INDIANAPOLIS — Jodessa Cooper was someone her family says held things together.
"We're just really distraught by everything," said Cooper's older sister Cheryl Miller.
Cooper died Jan. 25. Miller is still struggling with the loss.
"It's devastated the family," she said.
Court documents show Cooper was shot and killed in her boyfriend, David Ross', car outside an apartment complex on Indy's east side, near East 38th Street and North Sherman Drive.
"I know they were just out celebrating a birthday," Miller said. "There was probably an argument and he shot her."
The probable cause affidavit shows Ross told detectives he and Cooper fought in the car over his handgun. During the struggle, the gun went off and Cooper was shot and killed.
Ross is preliminarily charged with reckless homicide — a Level 5 felony.
"I don't believe it was reckless, I believe it was intentional," Miller said.
Police said when they arrived to investigate, they found Cooper dead and alone inside the locked car.
"He left her, so there's no reckless. There's no accident," Miller said. "If there was an accident, you'd try to get her help."
Cooper's son, Dexter Taylor, said he talked with a detective when an arrest was made.
"The prosecutor's office, they like wins. That came out of his mouth — that they like wins," Taylor said. "It's unfortunate that that's the way the judicial system is being ran, that we have human beings that are in these positions and they would rather work on their win-loss percentage than really going for true justice."
They're hoping Ross faces a more serious charge.
"I would like to see justice for Jody — 20 years to life, not reckless homicide," Miller said. "That's not what it was at all."
13News reached out to the Marion County Prosecutor's Office for comment on the preliminary charge against Ross. As of the publishing of this story, the office had responded.