A judge granted a request Wednesday to delay Drew Carter III’s murder sentencing.
Carter, 46, of Gary, was convicted last month in 36-year-old Jessica “Heaven” Flores’s Feb. 24, or 25, 2019 death. Her body was found over a year later in Gary’s Brunswick Park.
His sentencing is now scheduled for Aug. 16.
Flores’ relatives said Wednesday they were told defense lawyer Mark Gruenhagen believed Carter wanted to fire him.
Court filings show Gruenhagen filed Tuesday to withdraw from the case, citing statements Carter made in a presentence investigation report.
“The only reason I’m being sentenced for a crime I didn’t commit is because my attorney…didn’t listen to a thing I said and instead of working for me, he worked against me for his own personal interest,” the lawyer wrote Carter said in the report.
Gruenhagen later said it came down to a misunderstanding in the court paperwork. It got cleared up and they needed more time to mount a defense at sentencing.
Flores’ relatives said later they had been waiting for over 5 years for closure and were frustrated at another delay.
They were “fighting for a life sentence,” Flores’ sister-in-law Ebony Peel told reporters.
Flores’ mother Adela Perez said they wanted to “close the book on this” and get a chance to privately mourn her.
Her daughter “loved freely” and “trusted too many,” she said. Trusting Carter was her “downfall.”
Carter “chose the wrong person to snuff out,” Peel said later. He couldn’t “do what he did and get away with it.”
Peel said the family pushed Gary Police and prosecutors to find Flores and keep the criminal case going.
We were “not the easiest to deal with,” she said. No family should have to be this ardent, Peel said, she was “not faulting any one person.”
She said Gary’s homicide units needed “proper staffing”.
The family was joined outside the courthouse by representatives, including Rev. Robin Hood and Executive Director Louvenia Hood of Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere.
At trial, Flores’ friend testified she and Flores went to George Heath’s house in Gary that night partly to score drugs. Carter was there that night to kill another woman, Pamela Crider, which got disrupted when they showed up.
In the car, Flores and Carter argued. At one point, he turned around and shot her dead, according to a criminal affidavit.