The Probable Cause

Articles

Two victims, one dead, and someone 'begging for his life' in parking lot

6 days ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --Three serious crimes in less than 24 hours. Shontrel Bright, 33, is charged with murder in the shooting death of Keitron Demos Adams, 21, and the attempted murder of his Adams’ brother who is intubated, sedated and in critical condition from several gunshot wounds, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Fort Wayne homicide detective Geraud Bartels. And, he’s charged with sexual battery using deadly force from an encounter just a few short hours before the homicide.
FWPD undercover hits two massage parlors, but there are plenty more

1 week ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --You see them in suburban strip malls innocuously snuck in between coffee shops, offices, hair salons and phone stores. They flourish partly because the businesses are quiet, hardly noticeable, except for the “open” sign at odd hours of the night. Men in their 40s and 50s like to back up their huge pick-up trucks into the parking spot, thinking no one can see the license plate at the rear of the truck.
They knew he had a gun and he was 'trippin,' homicide court docs say

1 week ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Patrons at the American Legion Post at Hanna and Lewis streets had to hustle Isaiah J. Wilson out of the bar in the early hours of Sunday, April 13. People were understandably upset when Wilson, 26, sat at the bar and talked about how demons were going to get him, according to a probable cause affidavit written by homicide detective Brian Martin. He appeared to be having “a mental episode” and people thought he was on drugs.
Brazen 2017 daylight homicide turned cold case is cleared; 2 charged

1 week ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---The homicide was in August when the evening is still summer lit. Around 6 p.m. August 3, 2017, a witness saw Tavon Underwood, now 27, and Carlos Ellis, now 26, swoop down on a black Buick Regal from different directions, firing their guns at the hapless victim, Nicholas Hennan, according to a probable cause affidavit written by homicide detective Brian Martin, the cold case sleuth for the Fort Wayne Police Department.
Man sentenced for repeatedly striking non-verbal foster son

1 week ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---The judge said the facts were appalling and he wasn’t convinced the foster dad’s Facebook apology was sincere. Chad Eppard, 31, was in court Thursday (April10) to receive his sentence for Felony 5 domestic battery and Felony 5 neglect of a dependent, both charges resulting in bodily injury.
She witnessed a workplace shooting: Now her life will never be the same.

1 week ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

Donna Shroyer’s life changed dramatically April 13, 2024 when shots were fired close to her CNC workstation at Dana Corp. Around 1 a.m. a co-worker diverted her from the line of fire just after she heard gunfire and saw the smoke rise from gunshots. A supervisor and union employee were physically fighting as other employees rushed to break up the two, while Donna ran to another area of the factory to get help and her co-worker dialed 9-1-1, Shroyer said.
Guilty verdict for woman who stabbed her boyfriend in the heart

2 weeks ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. --- In Indiana, if it’s murder, you get charged with straight up murder, no premeditated murder, no second degree murder, just murder. The decision to kill someone can be long plotted or as instantaneous as a fleeting moment of rage, passion, rejection or hurt. There's no difference when it comes to Hoosier law. It can be that moment when you plunge a serrated kitchen knife five and a half inches deep into the heart of a 280-lb. man and then find out hours later, he’s dead.
'He beat on her:' Family speaks out for woman charged with murder

2 weeks ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

ALLEN COUNTY, IND. ---There was blood from the victim and the defendant on the serrated kitchen knife she's accused of using to stab him, a DNA forensic scientist said in court Wednesday. There’s surveillance video of Christina Habegger, 37, arriving at the Oliver Street home of her boyfriend, Robert Higginbotham III. A couple of minutes later, he staggers away and she leaves.
Murder trial begins for woman accused of stabbing her man in the heart

2 weeks ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Opening day in court and there was a gentle bicker over a certain undignified word normally applied to a woman and, if that word was a term of endearment or an indication of abuse. When the 280-lb Robert Higginbotham Jr, now deceased, called his girlfriend the “B” word as in “that b—-ch stabbed me,” was he really angry or showing love?
Yorkshire terrier victim in marital fight, dies after flung on to Cook Road

2 weeks ago | theprobablecause.com | Jamie Duffy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Last Thursday (April 3), this 37-year-old man called his wife more nasty names than any man should utter, names we won’t publish in The Probable Cause. His wife of merely a year, according to the police report, there was with no apparent history of domestic violence. She told the cops her husband, Alexander Yoho, had been drinking, and it was so noted in the report.