Although the case against his co-defendant was dismissed, a Gary man’s felony murder case filed in a 2014 homicide has been set for a jury trial.
Shermon Laon Darden, 21, who has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder in perpetration of a robbery in the shooting, is scheduled for trial starting Jan. 23 before Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray.
Darden is charged with killing DeShelon Hicks Jr., 20, who was found face down in a pool of blood at his apartment in the 2200 block of East 19th Place in Gary in what court records describe as a robbery-homicide over marijuana. Court records state that Darden and another man had talked about robbing Hicks before the killing.
In May 2015, the judge ordered Darden released from Lake County Jail on an electronic monitor after prosecutors failed to bring the case to trial within 180 days, minus delays caused by the defense. After a year, Murray ordered Darden released from the monitor while his case is pending.
Meanwhile, a charge of assisting a criminal was dropped against Darrell Marsean Brown, 22, who had been identified in court records as the person who drove Darden and a co-defendant to Hicks’ apartment.
Darden’s former co-defendant, Devonte Dontrell Hodge, 21, was also charged with felony murder in Hicks’ killing, but the case was dropped on Nov. 13 after the death of a key witness, Avery Flynn.
Flynn, who was wounded during the shooting incident in which Hicks was killed, was an uncharged participant who gave a statement to police that identified Hodge as the shooter and Darden as a participant in the robbery in which 2 ounces of marijuana and money were taken.
Flynn, 20, of East Chicago, was killed Nov. 21, 2014, in the 4300 block of Massachusetts Street in Gary.
The Hicks killing is the second murder case against Hodge that has been dismissed. A 2013 murder case filed against Hodge in the killing of Laroi Griffin, 32, of Gary, was dismissed when a witness changed his story and recanted his identification of Hodge as the alleged shooter.
Ruth Ann Krause is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
