In the early hours of February 13, 2016, a single gunshot outside the Lucky Lady Lounge in Evansville, Indiana, tragically cut short the life of 38-year-old Maurice Heyward. A male and a frequent patron of the establishment, Heyward was a bouncer at another local club, the Busy Body Lounge.
The evening had begun like many others at the strip club located at 523 N. Main St. Shortly before 2:00 a.m., Gerrod D. Pointer and his uncle arrived at the venue.
Within twenty minutes, they decided to leave. As they walked away from the club, Pointer was captured on surveillance footage. It was during this time that Maurice Heyward, who had arrived about ten minutes after Pointer, was fatally shot in the upper torso. He was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries shortly thereafter. An autopsy later revealed the cause of death to be bleeding in the chest cavity and around the heart due to lacerations of the lung and heart from the single gunshot wound.
Law enforcement launched an investigation and, with the help of surveillance footage from the exterior of the Lucky Lady, were able to identify a suspect. A relative of Gerrod D. Pointer came forward and identified him from the video. A warrant was issued for the 26-year-old's arrest on a charge of murder. However, by the time the warrant was active, Pointer had already fled the state.
Several months passed before Pointer was located and apprehended in Wichita, Kansas, in April 2016, on a parole violation. He was then extradited back to Indiana in August of that year to face the murder charge. In May 2017, a jury trial was conducted in Vanderburgh Circuit Court. The prosecution presented evidence that included the surveillance footage and witness testimony. A key piece of the narrative that emerged was a prior altercation between Pointer and Heyward at the Busy Body Lounge, where Heyward had ejected Pointer from the club. On the night of the shooting, however, there was no indication of any interaction between the two men inside the Lucky Lady. After a three-day trial, the jury found Gerrod D. Pointer guilty of the murder of Maurice Heyward. On June 19, 2017, he was sentenced to sixty years in the Indiana Department of Correction. Pointer later appealed his conviction, but the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's decision in March 2018.
