Indianapolis – The slayings of seven family members unfolded when one victim returned home and drew a weapon as two gunmen were ransacking the house to find a safe they believed contained cash and cocaine, according to documents filed by prosecutors Monday.
One man arrested in last week’s killings – James Stewart, 30 – was searching for the safe upstairs but found nothing and went downstairs, according to a probable-cause affidavit, the first detailed account of the incident. There, he found that Magno Albarran, 29, had entered the house and pulled a gun on Desmond Turner, 28, whom authorities consider the main triggerman.
Stewart told investigators that he fired his handgun at Albarran. Turner then “started shooting everybody,” Stewart said.
As Turner continued the rampage, Stewart said he pleaded with him “not to go back there and not to shoot the kids,” referring to the bedrooms where the bodies of three children were found, according to the affidavit.
Three generations of family members were found dead after the shootings Thursday night. Police arrested Stewart after a traffic stop Friday. Turner surrendered Saturday.
Stewart told investigators after his arrest that he and Turner “had gone to a Mexican’s house to rob it of a safe containing a large sum of money and drugs,” the papers say.
Authorities have said that accounts of money and other valuables being kept inside the home were “fiction.”
