INDIANAPOLIS — A man previously convicted in a fatal shooting in 2016 has again been arrested and charged with murder — this time in a shooting death from July this year.
Najee Givens, 33, is accused of killing Timothy Rucker, 25, who police found shot July 17 in the 5200 block of Padre Lane on Indianapolis' southeast side. He was charged Friday.
"Being 51 years old we would never have to think about burying our younger children before we pass away," Shantele Martindale said."
Martindale is Rucker's mom and said she still can't believe he was killed.
"It should be the other way around, the child burying their parents. Instead, we buried our son," Martindale said.
In 2018, Givens was convicted of reckless homicide as a level 5 felony in the January 2016 fatal shooting of Terry Williams, 19. It was Indianapolis' first confirmed homicide of that year.
In that case, Givens entered a plea agreement in which a murder charge was dropped, court records show.
"How could he be out? I just didn't understand that," Martindale said.
As part of the agreement, Givens would have served four years at the Indiana Department of Correction with two years suspended. But he violated the terms of the agreement and was ordered to serve the entire sentence of six years at IDOC, according to Michael Leffler, a spokesman for the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.
Six years is the maximum sentence for a level 5 felony in Indiana. Murder is a level 1 felony.
When asked why Givens was out despite being ordered to serve a six-year sentence, Leffler told WRTV, "Defendants receive credit time for the time they serve while incarcerated. This includes the time they serve while awaiting trial."
Givens began parole with the Department of Correction in October 2021. The violation occurred while he was on probation, according to Annie Goeller, a spokeswoman for the IDOC.
In November 2017, Givens was charged with battery resulting in bodily injury, a misdemeanor. Then, in July 2022, he was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
He's currently being held without bond ahead of an initial hearing scheduled for Tuesday in Marion Superior Court.
Rucker's girlfriend, Crissy Allison, sent a statement to WRTV
Tim was such a amazing person and was loved by so many people. He was very genuine and caring for so many people also. His family was literally everything to him and he very much so adored and loved me and my 2 children to the max and they loved him just the same. It just keeps playing back in my head of me leaving his home the evening of July 16th 2022…not thinking I would never see him again alive in my presence!! Myself and his family want JUSTICE SERVED and not a smack on the wrist like what happened with the murder in 2016 that he basically got away with.
I love you Tim always and forever my polar bear
