Prosecutor says it will take days to decide whether to charge homeowner in house cleaner’s death

LEBANON, Ind. (AP) — A decision on whether to file charges against an Indiana homeowner suspected of killing of a Guatemalan house cleaner after she mistakenly went to the wrong address may not come for days, prosecutors say.

Investigators turned over their findings in Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez’s death to Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood on Friday. Eastwood said in a news release that his review will take “several days.” He promised to announce his decision publicly but said he may not do so until the end of this week or early next week.

“Our hearts remain with Mrs. Rios Perez de Velasquez’s loved ones,” Eastwood said in the release. “Justice requires patience, and we ask for the community’s understanding as we work diligently to reach the right decision under Indiana law.”

The woman’s family and supporters gathered on the steps of Eastwood’s office on Monday with a photo of her and signs that read “Justice for Maria.”

“Although we’re immigrants, we still have rights,” Rios Perez De Velasquez’s husband, Mauricio Velasquez, said in Spanish. “We’re not animals. We’re people just like everyone else. We have blood, too. All I’m asking for is justice.”

Authorities have said the couple was part of a cleaning crew and had gone to a home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb, early Wednesday morning for a job, but it was the wrong address. Police officers found the woman dead on the front porch of the home just before 7 a.m.

Eastwood told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the homeowner had shot her. Police Capt. John Jurkash said in an email to the AP that the shot came from inside the house. Mauricio Velasquez told WRTV in Indianapolis that he was standing on the porch with his wife and didn’t realize she had been shot until she fell into his arms, bleeding.

Authorities have not publicly identified the shooter. Police have said there is no evidence the Velasquezes actually entered the home.

Complicating Eastwood’s charging decision is Indiana’s stand-your-ground law, which permits residents to use deadly force to stop someone they reasonably believe is trying to enter their dwelling unlawfully. Thirty-one states have such laws.

In similar cases elsewhere, prosecutors have successfully brought charges against people who opened fire outside their homes, including a guilty plea by an 86-year-old man who shot Ralph Yarl after the Black teenager came to his door by mistake. In New York, a man was convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a woman inside a car who came down his driveway by mistake.

Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in gun rights, called the Whitestown case “horrible” and “exceptionally unusual.”

For the shooter to enjoy stand-your-ground immunity, she said, he would have to prove that he thought he was in imminent danger and that any other reasonable person would feel the same way in that situation.

The public generally can legally access private property — including a front porch — for a legitimate purpose until they are told to leave, Madeira said. For example, a homeowner can’t legally shoot a pizza delivery person or an Amazon driver just for stepping onto their property, she said.

The couple apparently never entered the shooter’s home, so there was no unlawful entry, Madeira said. A reasonable person who hears his doorknob rattle would probably call the police or look out the window without opening fire, she said. That could leave the shooter open to a reckless homicide charge, she said.

“What we’re doing here is setting a precedent,” Madeira said of Eastwood’s decision. “If we let this go without filing criminal charges, we might be sending a message that it’s OK to fire through a door when someone comes up on the front porch and knocks and rattles the doorknob.”