On a summer evening in Indianapolis, a horrific scene unfolded inside a house on North Hamilton Avenue, forever altering the lives of a family and shocking the city. On June 1, 2006, 46-year-old Emma Valdez was tragically killed in a mass shooting that claimed the lives of six of her family members. The brutal attack was the result of a home invasion gone tragically wrong, leaving a trail of devastation that would resonate for years to come.
That evening, two men, Desmond Turner and
James Stewart, entered the residence with the intention of robbing a safe they believed contained cash and cocaine. Inside the home with Emma Valdez were her husband, 56-year-old Alberto Covarrubias, and their two young sons, 11-year-old Alberto Covarrubias Jr. and 8-year-old David Covarrubias. The situation escalated when Valdez's adult daughter, 22-year-old Flora Albarran, and adult son, 29-year-old Magno Albarran, arrived at the home. What started as a robbery quickly turned into a massacre. All seven individuals, including Flora's 5-year-old son, Luis Albarran, were shot and killed with a military-style weapon.
The investigation into the seven murders led Indianapolis police to identify Desmond Turner and James Stewart as the suspects. Stewart was apprehended the day after the killings, while Turner, the primary shooter, turned himself in two days later after a widespread manhunt. The motive appeared to be a robbery, though it was a tragic case of mistaken identity, as the safe the perpetrators were looking for did not exist in the home.
The legal proceedings that followed brought some measure of justice for the grieving families. Desmond Turner was convicted on seven counts of felony murder and numerous other charges, ultimately receiving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 88 years. His accomplice, James Stewart, was also found guilty of seven counts of felony murder and other related charges, and he was sentenced to 425 years in prison. The house on Hamilton Avenue, the site of the horrific crime, was later demolished.
