INDIANAPOLIS — A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a Indianapolis man charged in fatal shooting five people, including a pregnant woman, after a witness verbally confronted the suspect in front of the jury.
Marion County Judge Chris Miller on Tuesday dismissed the trial of Raymond Ronald Lee Childs III, who is accused of six counts of murder in connection with the January 2021 Indianapolis home shootings.
Children, 20, was arrested a day after the attack and accused of murdering his father, stepmother, two teenage relatives, a heavily pregnant young woman and her unborn son.
The mistrial came after a key witness in the case, Elanso Valez, testified that he picked up Childs and drove him around Indianapolis in the hours after the killings. He said Childs later covered his eyes and cried as he lay on a bed in Valez’s home in Plainfield, just west of Indianapolis.
“Do you remember that?” Valez asked Childs from the witness stand. This was reported by WXIN-TV.
The defense and prosecution quickly tried to cut Valez off, and the judge tried to intervene, but Valez persisted, asking, “Why did you do it, Raymond?”
The judge reprimanded Valez for his comments to the jurors and dismissed them from the courtroom so he could speak to the attorneys and then to each juror individually.
Miller subsequently declared the trial a mistrial because he “strongly believes that Mr. Childs cannot receive a fair trial.” He scheduled a status conference with attorneys for Monday.
The killings followed an argument over Childs, then 17, staying out late, according to court records. Prosecutors said Childs methodically went from room to room, shooting the victims.
The attack killed Childs’ father, Raymond Childs Jr., 42; his stepmother, Kezzie Childs, 42; the couple’s 13-year-old daughter, Rita Childs; their 18-year-old son, Elijah Childs; and Elijah’s 19-year-old girlfriend, Kiara Hawkins, who died at the hospital along with her unborn son.
Childs’ 15-year-old brother was also shot, but survived after running from the home to escape the gunfire.