INDIANAPOLIS — The man charged in a triple murder in Lawrence appeared in court Tuesday afternoon while his alleged accomplice is still at large.
Malik Shaw, 24, walked into the courtroom in a red jail uniform. That indicates an inmate charged with murder. Tuesday's hearing was for Shaw to advise Marion Superior Court Judge Marshelle Dawkins Broadwell if he has hired an attorney.
Judge: “Do you have the ability to hire your own attorney?”
Shaw: “Working on that. But as of right now a public defender.”
Judge: “You're requesting that I appoint the public defender agency to represent you?
Shaw: “Yes, ma'am."
The judge did appoint Shaw a public defender. His arrest for the triple murder also puts him in violation of his probation for a conviction last year. Shaw pleaded guilty to unlawfully carrying a gun and marijuana possession. He served five days in jail under the plea agreement.
Now Shaw is charged with shooting and killing 19-year-old Londyn Coleman, 19-year-old Aaliyah Wortman, and 27-year-old Spencer Lawson. Their bodies were found near a car in a parking lot in the Jamestowne Apartment Community in the early evening of April 12.
A maintenance man there heard the shots and chased two suspects, even shooting at them with his own gun.
Court records say Shaw ran to a sports bar at 46th Street and Post Road and paid a man in the parking lot $200 to give him a ride home. A phone left in the suspect's car at the crime scene helped police use social media to match Shaw to the man described by witnesses and caught on surveillance video in the area. Police arrested Shaw leaving a home near where the man dropped him off around 25th Street and Post Road.
Shaw's next court date is June 3. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said last week that police had good leads on the second suspect in the shooting. But no one else has been arrested yet.