Por OBED LAMY y TODD RICHMOND
LEBANON, Ind. (AP) — A decision on whether to press charges against an Indiana homeowner suspected of killing a Guatemalan domestic worker when she mistakenly went to the wrong address could take days, prosecutors say.
On Friday, investigators presented their findings in the death of Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez to Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood, who said in a news release that their review will take “several days.” He promised to announce his decision publicly, but said he might not do so until late this week or early next week.
“Our hearts go out to the loved ones of Ms. Rios Perez de Velazquez,” Eastwood said in a statement. “Justice requires patience, and we ask communities to understand as we work diligently to make the right decision in accordance with Indiana law.”
The woman's family and supporters gathered on the steps of Eastwood's office Monday with her photo and signs reading “Justice for Mary.”
“We see that we are immigrants, but we have the right,” said Mauricio Velasquez, the husband of Rios Perez De Velasquez, “because we are not animals, we are people like them, we have blood and I ask for justice.”
Authorities said the couple were part of a cleaning crew and went to a home in the Indianapolis suburb of Whitestown on Wednesday morning to do some work, but the address turned out to be incorrect. Police found the woman dead on the front porch of the home just before 7 a.m.
Eastwood told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the owner shot him. Police Capt. John Jurkash said in an email to the AP that the shot was fired from inside the home. Mauricio Velasquez told WRTV in Indianapolis that he stood on the porch with his wife and didn't realize he had been shot until she fell into his arms, bleeding.
Authorities have not publicly released the shooter's identity. Police say there is no evidence the Velasquezes actually entered the house.
A complicating factor in Eastwood's handling of the charges is Indiana's self-defense law, which allows residents to use deadly force to stop someone they reasonably believe is trying to break into their home. Thirty-one states have such laws.
In similar cases elsewhere, prosecutors successfully brought charges against people who shot people outside their homes, including a guilty plea for an 86-year-old man who shot and killed Ralph Jarl when the black teenager mistakenly walked up to his door. A New York man has been found guilty of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a woman in a car that mistakenly drove down his driveway.
Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in gun rights, called the Whitestown case “horrible” and “exceptionally unusual.”
For a shooter to enjoy immunity in self-defense, he said, he would have to prove that he believed he was in imminent danger and that any other reasonable person would feel the same way in that situation.
The public generally has legal access to private property, including porches, for lawful purposes until they are told to leave the property, Madeira said. For example, a property owner can't legally shoot a pizza delivery guy or an Amazon driver just because he stepped on his property, he explained.
The couple apparently never entered the shooter's home, so there was no home invasion, the expert said. A reasonable person who heard the doorknob moving would likely have called the police or looked out the window without opening fire, he added. This could lead to the shooter being charged with negligent homicide, he said.
“What we're doing here sets a precedent,” Madeira said of Eastwood's decision. “If we leave this without criminal charges, we can make it clear that it is okay to shoot at the door when someone walks up to the porch and touches and moves the doorknob.”
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.
