As in other cities, Evansville saw fewer homicides in 2023. Here is where each case stands
EVANSVILLE — Detectives investigated fewer homicides in Evansville in 2023 than they did the year prior, though killings still claimed the lives of 15 people across the city and Vanderburgh County, including one who was just 5 months old.
The overall decline is in line with national trends: The murder rate dropped in many of America’s metro areas, capping a years-long spike in homicides many criminologists attributed to pandemic-era societal upheaval.
The 15 homicides counted by the Courier & Press encompassed killings investigated by the Evansville Police Department and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office. The count also includes four fatal police shootings because the incidents meet Indiana’s legal definition of homicide.
EPD detectives opened seven homicide investigations in 2023, according to department spokeswoman Sgt. Anna Gray, including a targeted robbery-turned-double murder case in October that led to the arrest of former Evansville 411 News owner Richard Dee Garrett and two others.
The Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office investigated three homicides in 2023.
Not all homicides are considered murders. As of Dec. 31, the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office had not filed charges in connection with any of the four law enforcement shootings, and EPD detectives determined a fatal June stabbing was committed in self-defense.
As 2023 wrapped up, Gray said the EPD recorded “a big drop” in homicides since 2022, when detectives opened 17 homicide investigations involving 20 victims, one of whom was a pregnant mother.
The clearance rate was also high in Evansville and Vanderburgh County in 2022: The EPD made arrests in five cases, and a sixth was determined to have been justified, while the sheriff’s office made arrests in the three homicide investigations it conducted — though a judge later found one of the defendants not guilty.
Here's what happened and where the cases stand at the start of a new year.
Jan. 1, 2023: Todd Keith Roll, 49
On the first day of the new year, Jan. 1, 2023, 21-year-old Brandon Francis Schaefer allegedly shot and killed Todd Keith Roll behind Showplace Cinemas North in the 4200 block of North Third Avenue. Schaefer was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the EPD, Schaefer dialed 911 sometime after the killing and told dispatchers he’d shot a man in the head behind the movie theater before threatening to shoot himself. Schaefer’s arrest affidavit states that Schaefer told detectives he had “thought about killing someone for some time.”
Schaefer was formally charged with one count of felony murder on Jan. 4, 2023. According to public records, Schaefer is scheduled to go before a jury on April 22 in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court.
Jan. 19, 2023: Ronald Ray Mosley II, 25
Ronald Ray Mosley II’s Jan. 19 attack at a Walmart on Evansville’s West Side garnered media attention nationwide and led evening news programs throughout the country the following day. So did local law enforcement’s rapid response.
Mosley, a former Walmart employee, entered the store during business hours and held a group of employees at gunpoint inside a breakroom before he shot a female worker in the head, critically injuring her. The attack caused chaos inside the store and led to fear that a mass casualty event could ensue.According to Gray and body camera footage released by the EPD, Mosley opened fire on responding officers, who charged into the store with handguns and semi-automatic rifles at the ready.
Officers searched the Walmart, located at 335 S. Red Bank Road, aisle by aisle and ultimately shot and killed Mosley. Court records showed Mosley had previously attacked Walmart employees, and former coworkers said Mosley had incurred bullying when he worked at the big-box store.
Feb. 2, 2023: Faith Jaelynn Georges, 62
Faith Jaelynn Georges died at an Evansville hospital after her brother, Daniel Brian Smith, allegedly ran her over in a driveway at the home they both shared in the 11600 block of Sawmill Drive. Deputies arrested Smith on charges of reckless homicide and driving on a suspended license, both Level 5 felonies.
In August, Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Reed found Smith not guilty of reckless homicide during a bench trial. Reed ordered Smith released from custody.
Georges’ family described her as a “renaissance woman” of many talents in her obituary.
“Her touch left things beautiful and bright, not only with her home but also in each life she impacted,” Geroges’ family wrote. “Faith was one of god’s helpers on earth.”
Feb. 27, 2023: Shawn Wildt, 32
A shooting shattered an otherwise quiet afternoon in Vanderburgh County’s rural Ohio River bottoms on Feb. 27. Inside a small, white farmhouse, 18-year-old Austin Ousley allegedly shot two brothers: Chad and Shawn Wildt.
Shawn Wildt would not survive the ordeal. He died inside his family’s farmhouse, which is located at 5100 Cypress Dale Road, while Shawn Wildt’s brother, Chad, 42, managed to crawl away and call for help.
Ousley, who allegedly broke into the farmhouse with a 17-year-old friend, fled the scene and later shot himself in the head in a parking lot outside an Evansville Rural King. Ousley survived and underwent treatment at an Indianapolis hospital before being transported back to Vanderburgh County jail to face charges of felony murder, attempted murder and other offenses.
Ousley is scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 8, according to court records.
March 20, 2023: Gary Youngblood Jr., 37
Law enforcement shot and killed Gary Youngblood Jr. on March 20 during a tense, hours-long standoff that came after a U.S. Marshals Service task force attempted to arrest Youngblood on a warrant.
The standoff occurred in and around a home in the 200 block of East Missouri Street. According to the EPD and Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson, Youngblood brandished a weapon at responding officers and refused to surrender.
The officers and deputies utilized armored personnel carriers and chemical munitions during the standoff. Youngblood retreated to an upper floor as negotiations broke down, and officers shot and killed him as he continued to brandish what they thought was a firearm, Gray said during a news conference in March.
The weapon Youngblood had in his possession was not a firearm, though it reportedly mimicked one in appearance. The EPD released photographs of an all-black airsoft gun styled after a semi-automatic pistol that investigators said Youngblood possessed during the standoff.
At the time, Robinson said a shooting was “not the outcome we wanted … We did everything possible to avoid this conclusion.”
The incident marked the first of two Evansville police shootings in 2023 involving people who were allegedly armed with airsoft guns, which shoot small, plastic pellets.
April 12, 2023: Steven Howard Goldstein, 49
Vanderburgh County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed Steven Howard Goldstein April 12 after Goldstein opened fire on deputies and members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force, according to law enforcement officials and a review of body camera footage.
The task force had traveled to a home in the 7300 block of St. Joseph Road to arrest Goldstein for alleged parole violations, but Goldstein discharged a weapon and barricaded himself in a trailer.
The police used a mechanical arm affixed to an armored personnel carrier to tear away pieces of the trailer, which they said elicited further gunfire from Goldstein.
“At one point, a deputy returned fire, striking the suspect,” Robinson said shortly after the fatal incident.
Deputies administered medical aid, but Goldstein died at the scene.
May 6, 2023: Damarion Stanley, 15
Damarion Stanley was shot and killed − and one other teenager was shot and injured − in Evansville’s Tepe Park neighborhood on April 15. According to the EPD, Stanley flagged officers down in the 700 block of Monroe Avenue, but he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
As 2023 came to a close, no arrests had been made in connection with Stanley’s murder. Three suspects, who reportedly wore all black clothing and latex gloves, are believed to have been involved in the shooting, Gray said at the time.
A bullet grazed a 17-year-old’s head during the incident, the police said. The teen received treatment at an Evansville hospital. Anyone with information about the killing is asked to contact the EPD’s Adult Investigations Unit at 812-436-7979.
June 23, 2023: Enrico Marcus Rogers, 46
Officers found Enrico Marcus Rogers dead from an apparent stabbing at a residence in the 500 block of East Michigan Street on June 23. According to Gray, Rogers had a “wound and blood on his face” when the officers arrived.
The EPD took two people and a “person of interest” into custody, but detectives later determined Rogers had been stabbed in self-defense. Police records now describe the homicide as “justified.”
July 15, 2023: Shanay Michell Hunt, 45
On July 14, a man noticed a foul odor emanating from an abandoned home in the 1000 block of Harriet Street. When the man entered the residence, he found Shanay Michell Hunt’s body lying on a mattress. She had been dead for some time.
About two months later, multiple law enforcement agencies arrested Hunt’s son, 28-year-old Jaron A. Wells, in Carrier Mills, Illinois, for his mother’s murder.
According to police and court records, detectives traced the killing back to Wells in part due to the unique ammunition type used in the killing. Electronic evidence and detailed witness testimony implicated Wells, too, the police said.
Wells was initially held without bond at the Saline County Detention Center in Harrisburg, Illinois. As of December, Indiana court records did not yet state when Wells could stand trial in Vanderburgh County.
Aug. 4, 2023: Five-month-old Jett Leon Goldsby
Doctors at an Indianapolis children's hospital took Jett Leon Goldsby off of life support on Aug. 4. The child had suffered a skull fracture, hemorrhages and bleeding of the brain that indicated he had been “violently shaken,” the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office stated in a news release.
Goldsby’s parents, Cheyenne Elmore-Sitz, 23, and Javontae Goldsby, 31, were both arrested days earlier and charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury, a Level 1 felony, and aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony.
Following Jett Goldsby’s death, Elmore-Sitz faced an additional charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a Level 1 felony.
Both Elmore-Sitz and Javontae Goldsby are scheduled to stand trial in Vanderburgh County Circuit Cout in April.
Aug. 23, 2023: Nerlande Germain-Charles, 25
Evansville police found Germain-Charles lying slumped against a door at an East Michigan Street apartment, where two children were also present, on Aug. 24.
Germain-Charles' husband, 27-year-old Fenel Germain, was standing in the kitchen when officers arrived.
Germain-Charles later died at an Evansville hospital due to "multiple sharp force trauma," according to the Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office. She had been stabbed.
The police took Fenel Germain to EPD headquarters for questioning, and while there, he replied in the affirmative when detectives asked if he stabbed his wife, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Prosecutors formally charged Fenel Germain with felony murder on Aug. 25, according to court records. As of December, he was scheduled to go to trial in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court on June 24.
Oct. 21, 2023: Michael Blankenship Jr., 31, and Mitchell Greathouse, 37
Michael Blankenship Jr. and Mitchell Greathouse were both found dead inside a West Side home on Oct. 22. The police would later determine the men had been shot and killed the evening prior during a targeted robbery and killing.
The EPD arrested its first suspect in connection with the double murder on Oct. 26: Richard Dee Garrett, a former owner of Evansville 411 News, had reportedly admitted during a police interview that he acted as a getaway driver during the killings and robbery.
Prosecutors promptly charged Garrett with two counts of aiding, inducing or causing murder, as well as six other offenses, according to court records. As of December, a trial date had not been set.
Twenty-year-old Caden Wayne Harms, who allegedly acted as a lookout during the home invasion, turned himself in shortly after Garrett's arrest. And the man accused of pulling the trigger, 30-year-old John Cameron Parker, was arrested hours later.
Harms, who is charged with two counts of aiding, inducing or causing murder, in addition to six other offenses, is scheduled to go to trial May 20.
Parker, who is charged with two counts of first degree murder, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 2 felony, armed robbery, a Level 3 felony, and obstruction of justice, is scheduled to stand trial March 18.
Oct. 25, 2023: Christina McKinney, 34
An Evansville police officer shot and killed Christina McKinney during an incident in the 1700 block of South Evans Avenue at approximately 6:09 p.m. on Oct. 25.
Evans was involved in an earlier altercation at a nearby apartment complex, Gray told reporters during a news conference in October. A 911 caller told dispatchers Evans appeared to have been walking in the direction of a park while armed with a handgun shortly before she was killed.
The police later said Evans was armed with an all-black airsoft gun modeled after a six-shot revolver.
Body camera footage released by the EPD shows an officer, later identified as Sgt. Balke Hollins, making contact with McKinney. He repeatedly instructs her to "stop reaching."
"You mind stopping?" Hollins is heard asking McKinney when he first approached her. "You mind coming here? Ma'am, come here."
A little more than one minute after the interaction began Hollins fired on McKinney. The police said McKinney reached for and produced the airsoft gun, which Hollins believed to have been real, despite Hollins' clear instruction for her to drop any weapons in her possession.
Decline in homicides in line with national trends
The number of homicides investigated by the EPD, excluding officer-involved shootings, hit an eight-year low in 2023, according to a review of crime data published in the department’s annual reports.
The last time the department recorded fewer than eight deaths by homicide in a given year came in 2015, the reports show. But like many other cities, Evansville experienced a spike in homicide cases as the COVID-19 pandemic upended social and economic life between 2020 and 2022.
Citing recently published FBI crime data and local law enforcement's count of recent killings, criminologists have noted that 2023 saw a dramatic decline in murders and other violent crimes across the United States. While the downward trend is welcome to many, it may not have made much of a dent in Americans' perception of crime.
In a November survey measuring Americans' feelings about crime both nationally and locally, Gallup found that 77% of respondents believed there was more crime in the U.S. in 2023 than in 2022. More than half of respondents came to the same conclusion about their local communities.
The number of citzen-on-citizen killings did drop precipitously in Evansville in 2023. But, for the second year in a row, the new year is off to a violent start: On Monday, New Year's Day, 2024, Evansville police were called the 400 block of East Riverside Drive to investigate a murder.
Correction: The Evansville Police Department made arrests in five homicide cases, not six as a previous version of this article stated. A sixth homicide case was determined to have been justified. The seventh case from 2023 remains unsolved.
Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: How many homicides were committed in Evansville in 2023?
