Jury finds man guilty of killing 2 men during $20 weed deal
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A jury on Tuesday found a 21-year-old Indianapolis man guilty of killing two men during a $20 marijuana deal in December 2021.
Andrew Jones, 21, and Blake Coffman, 20, died in a shooting about 6:45 p.m. Dec. 1, 2021, in the 8800 block of Westfield Way at the 9000 Westfield apartments. That’s just southeast of the intersection of East 91st Street and Westfield Boulevard.
Camran Perry was found guilty of the murders of Jones and Coffman. The jury also found him guilty of a misdemeanor count of carrying a gun without a license.
According to court documents, the three men met on Westfield Way. One man was found dead inside of a vehicle, and the other outside of the vehicle. A silver handgun was in the back seat.
After receiving search warrants for the phones and social media accounts of Jones and Coffman, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department identified Perry as a suspect.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office says the cellphone was signed into Coffman’s personal Instagram account, where he had chatted via video with Perry to meet up where the shooting happened. After the shooting, investigators found, Perry deleted his account after blocking Coffman’s account.
The prosecutor’s office said in a news release, “Perry was taken into custody on January 10th. Initially, he denied knowing either of the victims, but later confessed to meeting up with them to purchase drugs. Perry later admitted to engaging in a verbal altercation with Coffman and Jones, before shooting both victims.”
On Jan. 10 at IMPD offices, Perry had told police that he paid Coffman $20 for marijuana while in the back seat of the vehicle, then the verbal altercation happened. He said Jones tightened his grip on a revolver that was in his lap and said, “you f***** up now you know we got you where we want you.”
According to court documents, Perry said he grabbed the gun away from Jones and shot both men. He said he got out of vehicle and ran into the woods. Perry said he didn’t know where the gun was, telling detectives, “I don’t have it. I don’t know I think I dropped it,” according to court documents.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday said investigators spoke with a witness who described hearing “three loud thumps” and seeing a man in a gray sweat suit standing behind the dead men’s vehicle before fleeing the scene. She and other witnesses approached the vehicle and called the police.
A sentencing hearing was set for 11:30 a.m. Aug. 1 in Marion Superior Court 30.
“Young people having easy access to firearms leads to them making poor, split-second decisions that result in senseless deaths and tragedy,” Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a statement. “It is incumbent upon us to continue to empower young people with the tools to be mindful of the long-term consequences of gun violence in order to avoid tragedies like this.”
