A murder trial opened Monday for a Gary man that authorities allege turned around, shot and killed a woman sitting in a backseat in 2019.
Drew Carter III, 46, is charged with murder, kidnapping while armed with a deadly weapon, criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon and criminal confinement with bodily injury. He has pleaded not guilty.
Police believe Jessica Flores, 36, of South Chicago Heights, Illinois, died sometime on Feb. 24 or 25, 2019.
The car was later discovered torched in Chicago with a pool of blood in the backseat. Flores’s body was not found for more than a year until skeletal remains were discovered in April 2020 in Gary’s Brunswick Park.
The case has been subject to various court delays. Last week, lawyers discussed potentially pushing the trial back again, if a deposition wasn’t completed in time.
Deputy Prosecutor Infinity Westberg told jurors in opening arguments Monday afternoon that the case was a “crazy” story almost “out of a movie.”
Flores messaged her friend – the surviving witness who sat next to her when she was shot – to go party and do drugs that night. Flores borrowed her boyfriend’s car to go out. Later that night, the women ended up at a Gary trap (drug) house.
Flores gets “rowdy”, there’s “chaos” and the two women are kicked out, Westberg says. Carter, who happened to be there, leaves with them. He and Flores – who were involved in the past – argue “on-and-off” during the night. Now driving, Carter stops multiple times to turn around and argue with her. The friend tries to get out to walk home. Flores convinces her to get back in the car. There was talk of the three having sex.
“I have one question for you. Can I (have sex with) her,” he said later to Flores, according to Westberg.
When Flores said, “No.”, Carter shot her in the chest, the prosecutor alleged.
Carter was wearing a glove holding the gun. The witness saw a flash, before it went off. Then, she “bolted” out the car; Carter chased her down, shoved her down, then convinced her to get back in the car, where he took her back to his relative’s house. He tried to have sex with her, then gave her crack cocaine. He gave her the gun to allegedly calm her down. She put it on a windowsill. Once he was asleep, she escaped that night, before eventually going to a relative’s house.
Three different police departments – Chicago, Chicago Heights and Gary, were investigating different pieces, before they realized it was the same case, Westberg said. Prosecutors admitted the witness – who was originally listed as missing with Flores – didn’t call authorities and didn’t talk to the police for 12 days.
Defense lawyer Mark Gruenhagen told the jury he believed the evidence didn’t line up with the woman’s testimony – “Facts don’t lie, people lie,” he said. There was a “botched, rushed, non-existent (police) investigation.”
He directly called her credibility into question to jurors, saying her mind was “cloudy” due to drugs she was doing that night. When he took a sworn deposition from her, “times”, “events”, “locations”, and “people involved” were inconsistent, he said.
For example, the woman said someone bought a vodka bottle during the night. It was never found, Gruenhagen said. Although there was blood splattered in the backseat, the witness said she didn’t have blood on her, the lawyer said. Flores’ body was kept in the parked car by a house full of people in a residential neighborhood and no one reported it, he said.
After she escaped, the witness said a Gary firefighter helped her, who was never identified or found, he said. She “lied” to the firefighter, saying her friends got into a fight and drove off with her phone. A NIPSCO employee she said gave her a ride afterwards was never found. The friend whose house she first went to wasn’t found. She had time to do drugs, but not call the police, Gruenhagen said.
A Gary Police detective asked why she didn’t come forward. I didn’t want to get myself caught up in something I couldn’t get out of, she said, according to Gruenhagen. In the case, there was no video from a liquor store, no gun, no DNA or fingerprints tying Carter to the case, no other direct witnesses, he said.
The witness said Flores was shot in the chest, but a bullet hole was found in the skull, the lawyer said. Her full skeleton was not recovered.
Chicago Police Det. Daniel Kranz, then an arson investigator, testified Monday he was called to a burned out white Nissan Altima on Feb. 26, 2019 near 82nd and Ridgeland Avenue, by the Chicago Skyway – which prosecutors said was close to Carter’s relative’s house. Cops noticed the windows were smoky and found blood in the backseat. Gasoline was used as an accelerant in the front passenger seat. They never found video showing who drove the car there or lit it up, he said.
Carter was originally charged in March 2019, but the case was dismissed without prejudice in September 2019 because the state was awaiting lab results that they were not sure would be available in time for the Sept. 23, 2019, jury trial. He was recharged in October 2022.
On Feb. 26, 2019, Lake County Sheriff’s Department officers started to investigate the disappearance of two women from South Chicago Heights, according to the probable cause affidavit. One woman was found alive but Jessica Flores was reported missing on Feb. 24 when she was driving a white 2010 Nissan Altima, court records state.
Flores’ family had received information that she was shot and killed in Gary before her body was dumped somewhere near Fifth Avenue in Gary, the affidavit states.
On March 6, detectives traveled to a Chicago tow yard to take samples of blood in the Altima, court records state. The next day, a search started for Flores, including a Lake County Sheriff’s Department drone, but she was not located.
On March 8, police spoke to Flores’ friend about the night Flores disappeared, the affidavit states, and she told police that she was hanging out with a friend in Gary for much of the day on Feb. 24 and leading into Feb. 25.
The pair went to the Gary home of someone named “Sax” and encountered a man named “Tiny” who drove them to the liquor store. When they returned, “Tiny” became angry, so Flores and her friend left, court records state.
“Tiny” followed them out and convinced Flores to let him inside the vehicle and promised to get them drugs, the affidavit states, and he took them to a house near 10th Avenue and Clark Road.
He drove them back to “Sax” residence and when no one answered the door, “Tiny” made the pair get into the back seat, court records state. Flores and “Tiny” started arguing again and he stopped the car multiple times to turn around, records state.
The last time he stopped the car, he asked Flores if he could have sex with her friend and Flores said “no,” records state, so “Tiny” turned around and shot Flores once, which caused her to immediately slump to her right and start bleeding.
The second woman got out of the vehicle and her ears were ringing and she tried to run away but was tackled by “Tiny,” records state, and he drove her back to his relative’s residence and Flores’ body remained inside the vehicle. Eventually “Tiny” fell asleep and she escaped.
She told police that she was afraid for her life, the affidavit states. The woman identified Carter as “Tiny” from a photo lineup and detectives drove her to the 900 block of Morton Street in Gary, where she pointed to a particular residence as the one she escaped from and the last place she saw Flores’ body.
On April 9, 2020, Gary Police were dispatched to the 700 block of Clark Road when a Gary Parks Department employee found a human skull in the woods of Brunswick Park. The top portion of the skull and lower jaw were collected, and the next day, another bone, which appeared to be a vertebra, was found in the same area, court records state.
An examination of the skull by a forensic pathologist from the Lake County Coroner’s Office revealed the skull had sustained a gunshot wound to the left frontal bone of the head, which was the cause of death, according to the affidavit, and a forensic dental exam revealed the jaw bones belonged to Jessica Flores. Flores’ DNA matched a sample taken from the bones.
Flores is survived by six children, according to her obituary.
The trial is before Judge Natalie Bokota.
This story has been updated to correct the name “Sax” and clarify that prosecutors said the witness was taken to the home of one of Carter’s relatives.
mcolias@post-trib.com
