A quiet neighborhood in the Camby area of Indianapolis was unsettled on the morning of July 22, 2023, when a resident inside a home on Orchard Grove Lane made a devastating discovery. Erica Pedroza, a 35-year-old Hispanic woman, was found suffering from what was later determined to be 10 gunshot wounds. Emergency personnel arrived at the home in the 8600 block around 7:30 a.m., but Pedroza was pronounced dead at the scene.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department homicide detectives
began their investigation, noting there were no signs of forced entry into the residence. Erica's husband, Seth Smith-Robinson, initially told law enforcement that his wife had been killed during a home invasion. For more than a year, the case remained under investigation as detectives worked to piece together the events that led to her death.
The investigation led to a major development in November 2024, when a grand jury indicted Seth Smith-Robinson, then 35, for the murder of his wife. A collaborative effort between the IMPD Violent Crimes Unit and the U.S. Marshals Task Force tracked Smith-Robinson to Tennessee. On November 19, 2024, authorities located him in a commercial area of Nashville. After a brief foot chase, he was taken into custody and extradited back to Marion County to face the murder charge.
As the case against Smith-Robinson proceeded, the full story of a murder-for-hire plot began to emerge. In July 2026, prosecutors charged a second man, Dalvin Carter of Arkansas, for his involvement. Carter revealed that Smith-Robinson had hired him to kill Erica and stage the scene to look like a break-in. He testified that he saw Smith-Robinson with a pink, chrome-plated gun before the shooting occurred.
In a plea agreement, Dalvin Carter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence, which was conditioned on him testifying truthfully against Smith-Robinson. Following Carter's testimony, Smith-Robinson was convicted of murder in a two-day bench trial. On September 25, 2026, a judge sentenced him to 63 years in prison. As of September 2026, the case is considered resolved.
