The Indiana homeowner charged in the fatal shooting of a house cleaner, who came to the wrong address, posted bail and was released on Friday after spending four nights behind bars.
Curt Andersen will have to wear a GPS monitor after posting a $25,000 bond under conditions set by Boone County Judge Matthew Kincaid during a brief hearing on Friday morning, defense attorney Guy Relford said.
By the early Friday evening, jail records showed that Andersen had posted bond and was released. The suspect also had to surrender his passport to police in the Indianapolis suburb of Whitestown, records showed.
Andersen, 62, was arrested Monday and booked on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter following the Nov. 5 death of Maria Florinda Rios Perez, 32, a Guatemalan immigrant fatally shot outside his front door.
Andersen opened fire from the top of a stairwell without going downstairs to see who was at the front door, police said.
The 4-foot-11 Rios Perez and her husband were house cleaners on their way to work at a nearby model home that had just been completed, authorities said.
“Mrs. Andersen states that neither she nor her husband had ever gone to the front door,” according to a police affidavit in support of Andersen’s arrest. “She explained that she attempted to, but he stopped her because he was unsure if the people outside had a gun.”
After firing the fatal shot, police said, Andersen had his wife call 911 before he took the phone and reported a potential break-in.
“Curt told the dispatcher his address and said ‘please, please, please come, please come, they are trying to get in,’” according to the affidavit. “Curt said he was holding the firearm in his right hand and the phone in his left hand. He said he did not know what to do with the gun.”
Even after a dispatcher told Andersen that officers arrived, Andersen said he was worried about going downstairs to meet police, the affidavit said.
Andersen “told the dispatcher he couldn’t see the police at this time and said he was still scared of the individuals on the porch,” according to the complaint.
A former neighbor of Andersen’s told NBC News this week that the suspect lived with a fear of crime that kept his wife and him indoors nearly every day.
“He was very paranoid about the world,” said former neighbor Brittany Barker, a 38-year-old homemaker.
Andersen is due back in court on Jan. 23 with a tentative trial date set for March 30.
