A veteran who has been coping with significant post-traumatic stress disorder was intoxicated and challenged about his service in the military in the minutes leading up to a shooting at a Whiteland apartment complex, according to court documents.
Francisco J. Garibay, 55, of 602 Willow Drive, Whiteland, has been charged with criminal recklessness in the Aug. 10 shooting. His neighbor, James Nesbit, was shot in the leg and stomach. He recovered.
Garibay told police immediately after the shooting that he was a Marine who was trained to kill, and that he knew he had shot Nesbit, but he wasn’t trying to kill him. At an interview several hours later, he told police that he did not have a clear recollection of what happened and that he is disabled due to his service as a Marine. Investigators confirmed with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that Garibay is in treatment for PTSD, the affidavit said.
Garibay was injured by an explosion in the 1980s while serving in the military, his defense attorney Carrie Miles said. He and Nesbit had no history or feud, and were not well enough acquainted to have each other’s contact information saved in their phones, Miles said.
The shooting happened about 12:45 a.m. on Aug. 10 at apartments off North Front Street in Whiteland. Nesbit told police that he had offered Garibay a plate of food, and after they ate, Nesbit started “pressing the issue about if Frank had really been in the Marines,” the affidavit said. Garibay left, went home and slammed the door. Nesbit sat down in a chair, and was shot several times, the report said.
Residents called police to report a shooting, and Nesbit’s mother called police, saying that her son had been shot by a neighbor and was “full of holes,” the affidavit said.
When police arrived, Garibay was outside holding a rifle, and a neighbor was talking with him and trying to get him to put the gun down. Whiteland police told him several times to put down the gun, but Garibay tried to go inside his apartment instead. An officer was able to stop him.
Nesbit was taken to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, where he had to undergo surgery and remained unconscious until later in August.
Garibay and Nesbit were both intoxicated at the time of the shooting, Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper said. The investigation also showed that Garibay shot into an enclosed porch area where he could not see the victim as he was shooting, Cooper said.
The PTSD, intoxication of both Garibay and Nesbit, no evidence of an ongoing feud between the two, the conversation before the shooting and the victim’s primary concern that Garibay continue treatment for PTSD and not possess firearms were factors that led Cooper to the level 5 felony charge of criminal recklessness, he said.
Cooper acknowledged that the victim may have provoked the suspect’s PTSD, but said the exchange did not rise to the level of a defense or justify the shooting.
Since the shooting, the prosecutor’s office got a court order to seize Garibay’s guns, listing him as a danger to himself or others. In total, the court order seized 21 guns, including pistols, shotguns and rifles, ammunition and explosives. The order is still in effect.
