Lake County
The uncle of a child fatally shot in May at an East Chicago apartment was charged with murder in the 4-year-old’s death, records show.
Lamario Delgado-Gonzalez, 32, made his formal appearance Friday in Lake Superior Court on his charges, which include murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and reckless homicide, according to court records.
Charges were filed in October, five months after Garrion Glover Jr. died May 11 in the living room of his family’s apartment in the 3500 block of Guthrie Street while watching cartoons and his uncle was on the couch, officials said.
Delgado-Gonzalez’s case was unsealed to the public after he was arrested last month in Normal, Ill., by local police working with the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force on an Indiana warrant in the case, police said.
Delgado-Gonzalez told Judge Clarence Murray that his family was gathering money to hire an attorney, but they needed a couple of weeks to get the funds.
Murray scheduled his next hearing date as Jan. 19, records show.
On May 11, Glover’s mother said she was asleep with her boyfriend when “she heard some type of noise come from the living room,” according to a probable cause affidavit. The two went to the living room where the boy was on his back on the floor, records show.
“(The boyfriend) stated that he thought Garrion was asleep but saw blood when he tried to wake him up,” according to the affidavit.
While the couple tried to wake Garrion, Delgado-Gonzalez, who was on the couch, “woke up and asked what happened,” records state. He “denied owning a weapon and he denied knowing what happened,” according to the affidavit.
Delgado-Gonzalez said “he was in a ‘kush’ (marijuana) coma” and he “had no explanation as to why there was a bullet hole in the couch where he was sleeping and not waking up,” court records show.
As Delgado-Gonzalez continued to deny knowing what happened or to owning a gun, police “showed him pictures from his Instagram which showed him sitting on the couch in the apartment holding a handgun,” the affidavit states.
In the living room, police found a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun on a pile of clothes, damage on the armrest of the couch and blood on the couch and carpet, records show.
Garrion was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago after being shot in the face, according to the affidavit.
“Based on Garrion’s wound tract and damage to his right cheek, the weapon would have to have been held against his right cheek in a downward position,” the affidavit states.
The Lake County coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide.
Garrion’s mother said the 4-year-old “had never touched a real gun and she did not allow weapons in her house,” records state. She said “she did not believe that he shot himself,” according to the affidavit.
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