Prosecutors dropped a murder charge Feb. 28 against a teen girl in connection with a fatal Black Oak stabbing last fall, saying they couldn’t prove the case, court records show.
Aalayah Wright, then 18, was charged last year. She still faces two charges including confinement where the victim is under 14 years of age and a misdemeanor.
There was only a “distant connection” and she “wasn’t responsible” for the stabbing, her lawyer Mark Gruenhagen said Tuesday.
She posted a $3,000 bond March 1. Her next court date is March 12.
The alleged perpetrator, Ruben Ortiz, 23, of Highland, was charged Oct. 17 with murder and two counts of misdemeanor battery in the Oct. 16 death of Christopher Gonzalez, 24, of the 2800 block of King Street in Gary.
Police were called just before midnight Oct. 15 to the home, where an officer said a woman was “screaming” in the middle of a field and trying to save Christopher Gonzalez’s life after he’d been stabbed in the chest near his heart, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
The woman told police that multiple people — including Ortiz and Wright — had been coming over and stealing her stuff recently. Earlier that day, she said she confronted the woman over her missing stuff, but Wright denied taking it before backing off after Ortiz got in between them.
Christopher Gonzalez told Ortiz and Wright to leave, but they kept returning. On the third and last time, Mariah Gonzalez, driving a blue Impala gave them a ride back because she wanted to get high there.
Mariah Gonzalez pulled up near the empty lot, and Ortiz and Wright got out and started to attack Christopher Gonzalez, who had walked over to the car. Ortiz kneed the woman who’d had her stuff taken in the face; she then saw Christopher Gonzalez face down about 20 feet away.
“This is because of you,” Mariah Gonzalez, holding a hammer, told the woman.
Hours later, a witness flagged down a security guard at the Hard Rock Casino, pointing to a man and woman in the parking lot.
“They killed my friend last night,” the witness said. “They are getting away!”
Ortiz and Wright were arrested walking on the 5400 block of W. 29th Avenue. Ortiz said he shot up meth earlier that day and denied taking the woman’s stuff, but other people told him Gonzalez had an “ax.”
Ortiz then said Christopher Gonzalez “exchanged words with” and hit Wright, so he attacked Gonzalez to “defend” her but blacked out at some point. He didn’t think he killed Gonzalez, who was his “brother,” Ortiz said.
After the detective posited Ortiz was the only one who could have killed Gonzalez, he asked for a lawyer.
