The suspect in last weekend’s murder told detectives he shot 18-year-old Donovan Burdine with both his own gun and the victim’s gun.
Johnson County prosecutors have charged Emilio Luis Garcia, 20, with murder, pointing a firearm and carrying a handgun without a license after the shooting Jan. 25 in downtown Franklin. He faces up to 68 1/2 years in prison and $25,000 in fines, according to charging documents filed Thursday in Johnson County Superior Court 2.
Garcia, of Indianapolis, was arrested Sunday evening, and told police during an interview Tuesday he shot Burdine with his own gun and Burdine’s gun, which several witnesses also told police was the case.
An autopsy revealed Burdine was shot 12 times in various parts of his body; two shots to the back of his head caused his death. The bullets retrieved from Burdine’s head were from what police believe was Burdine’s gun, according to court documents.
At 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25, Franklin police were dispatched to a report of several shots fired in an alley in the 100 block of Hurricane Street, behind the Boys and Girls Club of Franklin, according to dispatch records.
Police found Burdine in a nearby front yard dead from multiple gunshot wounds, court documents said.
In the week since the murder, Franklin police gathered details of the crime that led to Burdine’s death: a drug deal gone bad. A fight over 2 ounces of marijuana changed the course of several lives.
“As often times is the case, the source of the violent crime in Johnson County is drug dealing. That is why it is more important than ever to focus on taking drug dealers off the streets,” Prosecutor Joe Villanueva said in a news release. “Thankfully, with the hard work of the Franklin Police Department and the help of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, we were able to quickly find the suspect and murder weapon.”
A drug deal was arranged at the house where Burdine was shot to death. Those involved include: Burdine; Garcia; Roger Miller, the driver of the suspect vehicle who was also arrested this week on a charge of assisting a criminal; a resident of the house; a friend of he and Burdine’s; a Franklin juvenile; the juvenile’s friend; and his girlfriend.
According to court documents, Miller and Garcia were playing video games at an apartment in the Beech Grove area of Indianapolis, when Miller reached out to the juvenile whom he knew from work to see if he knew of anyone who wanted to buy marijuana. The juvenile posted to Snapchat, a social media application, asking if anyone was interested. He was contacted by the resident of the house where the shooting later occurred, and a drug deal was arranged.
Miller and Garcia picked up the juvenile, his friend and his girlfriend and drove them to a Franklin gas station, where the car and Miller are seen on surveillance video, then to the house on Hurricane Street, court documents said.
Several witnesses said during the drug deal, an altercation broke out because the resident wanted to search Garcia, Miller and the juvenile, which Garcia didn’t like. A fight ensued, and Garcia shot Burdine in the front yard.
Garcia later told police he shot Burdine with his own gun, ran out of bullets, stole Burdine’s gun and shot him in the head with it. The autopsy confirms Garcia’s account of what happened, according to court documents.
Police found multiple shell casings at the crime scene, all of which were tied to Garcia’s gun. The only evidence that Burdine’s gun was fired were the bullets retrieved from his head during the autopsy. They also found a bloody backpack in a closet at the back of the house, court documents said.
Immediately after the shooting, the suspects fled the scene in the red 2013 Dodge Dart police were on the hunt for within hours of the shooting; the car was registered to a relative of Miller.
The juvenile told police Miller dropped him off along with his friend and his girlfriend at the Heritage subdivision. On the ride there, Garcia became furious and shouted at them, accusing them of setting him up and waving a gun at them, they said.
The night of the murder, Garcia had the two guns disposed of, but detectives tracked down the man who helped him and found both guns behind a stove at his Indianapolis house, according to court documents. Police later discovered the gun Garcia had been in possession of was stolen.
Garcia told police he was planning to turn himself in, but they didn’t give him enough time to do so, court documents said.
