In the early morning hours of a Tuesday in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a passing motorist noticed a vehicle on the side of the 4200 block of Lower Huntington Road that appeared to have been in an accident. The discovery, made shortly after 5:30 a.m. on July 25, 2023, would soon unfold into a homicide investigation. The driver inside the vehicle was found unconscious and not breathing.
Despite life-saving efforts initiated by the responding officer, the man was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The victim was identified as Dennis Dwayne Starr, a 40-year-old Black male from Fort Wayne. An autopsy later confirmed the tragic circumstances of his death; the Allen County Coroner's Office determined that Starr had died from a gunshot wound to the chest, and his death was officially ruled a homicide. This marked the 15th homicide in Fort Wayne and Allen County for the year 2023.
The investigation into Starr's death quickly led to arrests. The day after his body was discovered, Fort Wayne police conducted a high-risk traffic stop and arrested two individuals, 50-year-old Samuel Evans III and 25-year-old Lexus Evans, in connection with the murder. The following day, two more suspects were apprehended in Gary, Indiana. Samuel Evans IV, 23, and Jesse Shears, 29, were taken into custody and transported back to Fort Wayne. All four individuals were charged with murder.
Subsequent legal proceedings revealed more about the case. Lexus Evans, who was identified as Starr's ex-girlfriend, filed a motion to have her murder charge dismissed, alleging prosecutorial misconduct and insufficient evidence. Her motion was denied by an Allen County judge. Meanwhile, her father, Samuel Evans III, accepted a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to battery resulting in serious bodily injury in exchange for the murder charge against him being dropped. The cases against Samuel Evans IV and Jesse Shears are also proceeding through the legal system.
