An Indiana homeowner was charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a house cleaner who arrived at the wrong address before she was gunned down outside the front door, authorities said Monday.
Curt Andersen, 62, was taken into custody and was being held without bail Monday, booked on one count of voluntary manslaughter, jail records showed.
Andersen "did not have a reasonable belief that that type of force was necessary, given all the facts," Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood told reporters.
Eastwood acknowledged that Indiana has strong protections for self-defense but said those protections didn't apply in this instance.
"It is vitally important for the citizens of Boone County to understand that our decision today in no way should be interpreted as a challenge to Indiana's stand your ground law, a person’s right to self-defense," Eastwood said.
"We respect those laws, believe in those laws and will uphold those laws. Based upon the particular evidence and circumstances of this case, we have determined that Curt Andersen's actions do not fall within the legal protections provided by the Indiana stand your ground law."
In the end, Eastwood said, his office's decision to charge Anderson was clear-cut.
"Honestly it wasn't — I hate to sound cavalier about this — but it was not a hard decision," he said.
Maria Florinda Rios Perez, 32, a Guatemalan immigrant, was killed on Nov. 5 after she and her husband mistakenly went to the wrong home in anticipation of a day’s work as house cleaners in the Indianapolis suburb of Whitestown.
She was shot in the head and died in the arms of her husband, Mauricio Velásquez, according to the charging document and family members.
Perez had four children, ages 11 months to 17.
Andersen will appear before a judge later this week, when he will ask for bail, said his criminal defense attorney, Guy Relford.
Relford called Perez's death "a terrible tragedy that is heartbreaking for everyone involved" but insisted Andersen took action within bounds of Indiana statutes.
"That law allows a person to use reasonable force, including deadly force, if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent an unlawful entry into his home," Relford said in a statement.
"Contrary to the contention of the prosecutor — and without discussing the specific facts of the case — we believe Mr. Andersen had every reason to believe his actions were absolutely necessary and fully justified at the time."
Relford said Andersen was being "unfairly judged" and shouldn't be convicted "based on hindsight."
Perez, who was 4-foot-11, and her husband were hired to clean a model home that had just been completed on Oct. 30, according to the criminal complaint written by Whitestown Police Detective Christopher Fischer.
They ended up at Andersen's home on Maize Lane instead of that "model home further down in the neighborhood," the complaint said.
Velásquez's cellphone had a text message with a Google Maps link from their boss, showing them to the model home, police said.
"Mauricio explained that the residence that they were going to was a model house, but the GPS kept sending them to" what turned out to be Andersen's home on Maize Lane, according to the complaint.
Andersen and his wife are night owls and didn't get to sleep until after 2 a.m. before a shaking doorknob woke them up, they told police.
The pair initially retreated to a "safe room" on the second floor before Andersen retrieved a black Glock 48 semiautomatic handgun from a locked box, Andersen told police.
Andersen said he "could see two individuals outside the front door through the top and side windows at the front door," according to the complaint.
Throughout his police interview, Andersen kept calling the shooting "the incident," police said.
Andersen said that after "the incident," he told his wife to call 911, according to the complaint. "Curt told the dispatcher his address and said 'please come, please come, please come, they are trying to get in,'” the complaint said.
The prosecutor will have to overcome Indiana code that grants wide latitude to state residents to use "reasonable" force "to prevent serious bodily injury to the person."
What is reasonable "is vague," said Indianapolis defense attorney Courtney Benson-Kooy, who is on the executive committee of the Indiana Bar’s Criminal Justice Section.
"It's going to be completely up to the jury to determine whether the person actually believed that they were in fear or that [lethal] force was necessary," Benson-Kooy added.
