Indiana prosecutor seeks death penalty against quadruple shooting suspect

DANVILLE — Hendricks County’s top prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a man charged in a 2022 quadruple shooting outside a Plainfield hotel that killed two men.

In a court filing on Monday, Prosecutor Loren Delp notified the courts that he’s seeking the death penalty against suspected shooter Dalonny Rodgers. The request marks the first time the prosecutor’s office has sought a death sentence.

“It is a decision that must not be taken lightly,” Delp said in a prepared statement. “Our office’s review of the facts of the case and the law, including possible mitigating and aggravating circumstances, supports the filing of the death penalty in this case.”

Delp cited the multiple victims in the case as one of the reasons for requesting the enhanced sentence. Two of the men injured that night, Jose Rolando Castaneda Varela, 34, and Alfredo Garcia, 52, died from their gunshot wounds. Two men survived.

According to an arrest affidavit detailing the case, the men were socializing near a shed on Sept. 10, 2022 on the Whitehouse Hotel’s property when Rodgers is accused of walking up to them, pulling out a firearm and shooting. Police said he then took Garcia’s vehicle and fled – another aggravating factor the prosecutor’s office cited in the death penalty request.

Witnesses said Rodgers was seen arguing with his girlfriend before the shooting and she drove off, leaving him behind. Another witness told police he made derogatory remarks against Latinos before pulling the trigger.

In December 2023, more than a year after the shooting, police arrested Rodgers in Pittsfield, Massachusetts . He was extradited to Indiana in February.

At the time of the killings, Rodgers was finishing a sentence through Marion County Community Corrections related to a fatal shooting from 2014. Rodgers entered an agreement with prosecutors in that case to plead guilty to his lesser charge of reckless homicide in exchange for dropping his murder charge.

Delp cited how Rodgers’ was under court authority during the killings as the third and final reason for his death penalty request.

Indiana governor, attorney general just called for state executions to resume

The death penalty request out of Hendricks County comes just over a month after the governor and attorney general’s office called for the state to resume capital punishment cases after securing a drug, pentobarbital, that can carry out death sentences.

In a filing sent to the Indiana Supreme Court, Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita asked for an execution date to be scheduled for Joseph Corcoran, a convicted in the 1997 murders of four people.

More: Joseph E. Corcoran is first in line when Indiana resumes executions. Here's what he did.

Corcoran’s attorneys have asked the state’s Supreme Court to deny the request.

Contact reporter Sarah Nelson at sarah.nelson@indystar.com

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana prosecutor seeks death penalty against quadruple shooting suspect