Prosecutors have filed for permission to use a series of escalating 911 calls to show the danger they argue Derrick Pouncey posed before he killed a couple and wounded a third man in a Gary domestic shooting.
Pouncey, 37, is charged with two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, aggravated battery, two counts of criminal confinement, one count each of misdemeanor domestic battery and misdemeanor battery.
He has denied involvement and pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled for Monday.
That day, lawyers will argue if the pre-shooting 911 calls made earlier can be shown to the jury as they are technically considered prior incidents. They will also discuss largely procedural motions in liminie — or topics to keep from jurors.
Investigators called the scene a “rampage” on the 2000 block of Roosevelt Street. A woman called 911 three times that night.
Around 3 a.m. on April 10, 2024, Gary police responded for the third time to the scene at the 2000 block of Roosevelt Street, where two people — Kyle and Klorya Matthews — had been shot to death, according to the probable cause affidavit. Upon arrival, police found the front glass door open and shattered, and glass was everywhere. Near the door, they found Malieke Thomas, who was still alive, along with 29 7.62mm caliber casings, five .45mm casings, and a large pool of blood nearby, records state.
Klorya was Pouncey’s girlfriend’s sister. They were there to help get the kids after a heated altercation. Thomas was engaged to Pouncey’s girlfriend’s other sister and told police just after the shooting that he went to protect her.
Thomas, 55, died Nov. 18 in Indianapolis, according to the Marion County Coroner’s Office. A representative said an autopsy was done, but the cause and manner of death was still pending.
Prosecutors were not expected to file updated murder charges for Thomas. Instead, they filed to Monday to add gun enhancements to multiple existing charges.
Kyle Matthews, 31, a known domestic violence awareness advocate at Fair Haven Crisis Center, was found dead just behind a couch near the front door, while Klorya, 32, was lying in the front doorway. Both were shot multiple times from a distance.
Thomas was taken to a nearby hospital, bedridden and paralyzed from the waist down as a result of being shot by Pouncey, court records state.
A neighbor testified at a bail hearing in June that they called 911 three times. They were sleeping when they were awakened, hearing yelling and then a gunshot. They gave their own address.
“If you’re gonna shoot me, shoot me,” the neighbor told the dispatcher they overheard.
About a half hour later after the first 911 call — when officers left after they didn’t see a disturbance — there was a second 911 call for a loud argument.
“If anything happens and I don’t say something, I’ll feel bad,” the neighbor told the 911 dispatcher on the second call. “I just want everyone to be safe. This is a quiet street.”
Gary Police Joseph VonBank testified he and another officer got out, knocked on the door and talked to Pouncey.
It’s “all good, boss,” Pouncey told him, according to bodycam footage. They weren’t “fighting or nothing.”
After a third 911 call, the couple was found dead, with Thomas wounded.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
