Elkhart man sentenced to six years in prison for ex-councilman beating death

Cody Garman (Photo supplied/Elkhart County Jail)

An Elkhart man has been sentenced for beating a former Goshen city councilman to death last year.

Cody Garman was sentenced to six years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

That’s the maximum term he could have received for kiling 66-year-old David Swartley in May 2017.

He had been charged with murder, but a jury agreed with Garman’s defense attorney that his actions didn’t merit a murder conviction.

Swartley was found naked and unconscious in a vehicle and died later that evening. Garman admitted to beating Swartley and leaving him in a secluded area after agreeing to met him for an anonymous sexual encounter through Craigslist.