An Indiana homeowner has been charged with voluntary manslaughter after police say he shot and killed a house cleaner who mistakenly arrived at his home.
The charge was announced Monday, nearly two weeks after the fatal shooting.
Curt Andersen, the 52-year-old homeowner, was booked into Boone County Jail without bond. Prosecutors said he will appear in court later this week.
Highlights
- Indiana homeowner Curt Andersen has been charged with voluntary manslaughter for shooting a house cleaner who mistakenly arrived at his home.
- Prosecutors ruled Andersen's actions didn't qualify under Indiana's Stand Your Ground law, as deadly force wasn't reasonably necessary.
- Victim Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez never entered the home; she was shot on the porch while the wrong keys were used.
An Indiana man has been charged with voluntary manslaughter after shooting a house cleaner
If convicted, Andersen could face 10 to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood said his office conducted a thorough review before filing the charges.
They determined that Andersen’s actions did not fall under Indiana’s Stand Your Ground law, which allows homeowners to use deadly force if they reasonably believe someone is unlawfully entering their home.
“It’s our contention that the person did not have a reasonable belief that that type of force was necessary, given all the facts that he had at that time,” Eastwood said during a press briefing Monday.
The shooting occurred on the morning of Novembe 5 in a Whitestown subdivision, about 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
Police responded to a 911 call reporting a possible home invasion shortly before 7 a.m. They found 32-year-old Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez dead on the front porch, having suffered a gunshot wound to the head.
Image credits: Sprowl Funeral & Cremation Care
Authorities later confirmed that Rios Perez de Velasquez, a mother of four, was part of a cleaning crew and had mistakenly gone to Andersen’s home.
Her husband, Mauricio Perez-Velasquez, told reporters that he was with her on the porch when the shot rang out.
“I never thought it was a shot, but I realized when my wife took two steps back, she looked like she’d been hit in the head,” he told WRTV in Spanish.
“She fell into my arms, and I saw the blood. It went everywhere,” he said.
Image credits: WTHR/YouTube
Police said Andersen told investigators that he had been awakened due to a “commotion” and what sounded like someone was trying to get inside the front door, according to the affidavit.
“Curt described the individuals were ‘thrusting’ at the front door to get in with what he described as getting more and more aggressive,” the affidavit stated.
When he saw two people outside and thought they were breaking in, he retrieved his gun and shot toward the closed front door of the residence.
A spent cartridge casing was found on the stairs inside the home.
Rios Perez de Velasquez never entered the house.
The cleaner had mistakenly arrived at Andersen’s house, but did not enter the front door
Image credits: WTHR/YouTube
Her husband explained that they had been given keys by their employer and thought they were at the correct model home. They attempted to use the keys for roughly a minute before the shooting occurred.
He also said he never heard anyone speak inside the home—“just the one shot.”
The affidavit also states the husband said he did not use any force to enter the home or bang on the door.
Andersen’s attorney, Guy Relford, expressed disappointment at the charge and said his client will defend his actions under Indiana’s self-defense laws.
“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 in a statement.
“We also believe that Mr. Andersen’s actions are being unfairly judged based on facts that were unknowable to him as events unfolded that early morning.”
The prosecutor said his decision wasn’t difficult to make. “I hate to sound cavalier about this, but it wasn’t a hard decision.”
Meanwhile, the victim’s family said the charge is an important step toward justice. Family attorney Alex Limontes said, “On the morning Maria was killed, she was simply arriving to clean a home. Maria never made it inside the house. She was shot through a closed door.”
“Maria was a mother, a wife, a sister and a valued member of our community. Her life was taken in a manner that should never happen in any neighborhood in Indiana,” he added.
Eastwood called the case “very rare” for Boone County and warned against spreading false information about the shooting. A common rumor is that Andersen was a police officer, which Eastwood debunked.
Image credits: Boone County Sheriff's Office/Facebook
Indiana is one of 31 states with a stand-your-ground law.
In a similar case in Missouri in 2023, an 86-year-old man was charged with first-degree assault for shooting 16-year-old black teenager Ralph Yarl, who came to the man’s door by mistake. Missouri has a similar stand-your-ground law.
Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in gun rights, told ABC 7 that the shooter would have to prove that he thought he was in imminent danger, in order to get immunity.
She added that a person can be legally on private property, including a front porch, for a genuine purpose until they are told to leave.