***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 20, 2014

RODGERS FOUND GUILTY OF THE 2013 MURDER OF EDDIE JOHNSON

Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. (574) 296-1888

On February 19, 2014 a jury in Elkhart Circuit Court took less than two hours to convict Leeshawn N. Rodgers, age 20, of the April 2013 murder of Eddie Johnson. The conviction resulted after jurors heard compelling testimony from friends and acquaintances of the victim, Eddie “Mississippi” Johnson. Those individuals relayed to the jury how Rodgers, without provocation, shot Johnson in broad day light and then immediately fled the scene. Forensic evidence revealed that Rodgers shot Johnson three times at point blank range. Rodgers was eventually apprehended nearly two weeks after the murder, by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s (IMPD) Violent Crime Unit, after they found him hiding in his sister’s apartment in Indianapolis, IN. IMPD officers also located drugs and two loaded handguns in the apartment.

Even though several individuals testified that they witnessed Rodgers shoot Johnson, Rodgers’ counsel argued that another individual was the actual shooter. The jury quickly discounted that argument after hearing testimony from an Indiana State Police forensic scientist who determined that DNA recovered from a hat located at the crime scene was consistent with the DNA of Rodgers. The scientist testified that the DNA profile found on the hat matched that of Rodgers and would only occur in the general population in 1 out of every 760 million people, clearly odds not in Rodgers’ favor.

As a result of Rodgers’ conviction, Judge Shewmaker scheduled sentencing for March 13th, 2014, at 8:30 a.m. in the Elkhart Circuit Court. Rodgers faces up to sixty-five years in prison and is currently being held without bond at the Elkhart County Security Complex pending sentencing. This case was tried by Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Peter Britton and Don Pitzer.

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“Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”