On the morning of February 19, 2021, police in Muncie, Indiana, responded to a call that led them to a grim discovery at the Elgin Manor Apartments. Inside one of the units, they found the bodies of three men from Detroit, Michigan. Among them was Adrian Demarlo George Jr., a 30-year-old Black man. He, along with 25-year-old Devonte Earl Hollis and 27-year-old Terence Thomas, had all been shot to death in what was the city’s first triple homicide in decades.
The investigation began with the person who reported the crime. An 18-year-old woman, Juniyah Yvette Simmons, had called emergency dispatchers from the nearby city of Anderson to report the killings. Investigators learned she had been living in the apartment where the men were found. Shortly after her report, authorities arrested Simmons for obstruction of justice, citing "repeated inconsistencies" in her statements to police. She was released from jail after posting a $5,000 bond.
Detectives determined the slayings were a targeted attack, likely stemming from a robbery.
In March 2021, the case saw a major breakthrough with the arrest of Chandler Willard Harris II, an 18-year-old from Muncie. He was charged with three counts of murder, conspiracy to commit robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, and aiding a robbery that resulted in serious injury. According to court documents, Harris confessed to his role in the crime. He told investigators he was part of a conspiracy with unnamed accomplices to rob the three men of cash and admitted that he was the one who shot Devonte Hollis.
As the investigation continued, two additional Muncie men were also charged with murder in connection with the triple homicide. The case against the primary suspect, Chandler Harris, did not go to trial. Instead, he reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to three counts of murder in Delaware Circuit Court 3. As part of the agreement, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
