Father arrested
Police have arrested Emmanuel Rodriguez-Serrano on murder charges after authorities found his infant daughter dead in an apartment on Racquet Ball Drive.
Officers were called to the apartment just after 1 p.m. and found 1-month-old Evelyn Jasmine Ricardo dead inside.
An autopsy revealed that Evelyn had bruises on her head and face, as well as a “deep muscle” injury to the back of her neck and injuries on her buttocks. Her death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma to her head.
Rodriguez-Serrano is being held in the Marion County Jail without bail. His jury trial has been scheduled for April 11.
Teens shot
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police reported one person was arrested in connection with a shooting last weekend near Circle Centre mall.
There were two shooting incidents near the mall the same night.
In the Circle Centre incidents, the first victim was shot about 9 p.m. just outside the mall near Maryland and Illinois streets, and another was shot about 20 minutes later at a restaurant at 110 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Linda Jackson said the first victim, a 17-year-old male who was shot in the foot, was taken to Methodist Hospital in good condition.
With the help of witnesses, police arrested a suspect in that shooting, Jackson said.
The second victim, a 15-year-old male, suffered more serious injuries, Jackson said. That victim was taken to Methodist Hospital in critical condition, she said. In that incident, police already were responding to reports of juveniles fighting when they heard shots, Jackson said.
Streets in the area of the mall were temporarily closed Saturday night while police investigated the incidents.
Police were unsure whether the two shootings were related.
Man convicted of human trafficking
A Marion Superior Court jury convicted Chris Smiley, 28, Tuesday on human-trafficking charges.
He had been accused of holding a 19-year-old woman against her will in a motel room for weeks in 2010 over the crack cocaine debt owed by the boyfriend of the woman’s mother.
She was forced into prostitution and was made to work in a Westside strip club.
Sentencing for Smiley was set for Feb. 2.
The conviction was the first in Marion County since the human trafficking law took effect in 2007.
