An Indiana homeowner accused of killing a house cleaner who mistakenly arrived at his front door was charged with voluntary manslaughter on Monday in a case that could test the limits of stand-your-ground laws.
Curt Anderson, 62, could face anywhere from 10 to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if he’s convicted. He was being held in the Boone County Jail pending an initial court hearing.
Officers found Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, 32, dead on the front porch of a home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb, on Nov. 5. Authorities said the Guatemalan immigrant was part of a cleaning crew went to the wrong house just before 7 a.m.
Rios’ husband told media outlets that he was with her on the porch and someone fired through the front door. He didn’t realize she had been shot until she fell back into his arms, bleeding. Authorities determined she had been shot in the head. On a fundraising page, her brother described Rios as a mother of four children.
Indiana is one of 31 states with a stand-your-ground law that permits homeowners to use deadly force to stop someone they believe is trying to unlawfully enter their dwelling. But police said that there’s no evidence Rios entered the home before she was shot.
Anderson’s attorney, Guy Relford, posted a statement on X saying he was disappointed that prosecutors charged his client. He said Anderson had every reason to believe his actions were justified and the stand-your-ground law clearly protects him.
“Mr. Anderson’s actions must be evaluated based on the circumstances as he perceived them,” Relford said in the statement.
Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood told reporters at a news conference that the decision to charge Anderson wasn’t difficult. Stand-your-ground protections don’t apply because Anderson lacked enough information to know if his actions were reasonable, Eastwood said.
“It is our belief that the person did not have a reasonable belief that type of force was necessary given all the facts that he had at that time,” Eastwood said.
According to a probable cause statement, Anderson told investigators that he and his wife were asleep in an upstairs bedroom when he heard a “commotion at the door” that grew more intense. He thought someone was using keys or tools on the front door.
Frightened, he went to the top of the stairwell and saw through the home’s windows that two people were outside the front door. He said to himself, “What am I going to do? It’s not going away and I have to do something now.”
He said he didn’t want to hurt anyone, but he loaded his handgun, went back to the stairwell and saw through the windows the people “thrusting” at the door and getting more aggressive, according to the statement.
He fired one shot toward the door. He said the door never opened and he didn’t announce himself or say anything before he pulled the trigger.
Investigators found a bullet hole in the door, but no evidence of any forceful contact with the door itself, the latch or the door frame.
The cleaning company that employed the couple confirmed that they were supposed to clean a model home in a nearby subdivision, according to the statement.
The shooting echoes a similar episode in Missouri in 2023 when an 86-year-old man shot Ralph Yarl after the 16-year-old Black teenager came to his door by mistake. Missouri has a similar stand-your-ground law, but prosecutors charged the shooter, Andrew Lester, with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and didn’t go to trial.
In New York, which does not have a stand-your-ground law, a man was convicted in 2024 of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a woman inside a car who mistakenly came down the driveway of his rural upstate home.
Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who specializes in gun rights, said last week that the Rios case was “horrible” and “exceptionally unusual.”
In general, the public can legally access private property — including a front porch — for a legitimate purpose until they are told to leave, Madeira said. For example, a homeowner can’t legally shoot a pizza delivery person or an Amazon driver just for stepping onto their property, she said.
By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press
