Docs: Girlfriend, grandmother receive texts showing man held hostage before murder
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Three people have been arrested for the murder of a man who was kidnapped, beaten and killed on the city’s east side. Court documents indicate he was killed in a dispute over a missing vehicle.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department announced the arrests of 35-year-old Christina Clark, 29-year-old Josselyn Johnson and 21-year-old Jaheim Miller on Thursday night. They’re accused of being involved with the murder of 28-year-old Corbin Rogers. All three face preliminary charges of murder and kidnapping.
IMPD found his body while investigating a burglary in the 100 block of North Euclid Avenue on Dec. 8. That’s near the intersection of Washington Street and Emerson Avenue. Dispatchers told officers that maintenance workers at an apartment complex had chased the suspects to a vacant house. When officers began searching the house, a duplex, they found Rogers in a pool of blood. Spent casings were around his body. The Marion County Coroner’s Office said he had been shot multiple times and ruled his death a homicide.
The next day, an IMPD detective spoke with Rogers’ girlfriend and his grandmother. His grandmother told the detective that she received a call from Rogers’ cell phone just after 3:15 p.m. on Dec. 7. She said that when she answered, she heard her grandson begging for $5,000. She told the detective that she also heard a woman’s voice yelling about a car that had been stolen. The call then disconnected but shortly later, she said she received a picture via text message from her grandson’s cell phone.
“Witness 1 received a text message from Corbin’s cell phone showing Corbin sitting in a vehicle with two masked men on either side of him,” court documents state. “The two masked men were pointing what appeared to be handguns at Corbin’s head. Witness 1 stated she received another text message from Corbin’s phone stating that Corbin would soon be dead if they did not receive the money.”
Rogers’ girlfriend told the detective said she received a video on Facebook from a woman claiming to be holding Rogers hostage. That Facebook message allowed investigators to identify Clark as a suspect in the case.
She also told police that Rogers and Clark had been squatting in a vacant apartment together. She said she had spoken to Rogers around 2 p.m. on Dec. 7.
“Corbin was attempting to sell the car to Witness 5 on behalf of Kristina [sic] Clark. They stopped at a gas station and Corbin went inside at which time Witness 5 drove off with the car, a black Nissan Altima,” court documents state. “Corbin told Witness 2 he called Clark and told her Witness 5 stole the Nissan and Clark told Corbin that she would kill him if he did not return the car. As Witness 2 spoke with Corbin, she heard a vehicle pull up and heard a female yelling at Corbin, at which time the call disconnected.”
Another witness told police he had surveillance video showing Rogers being beaten by a group of people while inside of a vehicle.
An anonymous tip sent to police linked Johnson and Miller to the case. Johnson is Miller’s aunt.
Police later spoke to the man identified in court documents as Witness 5 – the man who Rogers indicated had taken the vehicle. He told police that he and Rogers had borrowed the vehicle from Clark.
“They went to a nearby gas station and Corbin asked him to take the Nissan and park it in the apartment complex across the street from Baltimore Apartments,” court documents state. “Witness 5 took the car and parked it in the Blackburn Terrace Apartments. Witness 5 got back into the pickup truck he drove there and left.”
He said he then began receiving threatening calls from Clark, accusing him of stealing the car.
On Wednesday, police pulled over a vehicle containing Clark, Johnson and Miller.
In an interview with police, Johnson indicated that the stolen vehicle was a rental car.
Court documents do not indicate that any of the suspects admitted who killed Rogers.
Formal charges have not yet been filed by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. Online jail records indicate that all three suspects are scheduled for court appearances next week.
IMPD said mugshots for the suspects cannot yet be released.
