andrew?" she asked, pausing to stare at him. "Was my son trying to help you pass your classes?

"What did he do to you to make you so mad?" she added, glaring at Cousins, sitting just a few yards away at the defense table. "Mr. Cousins, you intended to make my son suffer before he died. How dare you."

Earlier in the sentencing hearing, Dr. Elmo Griggs, who conducted the official autopsy, explained that Boldt, who was 21, took five gunshots — three to the head and two to the torso. None of those wounds, nor 18 cutting and slashing wounds, were immediately fatal.

Boldt actually died from the final blow, when Cousins used his knife to slit Boldt's neck, severing both carotid arteries, cutting to the spine, Griggs explained. Then, he noted, Cousins left the knife stuck in Boldt's eye.

"This is the worst homicide I have ever seen," said Griggs, who has performed nearly 10,000 autopsies.

When Cousins spoke near the end of the hearing, many of the at least 50 people in the packed yet quiet room leaned forward, listening intently to his first public statement about what he did.

"I have a confession to make," Cousins said, explaining that he lied to mental health experts who examined him for the court. He admitted that he used his knowledge of the mental health profession — it's his mother's work — to fake being insane.

Yet mental health opinions differed vastly; one doctor said Cousins suffered from schizophrenia for months leading up to and during the killing, while another asserted that Cousins had bipolar disorder and did not show symptoms at the time of the slaying on Jan. 21.

"My mother loves me and prefers not to think of me as a drug abuser, a liar and a murderer, so she thinks of me as an invalid," Cousins said.

Cousins' statements during court and during the investigation into the killing left Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 Judge Thomas Busch with little legal room to hand down a lesser sentence, a point county Prosecutor Patrick Harrington pressed home in his closing statement.

"He's not remorseful," Harrington said of Cousins. "He's proud."

Busch saw a biblical connection.

"This is the story of Cain and Abel," he said before issuing the sentence. "It's an old story."

The case, Busch said, is a story of one person, struggling to succeed, who becomes envious of likable, successful peers, creating resentments leading to violent thoughts and, eventually, deadly violence.

"It was precisely because Drew Boldt was so successful, so good, so helpful to others that Cody Cousins envied him," Busch said. "That's not insanity. That's not mental illness."

Busch gave Cousins the maximum sentence — 65 years in prison — without the caveat of being mentally ill, thus barring the shooter from treatment. If Cousins avoids getting into trouble in prison, he could be released in as few as 31 years (including time already served) for good behavior.

Both Boldt and Cousins families declined to be interviewed after the sentencing hearing.

Harrington read a statement from the Boldt family, thanking their home community, church, Purdue and the law enforcement community, noting they agreed with the judge's decision to issue the maximum sentence.

Purdue University declined Friday to comment on the procedures the university's counseling and psychological services staff follow in dealing with patients, including at what point counselors flag patients as a public danger to themselves or the public.

In laying the groundwork for the maximum sentence, Harrington said that prior to Boldt's slaying, Cousins had attended 17 counseling sessions through the campus service.

Responding to the Journal & Courier's question regarding the circumstances under which a person seeking treatment would be referred for further treatment, and how, after multiple sessions, there would not be a red flag, university spokeswoman Liz Evans said there was no one immediately available for comment.

And even if there were, there wouldn't be much the university could say, she noted.

"Federal and state health care privacy rules restrict Purdue from commenting on the patient-specific testimony today at the sentencing," Evans said.