Inset left: Jaron Wells (Vanderburgh County Prosecutor”s Office). Inset right: Shanay Hunt: (Obituary). Background: The house where Wells shot and killed Hunt in Evansville, Ind. (Google Maps).
An Indiana man will spend the next several decades behind bars for killing his own mother in a vacant house.
In July, Jaron Wells, 30, was convicted on one count of murder and then pleaded guilty to a firearm enhancement, according to a press release issued by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office.
The defendant faced between 45 and 65 years behind bars for the murder conviction; the firearm enhancement carried an additional sentence of between five and 20 years.
Late Tuesday morning, Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge Ryan D. Hatfield handed down a 70-year prison sentence. Wells will also have to register as a violent offender in the event he is ever released.
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On July 8, 2023, Wells killed his mother, Shanay Michelle Hunt, 45, by shooting her in the head with a “very particular and seldomly used type of ammunition,” according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by Law&Crime. That bullet was identified as a .45 GAP (Glock Auto Pistol) round.
The killing occurred in a house on Harriet Street in Evansville and remained undiscovered for over a week.
On July 14, 2023, a man who previously lived in the residence was grief-stricken about his daughter being in the intensive care unit at a nearby hospital. In a dejected state, the man decided to go for a walk and visit their former home. When he got there, it was not nostalgia that took hold but a “foul odor” coming from the back of the property.
“He stated that he opened the window on the back side of the home and went inside,” the affidavit reads. “As he walked in, he observed the deceased lying on a mattress covered in maggots. He stated that he felt unwell and ran out of the home. He did not have a phone so he went across the street to Aurora [which assists the homeless population] to have the employees call authorities.”
Arriving officers determined Hunt had been decomposing “for some time,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators later learned the victim was homeless but had a habit of briefly squatting in abandoned properties.
Weeks after the murder, when Hunt was identified by name in a local news story, her son unfriended her on Facebook that same day, according to the affidavit.
Additional evidence led investigators to Wells.
On July 19, an employee at a gas station near the Harriet Street house stated that he last remembered seeing Hunt with Wells – as they often visited together – but did not know the man’s name.
Then, investigators determined the defendant “purchased a .45 caliber Glock firearm less than a month before the murder as well as the type of rare ammunition found at the scene,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
Police also learned one of the defendant’s ex-girlfriends broke up with him “due to the ‘weird’ situation between Wells and his mother.”
After that, one of the victim’s friends said the last time she spoke with Hunt was on the day she was killed, following an argument between the mother and son.
“She stated that Shanay told her that she would be okay and would call her again later,” the affidavit goes on. “Hunt never called her again.”
In September 2023, authorities arrested Wells in Harrisburg, Illinois – a small town located roughly 60 miles west of Evansville.
The arrest yielded additional evidence prosecutors cited as particularly revealing and instrumental in getting a conviction.
“[Police] discovered in the home where he was staying a note in a small, blue notebook that describes him having done something on a Saturday that has left him without a living parent and that will leave his sister devastated and disgusted with him,” the prosecutor’s statement reads. “The note specified the first name of the Defendant’s sister and, not-so-coincidentally, the July 8, 2023 date was a Saturday. A handwriting analyst determined that the writing in the journal matched the Defendant’s.”
In February, however, only 11 out of 12 jurors voted to find Wells guilty.
Prosecutors pursued a retrial.
During the summer retrial, prosecutors marshaled “medical forensic evidence, surveillance videos, testimony regarding the gun and ammunition, expert firearms testimony matching the gun and discovered casing, phone data, location data, handwriting analysis, and testimony from the victim’s family and friends,” according to the press release.
