The man who shot and killed a teenager last year in downtown Franklin will serve 18 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Emilio Luis Garcia, 21, of Indianapolis, pleaded guilty to the crime on Tuesday in Johnson County Superior Court 2. He was set to go to trial on Monday.
Johnson County prosecutors said Garcia, who was initially charged with the murder of Donovan Burdine, was acting partially in self-defense.
At 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25, 2020, Franklin police were dispatched to a report of several shots fired in an alley in the 100 block of Hurricane Street, behind the Boys and Girls Club of Franklin, according to dispatch records.
Police found Burdine in a nearby front yard dead from multiple gunshot wounds, court documents said.
Garcia told police during an interview days later he shot Burdine with his own gun and Burdine’s gun, which several witnesses also told police was the case.
An autopsy revealed Burdine was shot 12 times in various parts of his body; two shots to the back of his head caused his death. The bullets retrieved from Burdine’s head were from Burdine’s gun, according to court documents.
A drug deal was arranged at the house where Burdine was shot to death. Several witnesses said during the drug deal, an altercation broke out because the resident wanted to search Garcia and two others he was with, which Garcia didn’t like. A fight ensued, and Garcia shot Burdine in the front yard.
Initial charging documents said Burdine was killed as part of a robbery by Garcia in connection with the drug deal. But as the case progressed, it became clear Burdine initiated the robbery. Subsequent depositions of witnesses revealed that Burdine burst into the foyer area of the home from another room, yelling to the other participants in the drug deal “you know what this is” and pointing a gun at them, according to a Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office news release.
Burdine fired a shot at Garcia through the glass storm door, then ran out into the front yard after him. Garcia returned fire, striking Burdine on multiple occasions, the news release said.
Garcia disarmed him and used Burdine’s revolver to shoot him twice in the back of the head, according to the news release.
The night of the murder, Garcia had the two guns disposed of, but detectives tracked down the man who helped him and found both guns behind a stove at his Indianapolis house, according to court documents. Police later discovered the gun Garcia had been in possession of was stolen.
The basis of the murder charge was not the shots Garcia initially fired at Burdine, but rather the final two shots to the back his head, according to the prosecutor’s office news release.
Garcia was involved in a gunfight and attempted armed robbery against him seconds before he fired the two shots that killed Burdine. As a result, he was eligible to be convicted and sentenced for voluntary manslaughter, a Level 2 Felony.
The existence of “a sudden heat of passion” reduces what would otherwise be murder to voluntary manslaughter. “Sudden heat of passion” occurs when an individual is provoked, exceeds the permissible bounds of self-defense and kills someone, the news release said.
“As your prosecutor, I have an ethical obligation to follow the law and hold individuals accountable for the crime supported by the evidence. In this case evidence came out demonstrating that, in large part, the death of Donovan Burdine was unfortunately precipitated by his own actions,” Prosecutor Joe Villanueva said in a statement.
Sentencing is set for April 8, though Garcia entered into a fixed plea agreement. He will serve 18 years in prison without the possibility of any kind of modification by the court.
