INDIANAPOLIS — A man has been convicted of murder and criminal recklessness for a shooting that left another man dead in a pub on Indy's south side back in 2019.
Christopher Smith was celebrating his upcoming marriage at his bachelor party on Nov. 29, 2019 at Jake's Pub on Southport Road when a fight broke out between Derek Oechsle and another man at the bar. Oechsle pulled a gun out and began to hit the other man, and Smith tried to break it up. That's when Oechsle shot Smith, and he died at the scene.
Oechsle left the scene immediately after the shooting. Police arrested him four days later.
Smith had been with his fiancée for 12 years prior to the shooting. His son, Cameron, called him a hero after the incident.
"My dad was the best man I ever knew and for someone to just walk in and take him out of this world without even knowing him, I was livid," Cameron said. "My father would have done the same thing in every scenario. Because that is just the type of man he was and I am so proud of him."
Smith's sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 20 at 2 p.m.
