A dispute over a drug deal turned fatal in the early morning hours of September 15, 2023, ending the life of Travis Gilbert, a 28-year-old White male, inside a Fort Wayne, Indiana, home. At about 1:20 a.m., police responded to a call about a shooting in the 2000 block of St. Mary's Avenue. They arrived to find Travis deceased and his father suffering from a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.
The Allen County Coroner’s Office later confirmed that Travis died from a gunshot wound to the chest and ruled his death a homicide, the 17th in the county that year.
The violence erupted after Travis allegedly sold fake drugs to his customers. Two people, Royal Davis Jr. and Jessica Fuentes, burst into the back of the residence where Travis was sitting in a recliner. His father, Steve Gilbert, and his father’s girlfriend, Melinda Hooper, were asleep on a nearby couch. Davis loudly demanded $500 and then struck Travis in the head with a pistol, knocking him briefly unconscious. The gun fell and skittered across the floor into the hands of Travis’s father.
As Steve Gilbert grabbed the weapon, a gunfight broke out. He exchanged fire with Fuentes and was shot in the leg. Davis and Fuentes backed away, continuing to shoot as they fled the house. Once Travis regained his footing, he ran toward the back of the home, where he was fatally shot in the chest. He managed to stumble back into the kitchen, where his father cradled him as he died. A third man, Robert Ward, had arranged the initial drug deal and was waiting outside in an SUV during the confrontation.
An investigation involving the Fort Wayne Police Department's Homicide, Gang, and Vice/Narcotics units, along with the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office, quickly identified the three suspects. That same evening, officers attempted to pull over a vehicle carrying Davis and Fuentes, but the pair fled. A high-speed pursuit ended when their vehicle crashed near Interstate 469 and US-27. Both were apprehended after trying to escape on foot. Robert Ward was arrested separately in the early hours of the next morning.
All three individuals were charged and ultimately convicted for their roles in the crime. Jessica Fuentes accepted a plea agreement, pleading guilty to attempted murder. In July 2025, she was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Robert Ward also took a plea deal for armed robbery and, in August 2025, was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $2,500 in restitution.
That same month, a jury found Royal Davis Jr. guilty of felony murder. A judge sentenced him to 60 years for the murder charge, with an additional 15 years for using a firearm in the commission of the crime, for a total sentence of 75 years in prison. With the convictions and sentencings of all three suspects, the case was officially closed as of August 2025.
