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The charges against a cold-case murder suspect have been dismissed because of a staffing shortage in the small-town Indiana office handling the case.
Murder suspect Kevin Maddox has been released from custody because of an “ongoing staffing crisis” and a busy schedule at the courthouse in Howard County.
This comes after the family of Chad Rouse waited 16 years for a suspect to be detained in the case of the murder of the 20-year-old from Kokomo. Close to another two years passed before Maddox was put on trial. However, the murder charge was dismissed that very same day, according to Fox 59.
The trial was dismissed because of the staffing crisis at the Howard County Prosecutor’s Office and its employees being “overburdened with pretrial motions.”
On November 15, 2006, Kokomo police responded to a possible shooting, finding Rouse dead. A witness told the authorities that an unknown man had entered one of the homes on Armstrong Street to rob it, prompting a fight between the suspect and Rouse, during which the 20-year-old was shot in the back.
While investigators gathered evidence and spoke to witnesses, they were unable to identify any suspects.
“It has been 16 and a half years,” Rouse’s mother, Athena, said in 2023. “We have missed a lot of good times with him.”
In February of that year, police said that they were close to solving the case, adding that they had narrowed it down to a “very small group of people,” according to Fox 59.
On May 26, 2023, a grand jury in Howard County indicted two people.
Maddox, 48, from Indianapolis, was charged with murder, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, and conspiracy to commit robbery resulting in serious bodily injury.
Amber Brigham, 36, from Kokomo, was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and aiding, inducing, or causing robbery resulting in serious bodily injury.
Following the granting of arrest warrants on May 30, 2023, police detained Maddox in Indianapolis and Brigham in Miami County.
Athena said at the time, “Is this for real? Is this really happening? I was just dazed.”
“I was like, ‘I’m not going to believe this until I get to the police station and they tell me’,” she added.
“We are happy, but still a little scared,” the victim’s sister, Heather Rouse, said, according to Fox 59. “We definitely need people to still talk.”
While Brigham’s jury trial was scheduled to begin in January of this year, hearings were pushed back on repeated occasions.
On April 7, Howard County Superior Court Judge Blake Dahl dismissed Brigham’s charges without prejudice. After a few days, the bond in the case was dropped, and she was released from custody. No reason was given for the decision.
Maddox’s charges were dismissed on Tuesday, the same day that his jury trial was set to start.
The dismissal document was obtained by Fox 59/CBS 4, and it states that Maddox’s charges have been dismissed without prejudice and that he has been released from custody.
The state notes that Indiana law allows the prosecution to reevaluate charges “in light of new information,” and to dismiss a pending charge and file amended charges anew as long as the decision is finalized ahead of the trial.
Outlining its decision, the document states that the prosecutor's office is experiencing a “significant and ongoing staffing crisis,” that it just finished a “major jury trial” about 10 days previously, and is preparing for another “major jury trial” to begin on April 29. It also says that the office is “overburdened with pretrial motions,” and hasn’t yet reviewed the discovery handed over by the defense.
The Independent has contacted the Howard County prosecutor’s office for comment.
