A jury convicted a former Gary man Thursday for killing his pregnant girlfriend in 2015.

Derron Fuller, now 27, was convicted on two counts of murder and one count of obstruction of justice. The jury deliberated for about four hours. His sentencing is scheduled in late May.

Rochelle Stubblefield, 20, who was 8-months pregnant with a boy, disappeared between Nov. 10-12, 2015. Her body was never found.

Prosecutors allege Fuller was the only person with the motive, because he didn’t want to be the child’s father. Stubblefield allegedly texted her mother she was going to meet Fuller about the baby before she disappeared.

Two witnesses — a woman and one of Fuller’s relatives — both told police Fuller admitted he killed her.

Defense lawyers said the case was weak and there were several holes in the evidence due to shoddy police work — including Fuller’s cell phone that investigators lost around 2017.

Stubblefield was last seen on camera at a basketball game that day, according to court records.

She was “living her best life”, looking forward to her son’s birth within weeks, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Jatkiewicz said.

Fuller, by contrast, couldn’t “wrap his mind around the fact she was pregnant and having that baby.”

“He killed her,” Jatkiewicz said.

There were signs Stubblefield was at Williams Elementary, 1320 E. 19th Ave., in Gary just before she disappeared. The school is still operating.

Detectives found scattered items: shoes, her inhaler, “disturbed” dirt in a wooded section. Her silver Chevrolet Sonic, with the popcorn bucket from the game still inside, was parked at an apartment building nearby, Jatkiewicz said.

Since that time, all signs pointed that she was dead, the prosecutor said. There was no evidence she ever gave birth. Her Social Security number or driver’s license hadn’t been used.

Amir, her son, “never got to see the light of day,” she said.

Fuller’s relative testified Fuller said he killed Stubblefield on the school’s playground. Jatkiewicz and prosecutors theorized he dragged her body to the school’s wooded patch, which would explain why black and blue rubber bits were found there.

There was a blue shovel left behind. Jatkiewicz theorized it was too cold to dig a grave, so Fuller had to return to haul off her body.

When a fight broke out at the playground, Stubblefield was fighting for her son’s life, the prosecutor said.

A woman who testified Wednesday had to be subpoenaed and wanted to “forget about Indiana,” Jatkiewicz said.

Nevertheless, after an immunity deal, the woman told police in 2019 that Fuller said he killed Stubblefield.

Fuller’s relative testified Fuller called him the night of Nov. 10, 2015 “out of breath,” the prosecutor recounted. Fuller said he choked Stubblefield and stabbed her in the temple. The relative called 911 to report it.

Over the summer, they “joked” about something happening to Stubblefield.

DNA was tough to find as an inhaler sat in the snow, making a lift impossible, Jatkiewicz said. Stubblefield’s car also sat outside for 10 days, she said.

When police went to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where Fuller was stationed in the U.S. Army to arrest him in 2020, he passed out. That was the sign of a guilty man, Jatkiewicz alleged.

That assertion was ridiculous, defense lawyer Scott King retorted.

Fuller wasn’t arrested until 5 years after her disappearance. The only evidence prosecutors had was the testimony of two people, he said.

There was little to back up their word, King said.

Police didn’t seize or “even look at” the female witness’s cell phone who reluctantly testified Wednesday. She admitted Fuller called her to pick her up from Williams Elementary that night, before he spent three days hiding in her parents’ basement, according to court records.

“If the man did what (they said), those phones are going to tell the story,” King said.

By the time police took a fresh look at the case, too many years passed to get cell phone logs, he said.

Det. George Dickerson, the case’s original lead detective, checked out the phone from evidence in January 2017 before the phone disappeared, King said. The detective was never called as a witness during the trial, he said.

“They (prosecutors) have the audacity to not even come in here and offer some kind of excuse for how the hell you lose the defendant’s cell phone,” King said.

Jatkiewicz retorted that detectives still tried to find the phone within weeks of trial.

“If those calls weren’t made, he didn’t do it,” King said. “I guess we’ll just never know.”

The relative’s 2015 police statement was also lost when the file got corrupted, King said.

Det. Edward Gonzalez testified one of Calumet College’s security cameras got hit by lightning.

“Yesterday, I was at a point where I thought I heard everything,” King said. “I was not disappointed.”

“That’s our excuse,” he said of prosecutors. “Excuses are not evidence.”

King brought up other points he believed poked holes in the case.

Stubblefield’s mother Thelma Thomas reported her missing on Nov. 12, believing in error she had to wait 48 hours, he said. She said Stubblefield’s last text said she was meeting Fuller. The court never saw a screenshot or other evidence to corroborate.

“It’s been a long time,” King said. “Memories change.”

The female witness told police Fuller had Stubblefield’s backpack, computer while he was tossing Stubblefield’s things out the SUV’s window. A photograph showed a backpack left in Stubblefield’s car, King said. Jatkiewicz later said the computer was probably in its own bag.

The female witness’s friend and Fuller both got fired from a fast food restaurant after they got into an argument at work in October 2015.

Shortly after, the female witness, who was then in an on-and-off relationship with Fuller, led her friend, and a couple of men to look for Fuller. The men in the group ended up beating Fuller’s little brother.

“That’s not a typical expression of fondness,” he said of her.

Stubblefield had come into the fast-food restaurant sometime before that. It was “part of the picture of who (the female witness) was,” he said.

Fuller’s relative’s testimony was also questionable, King said. As far as the blue shovel, detectives didn’t ask the female witness or Fuller’s relatives and couldn’t trace who it belonged to, he said.

Stubblefield’s mother Thelma Thomas and her aunt Sandra Thomas said Thursday she was gentle, kind, “bubbly”, and “full of life”.

She was studying to be a crime scene investigator at Calumet College and was “scared, but excited” for her first baby, Thelma Thomas said.

Her daughter had known Fuller since Dunbar-Pulaski Middle School in Gary, where they were friends.

She ran track at Calumet College, where she attended on an athletic scholarship, newspaper archives show.

Earlier in the hearing, Judge Samuel Cappas denied King’s motion to throw out the two murder charges. But he said he would review case law on the obstruction of justice charge — which was rare — if Fuller was convicted.

King argued Fuller couldn’t have been charged with obstruction — for tossing Stubblefield’s things out a SUV window — before an investigation formally started.

Co-counsel Jennie Bell assisted King. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Bruno was assigned with Jatkiewicz.