Lake Superior Judge Natalie Bokota reset a Gary man’s pending murder sentencing Friday after he fired both lawyers earlier in the week.
A jury convicted Drew Carter, 46, in June in the Feb. 24 or 25, 2019, death of 36-year-old Jessica “Heaven” Flores, of Chicago Heights, Illinois.
Carter was convicted of murder, a Level 1 felony; kidnapping while armed with a deadly weapon, a Level 3 felony; criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, a Level 3 felony; and criminal confinement with bodily injury, a Level 5 felony.
He was also convicted after a short bench trial on firearms enhancements. At maximum, he would face up to life in prison.
A new hearing is on Aug. 30 to determine his lawyer and set a new sentencing date.
In court documents, defense lawyers Mark Gruenhagen and David O’Donnell filed to leave the case mid-week after it was clear Carter was dismissing them.
A sentencing hearing last month was pushed back when Gruenhagen momentarily filed to withdraw, thinking Carter was firing him then.
“The only reason I’m being sentenced for a crime I didn’t commit is because my attorney…didn’t listen to a thing I said and instead of working for me, he worked against me for his own personal interest,” the lawyer wrote Carter said in the report.
The case’s central witness testified that she and Flores had been partying and smoking crack cocaine all night when they left a Gary drug house with Carter. During an argument, he allegedly turned around and shot Flores dead in the car.
The car was later found torched with a pool of blood in the backseat. Flores’s body was not found for more than a year until her skull and vertebrae were discovered in April 2020 in Gary’s Brunswick Park.
Deputy Prosecutor Eric Randall is assigned.
mcolias@post-trib.com
