Anthony Rivera didn’t have a plan for what he was going to say to his son’s killer.

When he spoke on the witness stand, he told Christian Maldonado of his hurt, grief and betrayal. In the end, he felt sorry for him, Rivera said. Nobody won.

Toward the end as he spoke, Judge Gina Jones asked him to share happier memories of his son, Luis Rivera, 27, to get a fuller picture of his life, before she sentenced Maldonado.

In that moment, he wasn’t ready to do it, Anthony said. He needed to address what Maldonado did — for his son.

“I just needed to see his face,” he told Jones, of Maldonado. “It’s good now.”

Maldonado, 23, of East Chicago, got 50 years for Rivera’s death. He indicated he would appeal.

He pleaded guilty in September to voluntary manslaughter, a Level 2 felony, plus a gun en

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