INDIANAPOLIS -- The man who was found dead inside an abandoned apartment on the Far Eastside last week may have been killed over a 2012 incident in which he allegedly touched a young girl inappropriately, according to court documents filed Monday.
The body of 35-year-old Anthony Eldridge was discovered on June 17 inside an abandoned unit at the Towne & Terrace Apartments in the 4000 block of Essex Court.
An autopsy determined Eldridge had been beaten, stabbed and shot to death. A suspect, 32-year-old Ernest White, was arrested Sunday and charged with Eldridge’s murder.
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According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, White told police Eldridge had approached him and another man asking if they would front him $10-worth of crack cocaine.
Eldridge’s mother reportedly told police her son was a “loner” with an addiction to alcohol and crack, who has no permanent address and “just hangs out” near vacant apartments near the 42nd Street and Post Road area.
Police say White told them he recognized Eldridge as the man accused of inappropriately touching his then-6-year-old daughter in a June 2012 incident at the Maison Gardens Apartments in Lawrence.
In the police report documenting that incident, Eldridge is accused of chasing a number of juveniles through an apartment complex and grabbing one of them on the butt, then making “thrusting motions with his hips.”
Eldridge was arrested and charged with battery and public intoxication, although both charges were ultimately dismissed.
According to police, White told them he had encountered Eldridge on a previous occasion and had assaulted him, and that he had told Eldridge’s mother to keep her son away from the apartment complex at Brentwood Drive and Essex Court.
After Eldridge asked for crack, White, according to the affidavit, said he started to punch and hit him. He reportedly told police he continued to beat and kick him even after he fell backward in to the apartment.
At that point, White told police, the other man pulled a gun and asked White if he wanted him to “do him.” White told police he said he didn’t care, at which point, according to him, the other man shot Eldridge multiple times.
According to the affidavit, White was on GPS monitoring at the time for a pending case from a Sept. 7 arrest for resisting law enforcement and felon in possession of a firearm. Police noted that the other man White said was present at the time of Eldrige’s death was arrested with him in the September incident, but only White was found to be armed.
Police also said they were able to track White’s ankle monitor to the vacant apartment where Eldridge was found murdered.
Marion County court records show the other man White claimed was with him at the time of the shooting has not been charged in connection with Eldridge’s death.
White appeared in court Tuesday for an initial hearing. His next court date was scheduled for a pretrial conference on Aug. 15.
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