(Lawrenceburg, IN) – A Murder charge has been filed in connection with the shooting death of a man in Dearborn County last week.
You may recall the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office issued a lockdown for the area of Hueseman Road and Texas Gas Road in the southern part of the county while they conducted a manhunt for a suspect in a death investigation.
That suspect is 33-year-old Brent Wellman of Seymour. He’s charged with killing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, 39-year-old Dennis Adams, Jr.
Dearborn County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens says it all started Wednesday when Wellman asked to drop off items at his ex-girlfriend’s house because he had no place to keep them.
Deddens says later that day, Wellman called ex-girlfriend Rachel Warren asking to wish their child a happy birthday. Warren said she would not be home until late due to work but he could pick their child up from a relative in the morning.
Later that night, Warren and Adams thought they heard someone breaking into their home, but didn’t find anything.
Adams left for work around 4:45 Thursday morning. An hour later, a 911 call came in with a homeowner reporting a vehicle in front of their home on the 11-thousand block of U.S. 50 in Dillsboro after hearing gunshots.
When the caller approached the car, he said he saw the driver and car covered in blood and another man in the backseat, crawling toward the front seat.
Responding officers located the car and when a Dearborn County deputy pulled up to the vehicle, he saw a man in the driver’s seat who appeared to be sweating.
When the deputy asked what was going on, he said the driver shrugged and avoided eye contact. Deddens says when the deputy called for assistance, the driver sped away on Hueseman Road.
Shortly after 6 a.m., a 911 caller reported the same vehicle had crashed on Hueseman Road. When law enforcement arrived, the vehicle was empty. They ran the license plate and found it was registered to Adams.
As more law enforcement responded to the area of the gunshot call and fleeing vehicle, one officer found a shoe. As a deputy approached a wooded area, the body of a man in the woods with what appeared to be a gunshot to his upper back and shoulder. The man was identified as Adams, who is from Erlanger, Kentucky.
During a multi agency search for a suspect, one of the responding officers identified the driver who fled from him as Wellman.
A member of the Indiana State Police Emergency Response Team later found Wellman in Laughery Creek near the crashed vehicle, wearing just his underwear and with “redness on his body,” according to Deddens.
An autopsy conducted on Adams at the Hamilton County Morgue in Cincinnati determined he died from injuries sustained from multiple gunshot wounds.
Wellman is also charged with Resisting Law Enforcement – for allegedly leading police on a chase – and a felony Firearm Enhancement.
He’s being held in the Dearborn County Law Enforcement Center without bond following his initial hearing in Dearborn Circuit Court late Monday morning.
Judge Aaron Negangard has scheduled a jury trial for January 20 at 9 a.m.
