Sentencing rescheduled in case connected to Indy doctor’s murder – WTHR

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) A teen facing burglary charges in a case connected to the murder of a beloved Indianapolis doctor will have to wait to be sentenced.

Tarius Blade was charged with two counts of burglary and one count of burglary resulting in a bodily injury. He pleaded guilty to the charges in January 2019.

The charges stem from an incident November 2017 that resulted in the murder of Dr. Kevin Rodgers in his Eagle Creek-area home.

Blade's sentencing, initially scheduled for Friday, has been rescheduled to Feb. 7 after the judge received last-minute impact letters. Rodgers' family was at the Friday hearing.

Prosecutors say Blade and other teens broke into Rodgers' home, then shot and killed him during a confrontation. Blade, now 17, was 15 years old at the time. He is being tried as an adult for his crimes.

Rodgers was asleep at the time of the burglary. A source tells Eyewitness News that Rogers heard noises in the house and called his wife at work asking about their expected gutter repairs being done. After learning there were no repairs scheduled for that day, he went downstairs to investigate the noise.

That's where we are told he met one of the teens in the kitchen. Rodgers suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and then a second to the head. The shooting was execution style, according to sources close to the investigation.

A source tells Eyewitness News was in the car when the shooting happened. The group had allegedly stolen rings from Rodgers' home. The suspected shooter reportedly said he had to shoot Rodgers because the doctor saw his face.

Sources told Eyewitness News that the teenagers got together on the morning of Nov. 20, 2017 to do a series of home burglaries. Their plan was allegedly to drive around looking for what they considered nice homes to break into, spending as little time at each location as possible.

Their method of operation, according to one source, was to ring the door bell once they spotted a target home. A source tells Eyewitness News if someone answered they would pretend to be in the neighborhood to raise money for a charity and ask for a donation. If no one answered then they would reportedly break in.

Eyewitness News has also learned one of the reasons prosecutors have been successful obtaining guilty pleas is because of a video the teens made of themselves in the car the morning of their alleged crime spree. A source tells Eyewitness News the video shows the teenagers waving guns and singing to a song with lyrics about "doing a lick." Thats slang for committing a crime more specifically, some kind of robbery or burglary.

We are told the video shows all the suspects together participating in the recording. IMPD Homicide Detectives more than likely obtained the video after being granted a search warrant for their cell phones and other property as part of the investigation.

Eyewitness News has also learned that the same teens are suspected in one burglary prior to the Rodgers murder followed by two break-ins at homes after the murder.

Several of Blade's family members plan to make statements after a judge accepts his guilty plea and before he's sentenced. Prosecutors expect to have at least four people make victim impact statements before the sentence is handed down.

The suspected driver in the incident is also scheduled to go before a judge on a guilty plea for felony burglary on Feb. 7.

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Sentencing rescheduled in case connected to Indy doctor's murder - WTHR

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