Jury convicts 41-year-old of 2021 murder at apartment on northeast side
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A 41-year-old Indianapolis man was found guilty Wednesday of the 2021 murder of a man at the Carriage House East apartments, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office reports.
Indianapolis police found Michael McDowell, 65, dead with a single gunshot wound to the head while responding to a report of a person shot about 4:50 p.m. July 3, 2021, in the 10100 block of Pineneedle Court. The apartment complex is near the intersection of East 42nd Street and North Mitthoeffer Road.
A jury found Daniel “Cory” Rhodes guilty of murder. A count of unlawful possession of a firearm was dismissed, online court records show. However, Rhodes was found to be a habitual offender and will receive an enhanced sentence. His sentencing was set for 11 a.m. April 12 in Marion Superior Court 30.
Witnesses told investigators that Rhodes and McDowell were visiting an apartment, and Rhodes was acting paranoid and was under the influence. Investigators obtained and executed a search warrant for Rhodes’s residence and recovered the rifle used in the shooting with Rhodes’s DNA on the weapon. The special weapons and tactics team of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department apprehended Rhodes and he was taken to the homicide office, the prosecutor’s office said in a news release issued Wednesday.
Rhodes admitted to detective that he’d approach McDowell as he sat on the couch inside the apartment and shot him in the head, the release says. Rhodes also told detectives that he believed he was being set up for a robbery and thought McDowell had a gun.
There were no firearms recovered from McDowell or the apartment, the release says.
