INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Marion County court has set July sentencings for five people connected to the murder of a 28-year-old man in December 2022 in Indianapolis who’d been forced to call his grandmother as part of a ransom demand.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were on an unrelated investigation just after 8 a.m. Dec. 8, 2022, when Corbin Rogers was found dead in a pool of blood with multiple gunshot wounds inside a vacant home in the 100 block of North Euclid Avenue. Investigators believe Rogers had been taken hostage as part of a dispute over a missing car.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a news release issued Friday, “What happened to Corbin was as shocking as it was sickening. It’s not only shameful that three adults planned and executed this sinister plot but that they allowed two people under the age of 18 (to) partake.”
Five people from Indianapolis have pleaded guilty or been convicted in Marion Superior Court 27 in connection to Rogers’ murder.
Cristina Clark, 38, was convicted of murder, kidnapping while armed with a deadly weapon, and using a firearm in commission of an offense.
Josselyn Johnson, 32, and D’Sean Bigbee-Cummings, 19, were convicted of murder, kidnapping for ransom, and kidnapping while armed with a deadly weapon. Johnson was also convicted with an Indiana Habitual Offender Sentencing Enhancement.
Jaheim Miller, who was 21 when arrested in December 2022, and Daniel Jackson, 18, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder resulting in death.
IMPD has not yet provided jail booking photos of the five. All but Miller were in the Marion County jail on Friday afternoon awaiting sentencing. Clark, Jackson, Johnson and Miller will be sentenced July 14, and Bigbee-Cummings will be sentenced July 28, according to online court records.
The crime involved a ransom demand made Dec. 7, 2022, to Rogers’ grandmother. The five forced Rogers to call her and frantically ask for $5,000.
After the call ended, Rogers’ grandmother received a text from his phone threatening his life if the money was not paid, accompanied by a photo of Rogers with two handguns held to his head.
The five also sent a video to Rogers’ girlfriend claiming they were holding him hostage. The last time the girlfriend heard from Rogers was 2 p.m. Dec. 7, 2022.
Investigators also found the five had continued to try to extort the grandmother and girlfriend after Rogers’ death.
The news release issued Friday from the prosecutor’s office continued to explain what happened: “Clark believed that Rogers had stolen a vehicle that she had rented and demanded its return. On the day of the murder, Clark and the others located the victim walking down the street where they abducted him, beat him, took him into the residence on Euclid Ave before killing him.
“Detectives located surveillance footage from the day of the murder that showed two vehicles parked in front of the apartment, before all five defendants and Rogers exited the vehicles and eventually go inside the residence. Additionally, witnesses told investigators they could see the defendants beating the victim inside their vehicle and noticed he was bleeding. Shortly after they entered the residence, the witnesses heard gunshots.
“Detectives used a combination of witness cooperation, digital evidence, and FLOCK cameras to identify the suspects’ whereabouts before and after the murder.”
