Prosecutor says it will take days to decide whether to charge homeowner
in house cleaner's death
[November 12, 2025]
By OBED LAMY and TODD RICHMOND
LEBANON, Ind. (AP) — A decision on whether to file charges against an
Indiana homeowner suspected of killing of a Guatemalan house cleaner
after she mistakenly went to the wrong address may not come for days,
prosecutors say.
Investigators turned over their findings in Maria Florinda Rios Perez De
Velasquez's death to Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood on Friday.
Eastwood said in a news release that his review will take “several
days.” He promised to announce his decision publicly but said he may not
do so until the end of this week or early next week.
“Our hearts remain with Mrs. Rios Perez de Velasquez's loved ones,”
Eastwood said in the release. “Justice requires patience, and we ask for
the community's understanding as we work diligently to reach the right
decision under Indiana law.”
The woman's family and supporters gathered on the steps of Eastwood's
office on Monday with a photo of her and signs that read “Justice for
Maria.”
“Although we're immigrants, we still have rights,” Rios Perez De
Velasquez's husband, Mauricio Velasquez, said in Spanish. “We're not
animals. We're people just like everyone else. We have blood, too. All
I'm asking for is justice.”
Authorities have said the couple was part of a cleaning crew and had
gone to a home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb, early Wednesday
morning for a job, but it was the wrong address. Police officers 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
homeowner had shot her. Police Capt. John Jurkash said in an email to
the AP that the shot came from inside the house. Mauricio Velasquez told
WRTV in Indianapolis that he was standing on the porch with his wife and
didn't realize she had been shot until she fell into his arms, bleeding.
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Authorities have not publicly identified the shooter. Police have
said there is no evidence the Velasquezes actually entered the home.
Complicating Eastwood's charging decision is Indiana's
stand-your-ground law, which permits residents to use deadly force
to stop someone they reasonably believe is trying to enter their
dwelling unlawfully. Thirty-one states have such laws.
In similar cases elsewhere, prosecutors have successfully brought
charges against people who opened fire outside their homes,
including a guilty plea by an 86-year-old man who shot Ralph Yarl
after the Black teenager came to his door by mistake. In New York, a
man was convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a
woman inside a car who came down his driveway by mistake.
Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in
gun rights, called the Whitestown case “horrible” and “exceptionally
unusual.”
For the shooter to enjoy stand-your-ground immunity, she said, he
would have to prove that he thought he was in imminent danger and
that any other reasonable person would feel the same way in that
situation.
The public generally can legally access private property — including
a front porch — for a legitimate purpose until they are told to
leave, Madeira said. For example, a homeowner can't legally shoot a
pizza delivery person or an Amazon driver just for stepping onto
their property, she said.
The couple apparently never entered the shooter’s home, so there was
no unlawful entry, Madeira said. A reasonable person who hears his
doorknob rattle would probably call the police or look out the
window without opening fire, she said. That could leave the shooter
open to a reckless homicide charge, she said.
“What we're doing here is setting a precedent,” Madeira said of
Eastwood's decision. “If we let this go without filing criminal
charges, we might be sending a message that it's OK to fire through
a door when someone comes up on the front porch and knocks and
rattles the doorknob."
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