In the early hours of a Monday morning, the quiet of a Munster, Indiana industrial park was broken by a grim discovery. On February 27, 2023, police responded to a call at approximately 4:15 AM and found a man lying on the ground in the loading dock area of MRC Global on 45th Street. The man, later identified as 48-year-old Lanier R. Miller of South Holland, Illinois, was unresponsive.
He had sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into the death of the male victim quickly gained momentum. Around the same time Miller’s body was found, a 911 call was made by an individual who was transporting two people to the Munster police station in connection with the shooting. This led investigators to look into a domestic incident that had occurred earlier in Gary, Indiana, involving Miller. It was revealed that during this prior altercation, items belonging to another person were left inside Miller's vehicle as he left the scene.
Determined to retrieve their belongings, two individuals tracked Miller to his place of employment. These individuals were identified as 28-year-old James Gregory Adams Jr. of Gary, Indiana, and 34-year-old Ferria Latrice Jones of Griffith, Indiana. They located Miller at MRC Global, and it was during this confrontation that Miller was shot and killed. Following the investigation, the Lake County Prosecutor's Office filed charges against both individuals. James Gregory Adams Jr. was charged with murder, and Ferria Latrice Jones was charged with assisting a criminal, a Level 5 felony.
