WHILE MUNCIE PRODUCES VIOLENT CRIME AND DEAD BODIES, PROSECUTOR ERIC HOFFMAN SPENDS HIS WEEKEND TRYING TO LOCK UP A REPORTER AFTER ARTICLE EXPOSES HIM AS A CROOK

Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman calls for Hoosier Enquirer reporter to be arrested after article exposes Hoffman as a crook.

Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman found the time on a Saturday to call for a Hoosier Enquirer reporter to be arrested. The same weekend, Muncie continued its usual run of shootings, rapes, child deaths, and domestic terror while his office stayed focused on the press for questioning how he handled a cop who turned off his body camera before shooting a family dog five times.

A 25-year-old man, Jaylen McCullum, was shot dead at the Earthstone Terrace apartments after an argument at a Labor Day gathering. Police arrested James Clark on murder charges. That was just one of the city’s regular fatal shootings. In July, 51-year-old William Richard Stacy Jr. was gunned down in the 1900 block of East 20th Street; witnesses heard multiple shots and saw a vehicle flee. The case is still open. Early Sunday morning brought another shooting that left five people wounded in a parking lot on White River Boulevard after fights broke out. No arrests. Same city, same pattern.

In May, 21-year-old Rylynn Davis was charged with murder after he allegedly beat his girlfriend, 23-year-old Cheyenne Raines, chased her down, and dragged her screaming down a sidewalk by her feet. Two men in a truck stopped to help. Davis opened fire on them, then shot Raines multiple times in the face, chest, abdomen, and back. Detectives later found child sex abuse material on his phone—twelve felony counts on top of the murder case. Three young children were found in the home in what police called deplorable conditions.

Brandon Resler was charged with rape, domestic battery with a deadly weapon, intimidation, strangulation, and residential entry after he allegedly forced his way into a woman’s home, put his hand around her neck, told her he had been watching the place, and pulled a gun. Another Muncie man was accused of battering his mother, threatening to kill her and an adult daughter, then barricading himself for hours until SWAT dragged him out. Christopher Tyrone Kirkland had a prior intimidation case already pending.

Kimberly Grayson was convicted of neglect of a dependent resulting in death after her 6-year-old son pulled a loaded gun from a safe—the key left in the lock—and shot his 5-year-old sister in the head. Conditions in the home were described as filthy, with trash, food, and animal feces. A judge later ruled Grayson incompetent to be sentenced. Her husband, Jacob Grayson, was convicted on the same charges. Hoffman’s office prosecuted the cases. The children are still dead.

Other recent entries: a youth charged with possessing a machine gun, a dealing case after a task-force raid, arson and recklessness charges after a field fire, a woman charged with beating a naked man unconscious and leaving him in a pool of blood, and a Yorktown man who broke into a Muncie church, smashed items, and was jumping and yelling. A man convicted of conspiracy to commit murder more than a decade ago walked out early after a judge modified his sentence. Another dealing defendant also received an early release. The violence and the soft outcomes keep coming.

While all of that continued, Hoffman reviewed the October 16 incident in which Officer Michael E. Skinner turned off his body camera, then reported firing about five rounds at a one-year-old dog named Memphis while serving a non-criminal warrant. The dog survived with wounds to both rear legs; one required amputation. The case was papered as a routine animal incident and specifically marked “Not a use-of-force. Not an officer-involved shooting.” Hoffman reviewed the file and cleared the officer. Hoosier Enquirer asked for a criminal investigation into the camera deactivation and the reporting of the event. Hoffman’s response was to seek a reporter’s arrest and, according to a Delaware County GOP source, coordinate with convicted felon Kristopher Bilbrey—who pleaded guilty to felony theft in 2013 while working loss prevention at a Walmart—to go after the outlet and its CEO, Donna Kavanagh.

Hoffman has a long record of reviewing use-of-force cases and declining to charge officers. He also recused himself in the hot-car death of a Delaware County sheriff’s deputy’s 10-year-old special-needs daughter; special prosecutors later declined charges. Residents keep dying, children keep getting shot, women keep getting raped and dragged down sidewalks, and the prosecutor finds time on a Saturday to go after a news organization for writing about a body-camera dog shooting he cleared. The priorities are on full display. Muncie is still producing bodies. Hoffman is producing press statements about reporters.