HENDRICKS COUNTY, Ind. — The man charged with murder in the death of Indiana State Police Trooper Aaron Smith was in court Monday.
Eddie Jones, 18, is accused of hitting Smith with a car during a police chase in June. Smith was attempting to throw stop sticks in the path of Jones when Jones swerved and struck the trooper.
Jones' trial was set for Jan. 9, 2024.
In July, Jones requested a change of venue. There was no record as of 11:30 a.m. Aug. 21 that the judge made a decision on that change of venue request.
Jones, who has been charged with murder, resisting law enforcement and auto theft, was allegedly driving a stolen 2016 Chevrolet Traverse that hit and killed Smith while he was trying to deploy stop sticks on Ronald Reagan Parkway, near Interstate 70, on June 28.
A passenger in the vehicle, 19-year-old DeMareon L. Curry, also from Sikeston, Missouri, has been charged with auto theft and resisting law enforcement, a Level 5 felony, according to police.
A 15-year-old female, who was listed as a missing person from Missouri, was being turned over to authorities from that state. She is not being charged in connection with the incident.
According to court documents, state police got a notification from the Flock camera system, which alerted them to the vehicle, which had been reported stolen out of Missouri. Trooper Grover Scott spotted the vehicle in the parking lot of the McDonald's/BP gas station at 4906 Kentucky Ave. and gave the occupants of the vehicle commands to put their hands out the window. Scott said those in the vehicle complied for several minutes before the driver put the vehicle in reverse and backed into Scott's patrol car before fleeing the scene, striking another vehicle.
Jones allegedly told police Curry told him to flee from the police at McDonald's and that if he got onto I-70, police would terminate the pursuit. The girl who was also in the car, identified as a ward of the State of Missouri, whose mother had voluntarily surrendered parental rights to her, told police she and Curry told Jones "do what you gotta do man, and so he decided to take off."
Scott and Trooper James Williams began pursuing the vehicle on Kentucky Avenue, then onto Ameriplex Parkway/Ronald Reagan Parkway. Police said Jones drove over I-70 onto Ronald Reagan Parkway, then made a U-turn at Stafford Road, turning back toward I-70.
According to the documents, as Jones approached I-70, Smith had parked his patrol car with its emergency lights on and retrieved stop sticks from the trunk. As the trooper deployed the stop sticks in an attempt to stop the fleeing vehicle and end the pursuit, state police said video from a trailing trooper's dashboard camera shows the vehicle veering to the right, striking Smith. The probable cause affidavit states "there is almost two complete lanes of travel separating (Smith) from the suspect vehicle" when Smith is seen with the stop sticks in his hands.
As Curry and the juvenile female were taken into custody, police said Jones was trapped in the crashed vehicle while first responders rendered aid to Smith.
Jones told police his glasses had slipped from his face during the U-turn, affecting his far-sight vision. Because of that, Curry was directing him where to go. Jones said he saw Smith from about 100 yards away and hit his brakes but lost control of the vehicle, striking the trooper.
The girl told police all three occupants of the vehicle knew it was stolen. A police report out of Missouri identified the car as Jones' mother's, which he took while she was sleeping.
The court documents say after Jones took his mother's car, she called him, but the three decided not to return the car and drove to St. Louis, where they slept in the car, earning money by delivering for DoorDash. Two days later, they reportedly decided to drive to Bloomington, Indiana, to meet up with a friend of Curry's. They arrived in Indianapolis on June 26, sleeping in the car in the parking lot of a hotel near the McDonald's where the car was first spotted by police.