Man Charged with Manslaughter in Shooting of House Cleaner
A 62-year-old Whitestown man, Curt Andersen, is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday after being charged with voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cleaning woman earlier this month. Andersen was booked into the Boone County Jail on Thursday, nearly two weeks after the Nov. 5 death of 32-year-old Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez, a mother of four from Guatemala.
Prosecutors say Perez and her cleaning crew arrived at the wrong house that morning, mistakenly believing it was a model home they had been hired to clean. According to police, Andersen fired a single shot from the top of his stairs through his front door, striking Perez in the head. Andersen told investigators he believed someone was breaking in.
Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood said Andersen’s use of deadly force was not justified under Indiana’s “Stand Your Ground” law or the castle doctrine, noting he did not reasonably believe such force was necessary. Eastwood called the case a tragedy and offered condolences to Perez’s family.
Guy Relford, Andersen’s attorney and a well-known gun-rights advocate, argued his client is being “unfairly judged” based on facts Andersen could not have known at the time. Meanwhile, an attorney for Perez’s family said they plan to pursue a civil lawsuit regardless of the criminal case’s outcome.
WIBC News Anchor Ryan Hedrick joins Kendall and Casey to discuss the case:
