Federal prosecutors have filed to drop their criminal case against Devonte Hodge for allegedly killing 20-year-old Deshelon Hicks during a Sept. 27, 2014 robbery, records show.
Hodge, 30, had been scheduled to go on trial July 14.
The case collapsed, in part, because a witness — Avery Flynn, 20, of East Chicago — was gunned down inside a car near 44th and Massachusetts in Gary in November 2014 after he talked to police, but before he gave a sworn deposition. A second man, Patrick Hopson, 20, of Gary, also died in the shooting.
If prosecutors could prove Hodge had Flynn killed from jail to stop him from testifying in Hicks’ death, then they would be able to use hearsay statements he told police in an initial interview, U.S. District Court Philip Simon wrote in a 28-page ruling on June 5.
However, they had not, he wrote. The evidence was “too thin.”
Prosecutors admitted the case was too “weak” without Flynn’s account and the other two men there don’t back up his version of what happened, the judge added.
Hodge’s jail calls were “impenetrable,” filled with coded language, slang, nicknames, “tons of profanity” with “times where the speech is entirely inaudible,” Simon wrote.
Hobart Police Capt. Nick Wardrip of the FBI’s GRIT taskforce testified on his interpretation of what was said. It ultimately wasn’t backed up by other evidence, Simon wrote. The government was left “trying to cobble together bits and pieces of conversations,” the judge said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Nozick filed to dismiss the case Tuesday. Hodge got life in prison last month for Akeem Oliver’s October 2016 death. At the hearing, Nozick called Hodge a “committed witness killer.”
Hodge’s lawyer Adam Tavitas said in an interview Tuesday he was pleased. Hodge planned to appeal the life sentence in Oliver’s death, he said.
Flynn told investigators that he, Hodge, Sharmen Darden and Darrell Brown, the driver, were going to a hotel party, when they stopped by Hicks’ apartment to buy marijuana. Hodge and Darden “decided” to rob Hicks, filings show.
Hodge flashed a gun toward Hicks. Hicks shot Flynn two times. Hodge then took Hicks’ gun and shot Hicks twice in the back, killing him, Simon wrote.
Flynn told police Hodge killed Hicks.
Hodge suspected Flynn went to the cops, because the other two men “would not have known him well enough to positively identify him,” Simon wrote. No one was charged in Flynn’s death, he noted. There weren’t any witnesses, DNA, ballistics or fingerprints.
The Lake County case in Hicks’ death was dismissed in 2019. Without Flynn’s testimony, there wasn’t enough evidence to convict, county prosecutors said then.