Judge sets bail for Indiana man accused of killing house cleaner, sets trial for March

A judge set bail Friday for an Indiana man accused of killing a house cleaner who showed up at his home by mistake at $25,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport.

Prosecutors charged Curt Andersen of Whitestown, on Monday, with voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 5 death of 32-year-old Guatemalan immigrant Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez.

Andersen, 62, made his initial appearance in Boone County Superior Court on Friday morning dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and a bulletproof vest. In addition to setting bail, Judge Matthew Kincaid ordered Andersen to surrender his passport and scheduled a jury trial to begin March 30, according to online court records.

Voicemail and email messages were left Friday for Andersen’s attorney, gun rights advocate Guy Relford. Boone County Prosecutor Kent Edwards declined to comment on the case.

According to court documents, Rios and her husband were part of a house cleaning crew and went to Andersen’s house by mistake. As they tried to unlock Andersen’s door with a key their company had given them, Andersen fired a shot through the door without warning. The bullet hit Rios in the head. Her husband was not hurt.

Andersen told investigators he heard someone trying to unlock his front door and thought someone was trying to break into his home. The case promises to test the limits of Indiana’s stand-your-ground law, which allows homeowners to use deadly force to stop someone they reasonably believe is entering their dwelling unlawfully.

Police have said there’s no evidence Rios entered the home before she was shot. Relford, the defense attorney, has maintained that Andersen had every reason to believe his actions were justified under the law but has not elaborated publicly.

Rios’ family planned to return her body to Guatemala on Saturday. A funeral has been set for Sunday in Cabrican, a town in the southwestern region of the country.