FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A teen who admitted to playing a role in a vape deal turned killing in a southeast side church’s parking lot last year received a 25-year prison sentence Monday.
Allen Superior Court Judge David Zent handed down the sentence to Swar Hit, who was 16 when he and Aung Oo, 15 at the time, met 21-year-old Luke Borror at the New Covenant Worship Center a year ago.
Hit pleaded guilty to a Level 2 felony count of robbery in the connection to the killing of Borror, who showed up to the church at 3420 E. Paulding Road to sell vapes to Hit and then 15-year-old Aung San Oo.
But as Hit admitted in a letter to the court and Borror’s family repeated during the sentencing, Hit could have just walked away.
“I allowed my fear to take over,” Hit said in a letter read by his attorney, Richard Thonert. “I’m sorry. Why didn’t I just walk away?” It was a weakness to go along with the plan, he said.
The apology didn’t impress the family.
“You could have just walked away,” they told Hit who was caught on tape grabbing Borror’s backpack and fleeing with Aung Oo. Oo was sentenced March 27 to 65 years for felony murder after his original charges for murder, robbery resulting in death and using a firearm in the commission in an offense were dismissed in a plea deal.
Instead, those who spoke at Hit’s sentencing said he participated willingly in the robbery/shooting death, all for a backpack containing vapes. The night Borror was killed, it was his second sale with Oo and Borror was nervous enough to ask a friend to stay on the phone. Borror ended Facetime just before he arrived at the parking lot, but his friend heard everything. He pulled up to the scene too late to save him.
“Would Aung still have gone there, if you’d just walked away?” asked Borror’s grandmother, Leah Borror, who spoke at Hit’s sentencing just as she did at Oo’s. Hit “knew Oo set up an appointment to rob and kill him.”
Amanda Borror, Luke’s aunt, looked directly at Hit to make her accusation.
“You grabbed the backpack and ran away. You left him to die in the church parking lot,” she said.
But turning to Hit’s Muslim family, she was tearfully gracious.
“My heart aches for you guys, too,” Amanda said, before turning to the judge to ask for the maximum 30 years.
Each one who spoke, including Borror’s mother, Tonia Magner, told of a pain that never goes away, something family after family tells the sentencing judge.
“I can’t make it through a day without feeling the pain,” Leah Borror said. “My heart died with you.” No more phone calls with her grandson, no more time with a young man who had no enemies, but a bright future he shared with all.
He cared for everyone. His great grandmother could count on him every spring to plant her flowers, mulch, and take care of her garden. In the fall, he’d caulk her windows.
“I’m just thankful to the Fort Wayne Police Department and the court systems they made the streets safer for this ruthless act of violence,” Matthew Borror, Luke’s father said just after the sentencing.
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