Prosecutors charged a Greenwood teen with the murder and robbery of a ride-share driver last month in Indianapolis.
Jahion Jarrett, 17, is charged with murder. He is also charged with robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and resisting law enforcement, both felonies, as well as dangerous possession of a firearm by a child, a misdemeanor.
Police say Jarrett requested a Lyft ride using someone else’s account the evening of July 8, shot the driver, 45-year-old Hurts Presendieu, in the head, robbed him, dumped his body behind an eastside church and stole his car, according to court documents just made available to the Daily Journal.
The body was discovered the next night near a storage barn behind the church in the 9400 block of East 25th Street. Security and street cameras, as well as a GPS monitoring bracelet worn by Jarrett at the time, placed him at the scene and in the victim’s car, according to court documents.
Just before 4 a.m. July 12, Cumberland police attempted to stop the victim’s car in the 900 block of Muessing Street. It initially stopped, then fled. The car crashed near East Washington Street and Shadeland Avenue, and police detained three juveniles. Jarrett was driving, court documents show.
Police searched the car July 14 and found suspected dried blood droplets smeared and splattered throughout the vehicle, which smelled of suspected decomposing blood, according to court documents.
Police served search warrants July 15 at the homes of the two juveniles who were in the car with Jarrett, and at a home that turned out to be an old address for Jarrett, court documents show.
Police located Jarrett on July 26 at a Greenwood apartment in the 1200 block of Beacon Pointe Drive and took him in for questioning. Jarrett said he remembered nothing and refused to answer certain questions, but admitted he used Lyft from time to time, according to court documents.
When police told Jarrett they were investigating a murder, he pointed down at his leg with a smile, indicating that he was on GPS monitoring. He told police he had never taken it off, court documents show.
Witnesses said Jarrett told them the requested Lyft ride was going to be a “lick,” which is slang for a robbery. Jarrett later told witnesses he shot the Lyft driver in the head, then went to an area near a church, according to court documents.
Jarrett was charged last September with armed robbery, auto theft, dangerous possession of a firearm by a child and criminal mischief. He was out on probation at the time of the murder, according to online court records.
He is held without bond. His next hearing is set for Nov. 16 in Marion County Superior Court 27, court records show.
