Indianapolis Criminal Defense Law Blog

Virtually every jail in the country, including the Marion County Jail in Indianapolis, is the de facto office for bail bond agents. While these agents deal almost exclusively with criminal defendants, their line of work is not considered especially dangerous. That perception may change after the shooting death of an Indianapolis bail bond agent at a funeral last week.

A veteran Indianapolis agent planned to attend a funeral at which he would confront a convicted criminal who had violated the terms of his bond. According to the police probable cause affidavit, the bail bond agent planned to confront the two brothers and rely on other agents to effect the arrest. When the two brothers were cornered, one of them jumped on the back of one of the bail bond agents, and a fight erupted. One of the agents told police that he heard two gunshots and saw a gun in the hands of one of the brothers. He then saw that the supervising agent had been shot. The agent chased the brother with the gun, and, during the chase, he saw the brother discard a pistol. The suspect was then caught and arrested. Two shell casings were found at the scene that matched the caliber of the discarded handgun.

Self-defense is frequently asserted when one individual shoots another. A recent homicide in Indianapolis demonstrates that even when this argument succeeds, the person who pulled the trigger may face other criminal charges. The first homicide of 2018 in Lawrence, Indiana, has been ruled self-defense, but the shooter is now facing another criminal charge based upon his criminal history.

The incident began when a client of the defendant's tax preparation service began to berate his wife for the slow preparation of her tax return. The defendant's wife told him about the woman's threats, and he retrieved a pistol that his wife kept in her desk. While the defendant was sitting in a chair by the shop window, a man arrived and entered the shop. He raised his sweatshirt to reveal two handguns carried in the waistband of his pants.

Some of Indianapolis' most vulnerable citizens are the indigent men who frequent the city's various shelters. In January, staff members at the Wheeler Mission men's shelter noticed that some of their clients were engaging in erratic and aggressive behavior. Police were called to investigate, and their findings make up the bulk of the case against four men charged with a variety of gun and drug crimes.

The victims appeared to be suffering from an overdose from an unknown drug. Twenty-five men overdosed in a single 24-hour period. Security cameras captured some of the chaos. In one video, a man is shown smoking a cigarette outside the shelter; in a few moments, he attempts to walk but falls, apparently unconscious. In another, one man bit another in the neck. Dozens of victims were taken to hospital emergency rooms.

An addiction coupled with ready access to the addictive substance can be a dangerous combination. The Marion County prosecutor's office filed several drug crime charges against a 30-year-old woman who allegedly stole fentanyl from an ambulance and used the drugs herself.

The suspect was employed as a medical technician by a local hospital and was working as a paramedic. The alleged theft was discovered through the review of ambulance supply checks. The amount of narcotics carried in an ambulance must be entered into a continuing log that shows the full amount carried and the amount remaining after a trip during which the drugs were used. A discrepancy in the logs for the ambulance alerted investigators to a possible theft. The EMS supervisor at the hospital shared the drug audit information with the Indianapolis office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who passed it along to Indianapolis police.