Charges dropped in Gary murder case days before man’s trial
By Ruth Ann Krause Post-Tribune correspondent October 26, 2012 4:30PM
Updated: November 28, 2012 6:10AM
Days before his case was scheduled for jury trial, the Lake County prosecutor’s office has dismissed a murder charge against a 21-year-old Gary man.
John Wesley Sellers III, who has pleaded not guilty to the charge filed in April in the 2010 shooting death of Malcolm Davis, was scheduled to stand trial starting Monday before Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray.
In a motion granted by the judge, trial supervisor Robert Persin wrote that the state has insufficient evidence to proceed to trial and referred the case to Gary police for further investigation.
Police were called at about 6:20 p.m. Oct. 7, 2010 to the 2300 block of Massachusetts Street in Gary, where they found Davis, 39, inside a pickup truck, which had driven through a yard.
Davis was dead at the scene behind the wheel and the truck engine was running. The truck had about five bullet holes in it. Davis was shot several times in the head.
Prosecutors had filed a criminal gang sentencing enhancement request, which would double the sentence for murder if Sellers is convicted. The court alleges Sellers committed the felony of murder in Davis’ death at the direction or in affiliation with a criminal gang.
Under the judge’s ruling, prosecutors have the option to refile the charges.
Before he was brought to Lake County, Sellers was being held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Beaver, W.Va.
