Trio guilty in fatal shooting of 3 men, 1 woman in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS — Three Indianapolis men have been convicted of murder and other charges in the fatal shooting of three young men and a young woman found slain in a ransacked Indianapolis apartment, a prosecutor said Friday.

Cameron Banks, Desmond Banks, and Lasean Watkins were convicted of four counts each of murder, felony murder and robbery resulting in serious bodily injury following a five-day trial, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.

The charges stemmed from the February 2020 shooting deaths of Braxton Ford, Kimari Hunt, Jalen Roberts and Marcel Wills.

A fourth suspect, Rodrience Anderson, pleaded guilty last October to four counts of robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and, under a plea agreement, agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.

Mayor Joe Hogsett announced the arrests at a news conference where he praised the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and “the cooperation and collaboration of community members” for their efforts leading to the arrests.

“While nothing can bring back the four young people whose lives were cut much too short by senseless violence, these charges serve as a meaningful step toward delivering justice to the impacted families,” Hogsett said.

A witness who noticed that an apartment’s patio door had been shattered and possibly shot out called the police late on Feb. 5. The caller said “subjects” were seen fleeing the scene.

Inside, officers found the four victims and the apartment ransacked, with drawers pulled from dressers and an empty safe with a key still inside it in a closet, according to the affidavit. Two guns were also missing, it states.

A witness told detectives that he had been at the apartment the night of the killings and had seen three people show up there in hoodies, according to the affidavit. That person told detectives that “everyone at the apartment was shooting dice and one of the males kept coming and going from the residence while another of the males kept coming and going to the restroom as if he was trying to look around the house,” the affidavit states.

The witness provided a vehicle description and investigators identified the vehicle on surveillance video, the affidavit says.

GRACE HOLLARS/AP Officers walk out of the apartment complex where four people, one woman and three men, were found dead in Indianapolis, on Feb. 5, 2020. Three Indianapolis men have been convicted in the case.