A murder trial opened Monday for a Gary man charged with killing a Valparaiso man outside a Gary drug house.
Curtis “Cowboy” Perry, 38, was charged Dec. 9, 2022, with murder and unlawful carrying of a handgun by a convicted felon. He has pleaded not guilty.
Perry’s co-defendant Tyrone Mims is charged in his own case with assisting a criminal, a Level 5 felony. His next court date is scheduled for April 19, court filings show.
Luis Acuna, 48, of Valparaiso, was found fatally shot lying face up by a home’s sidewalk in the 2500 block of Van Buren Place. Police estimated he died between Dec. 1-2, 2022.
A witness later told investigators it was a “crack house” and that Perry lived and sold crack cocaine there. In the past, he typically dressed “like a cowboy” and carried a long-barreled gun, according to the affidavit.
Police believed Perry shot Acuna from behind with a revolver, which doesn’t eject casings. A deputy coroner wrote that Acuna was not shot at close range. A bullet pierced his left arm and torso.
No gun or bullet casings were recovered from the scene, Detective Anthony Rendina, a crime scene investigator from the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, said on the stand Monday.
Gary Police responded around midnight Dec. 2, 2022, to the 2500 block of Van Buren Place. The house in front of where Acuna was found had split-floor apartments, according to testimony.
The wire fence’s gate was open.
One responding police officer noticed a bullet hole in an upstairs window, but couldn’t say if it was old or new, he testified. Investigators found no evidence of a struggle, no broken glass, bullet casings, or other evidence inside, according to the affidavit.
Acuna’s black Nissan Frontier truck was missing. According to license plate readers and gas station surveillance videos, someone took it just after the murder and stopped by a few gas stations in Gary.
At a Citgo gas station on the 1500 block of Broadway Avenue, two Black men, later identified as Mims, the driver, wearing blue Jordans, and Perry, the passenger, were seen getting out of Acuna’s truck around 1:20 a.m. Dec. 2.
A witness told police Acuna was a drug addict and often disappeared for days. Police traced a contact in Acuna’s phone records to a man named, “Cowboy”, later identified as Perry.
Acuna was last seen alive on camera around 11 p.m. Dec. 1 at a gas station on the 2500 block of Broadway Avenue, court records show.
Police learned Mims and Perry wanted to scrap Acuna’s vehicle, saying it was “hot”, or stolen. Later, they learned Perry said he argued with Acuna, shot him, and then kicked him down the stairs, the affidavit alleges.
The trial is before Judge Natalie Bokota. Deputy Prosecutors Cole Galloway and Shannon Phillips are assigned, while defense lawyers Susan Severtson and Eric Morris are representing Perry.
mcolias@post-trib.com
