A jury convicted a Gary man Friday night of top charges in a shooting that ended up killing three members of his now-wife’s extended family.
Derrick “Teddy” Pouncey, 37, was convicted of two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of misdemeanor battery and multiple gun enhancements.
He was acquitted of two counts of criminal confinement.
His sentencing date is May 29.
Around 3 a.m. on April 10, 2024, Gary Police responded to the scene at the 2000 block of Roosevelt Street, where two people — Kyle and Klorya Matthews, aged 31 and 32, of Hammond — had been shot to death, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Pouncey’s now-wife Ashley (Price) Pouncey was Klorya’s sister.
Her other sister, Antoinette Taylor, had a fiancé, Malieke Thomas, 55, who was paralyzed on the front lawn after engaging in a brief gunfight with Pouncey. He died from his injuries on Nov. 18. Pouncey was charged with attempted murder in Thomas’ shooting.
Upon arrival, police found the front glass door open and shattered and there was glass everywhere. Near the door, they found Thomas, who was still alive, along with 29 7.62mm caliber casings, 5 .45mm casings and a large pool of blood nearby, records state
On the stand Friday, Pouncey admitted shooting Kyle Matthews, then Malieke Thomas outside in self-defense. He denied shooting Kloya Matthews.
Court documents state the Matthews were there to get the children after a fight between Ashley and Pouncey over cheating. Thomas didn’t want Taylor to go, partly because of his recent spat with Pouncey.
Hours before the slayings, Pouncey went to his brother’s wife’s birthday party on April 9, 2024 in Hammond. He ended up playing cards with another woman. One of Ashley (Price) Pouncey’s friends told her he was “flirting” with the other woman, which he denied.
Ashley, who arrived after work around 11:30 p.m., had a few drinks and confronted him, calling him a “cheater,” he testified. The argument continued when they got home to the 2000 block of Roosevelt Street.
Pouncey’s testimony appeared to omit the neighbor’s first of three 911 calls that night, where she said she heard arguing and a single gunshot.
Ashley stepped out and walked to the corner, he said. Three children, a boy, then 10, and her two younger girls followed. She wanted to “go to her sister’s” but he didn’t want her driving with the kids, he testified.
After a second 911 call, a Gary Police officer encountered Ashley and the children. Pouncey and Ashley told the officer everything was fine. Not long after, he was in the bathroom when he heard a “boom” — the front doors swinging open.
Kyle Williams hit him in the face, Pouncey testified. Ashley, at some point, was trying to block them from coming inside.
Pouncey said he and Kyle were physically fighting when he heard a “shot go off.” Pouncey ended up getting shot — multiple times in the thigh and pelvis.
“We both fell together,” he said, of Kyle. “I thought I was dead.”
He said he blacked out briefly. Pouncey testified that he grabbed and loaded an automatic rifle, first firing a warning shot. He believed Kyle, a bigger man, was crouched behind a sofa as if to attack him.
“I shot him four to five times,” Pouncey said.
Once he got outside, a man in black — Thomas — was there. Pouncey said he drew the weapon quickly and shot him in self-defense.
From there, he drove to a friend’s house in Chicago, and later to Mt. Sinai hospital. He admitted leaving the hospital after an hour or two.
“My mind was just going blank,” he said, when asked why he didn’t go to the police or a Gary hospital.
Pouncey told defense lawyer John Cantrell he had been drinking in February 2024 when he came home after a “few drinks” wearing a ring on his wedding finger.
That sparked another argument with Ashley, he said. Pouncey and Thomas got into a “tussle.” It appeared to have a role in fracturing the men’s relationship.
On cross-examination, Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Lanham asked about details she said Pouncey left out of his testimony, accusing him at various points of lying.
Did you not tell Ashley to “call your family” that night, or you would “blow it all up” and would “kill everyone,” she asked.
“I never said that,” Pouncey responded.
Or tell her that you would “kill (her) whole family,” she said.
Pouncey denied it.
Under questioning, Pouncey said he had no previous issues with Kyle and minor ones with Klorya. He agreed it was out of character for them to show up at the home uninvited.
He testified he bought the automatic weapon at a Crown Point gun show that weekend, and regularly kept a handgun on his hip during his job as a security guard.
During the shootings, he never personally saw anyone with a gun, Pouncey told Lanham under questioning.
Kyle didn’t make a sound after he was shot, Lanham asked later on.
“How could he if I shot him,” Pouncey asked.
“Exactly,” Lanham replied.
She asked Pouncey if he told police after the shooting that Ashley set him up. Pouncey denied it.
“You know you can play with my words, right,” he responded.
“I thought Ashley had something to do with it,” Lanham read, quoting him from the police report. “Someone tried to set me up.”
The prosecutor later cited a post from his Facebook page.
“My (red flag) is anger & it’s crazy, (because I’m) so laid back,” he wrote on Facebook June 27, 2024, days before he and Ashley got a Lake County marriage license. “I just (hate) feeling disrespected or placed. It turns me into a whole different person. I react first & think later.”
The jury asked several questions — many included why he left his children in the home if he felt his life was in danger. He also denied stepping over Klorya’s body in the doorway to leave.
