A jury convicted a Merrillville man Friday in his estranged girlfriend’s death.
Dennis Jelks, 60, was found guilty of murder and a gun enhancement in the January 2021 death of Angela Carrier, 37, of Crown Point. The jury deliberated for over 4 hours.
His sentencing is Jan. 29.
Carrier went with relatives on Jan. 26, 2021 to the Merrillville Menards to get her mail from Jelks after a breakup. Once there, Jelks claimed he didn’t have it. He convinced Carrier to leave with him around 1:35 p.m., and she was never seen alive again.
Her mother Rose Jones said the couple had a “toxic” relationship that was “violent ‘all the time,’” court filings show. Jones testified previously she had broken up some of their fights and got into a “physical altercation” with Jelks.
Texts leading up to the Menards meetup showed Carrier was angry, saying Jelks was stalling on giving her mail back. Relatives testified she needed mail from Social Security to continue getting benefits.
“I told you you’re trying to postpone (things). It’s starting to piss me off Dennis, cuz (sic) that’s not right,” she wrote. “I’m to the point where (forget) it, I don’t want nothing. I don’t even want to talk anymore.”
In closing arguments Friday, Deputy Prosecutor Infinity Westberg called several of Jelks’ details on Carrier’s disappearance “lies” and said cell phone location data contradicted several things he told to police.
“The cell phone evidence does not lie,” she later said.
Jelks told investigators after leaving Menards, he went with Carrier to buy marijuana from a drug dealer named “Tone” near 42nd Avenue and Jackson Street. There, two car doors opened, Carrier got into a black car that took off.
He fell, dropped his keys and lost track of the other car, he said. Westberg said it wasn’t true.
She admitted it was a “circumstantial” case. Carrier was found shot twice in the head near a tree by a hunter at Gary’s Gleason Park on Jan. 30. There was no DNA tying Jelks to the crime scene. The revolver was not recovered.
Records showed Jelks never went to Tone’s house that day, Westberg said. Instead, Jelks’ phone called his twin brother Dwight Jelks starting at 1:57 p.m. Jan. 26 near Gleason Park. In total, he called his brother four times in about five minutes.
A woman who was staying at Jelks’ home with her friend called him on Jan. 26 after she thought the police knocked on the door. Jelks said she needed to go and his brother would give them a ride. The woman left so hastily, she left the oven on by mistake. She left without her dog and other items, filings show.
After Carrier disappeared, Dennis called several members of her family “to create this story” that he had nothing to do with her death, Westberg said. Her cell phone and hat were never found. She was found with $100, pills and cigarettes.
Det. Nick Wardrip testified he was assigned to the case in May 2024.
Defense lawyer Michael Lambert told jurors the evidence was akin to the “shiny” and “empty” Christmas gifts in a department store display window.
“He did not commit this crime,” the lawyer said.
Carrier struggled with drugs, Lambert wrote, citing her mother’s testimony, and would “go away for extended periods of time.” Her family said she would always call when she disappeared, prosecutors said.
If it took 15 minutes to reach Gleason Park from the Menards, Jelks had “seven minutes” to kill her, Lambert argued. A volatile relationship didn’t prove Jelks killed her, the lawyer said.
At 1:57 p.m., Jelks was “traveling” near Gleason Park looking for Carrier, Lambert said. Jelks appeared to nod in agreement with what his lawyer said.
The deer hunter who found her body had been in the same area on Jan. 26 from about 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Lambert said. If so, he would have seen Carrier’s body — not several days later when he was there on Jan. 30.
A theory that Carrier was killed close to where she was found was a relatively new one, noting police cut carpeting from Jelks’ trunk for DNA analysis and found nothing.
“This isn’t a popularity contest, this is a murder trial,” the lawyer said. “He didn’t kill that girl. He didn’t have time.”
A lighter found near Carrier’s body had traces of her other on-and-off boyfriend Joshua Harper’s DNA. Carrier’s own lighter was in her pocket. Westberg later countered that she could have been carrying two lighters. Harper was in a wheelchair and in physical therapy at the time for falling off a roof at a job site.
There was no established time of death, Lambert said. Following COVID-19 protocols, an autopsy wasn’t conducted for five more days. He noted the hunter was only interviewed a few weeks ago. His memory might have been better in 2021, he said.
Westberg retorted that the signs pointed to Jelks’ guilt. He sent messages and attempted to look for Carrier and cooperated with police where he believed they didn’t have evidence on him — such as letting them search the house where Carrier wasn’t killed.
The hunter reportedly saw a 3-foot pool of blood at Gleason Park “didn’t happen,” she said. None of the crime scene investigators spotted it, she said. The man was “shaky” on the 911 call and traumatized by what he saw, she argued.
Carrier didn’t have DNA under her fingernails, suggesting she was killed by someone she knew, Westberg said.
Jelks said Carrier was a “sweetheart” and he loved her to death.
“He did love her to death,” Westberg said.
