Posted on 10/23/2026 5:13:35 PM PDT by TheDon
GOSHEN, Ind. (WNDU) - An Indiana man convicted of shooting and killing a sex offender who assaulted one of his relatives has been sentenced to 80 years in prison.
According to the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office, Nicholas Stanley received 65 years for murder and 15 years for a firearm enhancement he admitted to during his trial.
Stanley, 36, was found guilty last month of killing Allen Cogswell, 35, at the Daylite Inn on Cassopolis Street on June 24, 2025.
Cogswell was released from prison in May 2025 and was living at the motel. Court records showed Stanley was a close family member of one of Cogswell’s past victims.
The Goshen News reported that Stanley testified during his trial that he planned to confront Cogswell and beat him up. He said seeing Cogswell through the motel window caused his brain to “explode like a tsunami” and led him to decide to kill him.
Stanley was said to have gone to his car, grabbed a shotgun, knocked on Cogswell’s motel room door before shooting him twice that early morning.
“I decided that I had to do what I had to do to protect my [family]; I had to kill him,” Stanley was quoted as saying under oath.
The government can’t have citizens doing what it ought to do, but doesn’t. It makes the government look bad.
America needs a lot of swift hangings in the public square. Only way to be sure.
Guess who prosecuted the sex offender case and cut a deal to reduce the charges dramatically?
The same prosecutor who’s putting this man away for 80 years.
Allen Cogswell (2018): Cogswell’s original case for child molestation and possession of child pornography, which resulted in his 12-year prison sentence prior to his early release in 2025, was handled under the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office headed by Vicki Becker.
Gary Plauche got off with probation and community service.
Should we cheerlead for this vigilante? I didn’t for Bernie Goetz but he had a lotta fans out there. We need more of them. Innocent bystanders who get injured might be the price of justice. You can pretty much be sure there won’t really be a need for TOO many of them.
“By executing a plea agreement, Cogswell drastically capped his liability:
• Charges Dropped: The prosecution dismissed one Level 4 felony count and two Level 6 felony counts.
• Sentence Reduction: Instead of a potential 31.5-year maximum ceiling, his total sentence was restricted to a fixed 12 years in prison. Because of Indiana’s credit time rules for good behavior, he only ended up serving roughly 6.5 to 7 years of that time before his release.”
That’s all on the prosecutor.
3 hots and a cot. Free medical/dental.
High cost but someday reversible.
Nailed it.
Where’s the justice?
Gary Plauche is TO THIS DAY a hero to many.
Where’s the justice?
Draconian sentences like this (80 freakin' years) are an effort to discourage this (and I say "draconian" because Ty'Quavious can murder a bodega worker during a robbery and be out in under a decade).
I saved that video.
PS
I love how you can see his hair poof up indicating massive expansion of his skull.
I partly agree with you.
On the other hand there have been a bunch of people who have done this and murdered the wrong person.
Given how our national IQ levels are dropping for regular people and govt agents as well, its probably better we dont devolve into revenge killing as a normal solution.
Usually, not always, but in general, private citizens injure less bystanders than police do. Police are usually worse shots, fire more rounds, and hit more innocent people than ccw folks do.
Mr Stanley should have been more discrete in the MO of his ‘task’.
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