Whitestown man charged in shooting death of cleaning woman who went to wrong house

A Whitestown man was charged in the death of a house cleaner who was shot through his locked front door after she went to the wrong address for a job with her husband, Boone County prosecutors announced Monday. 

Curt Andersen, 62, is charged with voluntary manslaughter, a Level 2 felony, for allegedly shooting 32-year-old María Florinda Ríos Pérez de Velásquez on the morning of Nov. 5. Andersen faces 10 to 30 years in prison if convicted. He is being held in the county jail.

According to a probable-cause affidavit, Ríos Pérez and her husband, Mauricio Perez-Velasquez, were part of a cleaning crew hired to work at a newly built model home in a subdivision near Andersen’s house. Text messages on Perez-Velasquez’s phone showed his boss sent him the correct model-home address and a Google Maps link the night before. But GPS kept routing them to Andersen’s home on Maize Lane.

Ríos Pérez and her husband attempted to use the provided keys to enter the home around 6:50 a.m.

Andersen told police he woke up because he heard something but was not sure what it was. Then the sound intensified and he heard what appeared to be “some type of keys, tools, or instrument on the front door." He saw two people through a window and told police he said, “Oh no, this is happening and they are going to get in.”

He entered a “safe room” and retrieved a gun. While doing this, he said he heard the noises at the door get louder and that he was afraid. He returned to the stairs and fired one shot through the front door.

Officers arrived at the scene after two separate 911 calls from Andersen and Perez-Velasquez. They found Perez-Velasquez holding his wife on the front porch. 

Medics pronounced Ríos Pérez dead at the scene. The coroner later determined she had died from a single gunshot wound to the head. 

Police said that Andersen “initially refused to exit his home upon law enforcement’s request,” but eventually he and his wife exited through the back. Whitestown police detained and transported them to the police station for interviews.

National attention 

Ríos Pérez was a mother of four. Last week, her family hosted a vigil in front of the prosecutor’s office and demanded justice. Her death drew national attention to Indiana’s stand your ground law, which allows a person to use reasonable force in self-defense in specific circumstances, and to similar cases that have occurred in other states.

Kent Eastwood, the county prosecutor, said the charge follows the facts of the case. He said the force Andersen used was not necessary given the facts he had at the time.

"It is vitally important for the citizens of Boone County to understand that our decision today in no way should be interpreted as a challenge to Indiana ‘Stand Your Ground’ law or a person’s right to self defense,” he said. “We respect those laws, believe in those laws, and will uphold those laws. Based upon the particular evidence and circumstances of this case, we have determined that Curt Andersen’s actions do not fall within the legal protections.”

Andersen’s attorney, Guy Relford, said in a social media post that they were disappointed the prosecutor’s office filed charges.

“I look forward to proving in court that his actions were fully justified by the ‘castle doctrine’ provision of Indiana’s self-defense law,” he wrote. “Contrary to the contention of the prosecutor - and without discussing the specific facts of the case - we believe Mr. Andersen had every reason to believe his actions were absolutely necessary and fully justified at the time.”

He added that they believe “Andersen’s actions are being unfairly judged based on facts that were unknowable to him as events unfolded.”

The probable-cause affidavit includes a narrative description of the initial investigation by the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department, a description of evidence processed by investigators at the home and interviews with Andersen, his wife and Perez-Velasquez.

Investigators said that “there was no sign of forced entry” — noting undisturbed dust, no handprints, or “any evidence of forceful contact with the structure of the door itself.”

The voluntary manslaughter charge alleges that the act occurred in “sudden heat.”

“In Indiana law, you get this ‘sudden heat,’ which is a term of art in law,” said Jody Madeira, a professor at Indiana University Bloomington Maurer School of Law, who has researched the state’s gun laws. “It means anger, rage, sudden resentment, terror — things that obscure reason as the classic line between murder …and voluntary manslaughter.” 

Neither Andersen, his wife, nor Perez-Velasquez told police that Andersen had attempted to communicate with Ríos Pérez or Perez-Velasquez before the gunshot, according to the affidavit. All three acknowledged that someone was crying on the front porch afterward.

Perez-Velasquez told investigators in Spanish that he “did not yell out or say anything to the people inside the residence before or after he heard the shot,” police said. “Mauricio explained that he was speaking to his wife after she was shot and that he was crying.”

He told police he thought they were at a model home for a cleaning job.

Andersen is being held in the Boone County Jail without bond. The prosecutor’s office expects an initial hearing date by Friday, during which Eastwood said a judge would “set a bond pursuant to local rules.”

Contact WFYI reporter Zak Cassel at zcassel@wfyi.org.