Prosecutors filed a reckless homicide charge Friday against a man accused of dragging a woman nearly 75 feet with his car, before fleeing the scene.
Just before noon on January 7, IMPD officers were dispatched to the 1300 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street on a report of a female who had been witnessed rolling out of a moving vehicle, and who was lying in the roadway bleeding.
Officers arrived to find 25-year-old Jordan N. King suffering from serious injuries, including what was later determined to be a skull fracture.
Stretching for approximately 75 feet down the roadway was a trail of blood – apparently from King being dragged along the roadway by a car.
King was transported to Eskenazi Hospital in critical condition. She died of her injuries a week later on January 14.
An autopsy determined King had been dragged along the road, causing abrasions all along the front and both sides of her body. She was ruled to have died from a blunt force injury to the head.
Following an investigation, police learned that 22-year-old Austin Blevins was allegedly driving the car at the time of King's injury. Police also learned that Blevins may have recently acquired heroin, and had allegedly robbed someone that same day.
Investigators also obtained surveillance footage from a BP gas station in the 6200 block of West 38th Street showing King getting into a car being driven by Blevin.
The vehicle involved the incident was found abandoned on January 8 at the intersection of West 16th Street and North Illinois Street. Inside, investigators found King's cell phone, a wallet containing Blevins' ID and an open and partially filled 24-ounce Budweiser beer can in the console.
Marion County Jail inmate records show Blevins was previously arrested in 2016 on charges of possession of narcotics, operating a vehicle while endangering a person and operating while intoxicated.
Blevins was already facing a charge of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death in connection with the case. A judge will now have to decide whether to add the charges of reckless homicide and dealing in a narcotic drug the Marion County Prosecutor's Office is requesting.
A jury trial for Blevins was scheduled for March 30 at 9 a.m.
