Derrick Pouncey had just allegedly killed Kyle and Klorya Matthews in April 2024 inside his home. He then wounded Malieke Thomas on the front lawn in a gunfight between the two men.
“Look at what you made me do,” he told his then-girlfriend, Ashley Price, Klorya’s sister. “You made me kill your whole family.”
Pouncey, 37, is on trial this week, charged with two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, aggravated battery, two counts of criminal confinement, one count of misdemeanor domestic battery, misdemeanor battery and multiple gun enhancements.
He has pleaded not guilty, saying it was self-defense.
Around 3 a.m. on April 10, 2024, Gary Police responded to the scene at the 2000 block of Roosevelt Street, where two people — Kyle and Klorya Matthews — had been shot to death, according to the probable cause affidavit. Upon arrival, police found the front glass door open and shattered and there was glass everywhere. Near the door, they found a third victim who was still alive, along with 29 7.62mm caliber casings, 5 .45mm casings and a large pool of blood nearby, records state.
Thomas, 55, engaged to Price’s other sister, was in a rough two-decade relationship with her. He was bedridden and paralyzed from the waist down as a result of being shot by Pouncey, court records state.
He died Nov. 18 of his injuries, according to the Marion County Coroner’s Office. The official cause of death is still pending.
Lake County records show Ashley Price and Pouncey obtained a marriage license in July 2024 — three months after the killings. They have since had another child. He was arrested and charged in December 2024.
Pouncey’s “rage” and “pride” that day “destroyed an entire family,” Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce told jurors in opening statements Monday.
More Top Picks Suitcases
He fired 29 times in “seconds,” she said.
Authorities painted a picture of fights and arguments — including when Ashley accused him of infidelity — that ratcheted up to the killings.
The Matthews couple was there to get the kids. Thomas went with hisfiancéeé, Antoinette Taylor, Price’s sister, but originally remained down the street. He had a recently fraught relationship with Pouncey and didn’t want her to go, records state.
Inside, Klorya told Pouncey he was “not going to call her sister names,” Koonce said.
Pouncey punched her. Kyle tried to intervene. Pouncey killed him, then shot Klorya dead.
Thomas arrived and pulled Taylor away from the doorway. As she ran to the neighbor’s house to hide in front, she heard gunshots as the men fired at each other, Koonce said.
Police found 18 casings inside, 11 outside.
A neighbor, who testified Monday, called 911 three times during the night.
The first time, officers, working on limited information, didn’t get out of the patrol car. The second, they left after Pouncey assured them everything was fine. The third — 15 minutes later — the couple was dead and Thomas was wounded.
Price was “really at the center of this case,” Koonce told the jury.
When Cpl. Joseph VonBank — back for the third time — asked for her boyfriend’s name, she refused to give it.
“Look up the lease,” she told him.
“No, that’s not how this works,” he responded.
Despite having to cradle her sister’s lifeless body, “she protects her man,” Koonce argued.
Pouncey killed the couple, then shot a third man. He then drove to Mt. Sinai in Chicago and claimed he had been robbed and shot nearby.
“You’re going to have to determine if that’s self-defense,” she said.
Defense lawyer John Cantrell said Ashley accused him of cheating, but the situation had calmed down.
“No one wanted (her) family to come by,” he said.
Thomas, with a gun and knife, was actually down the block for cover, he argued.
“This was an ambush,” the lawyer said. The Matthews couple “pushed their way into a house.”
It was “two people trying to get revenge” for Pouncey’s cheating, he said.
“You have to defend yourself,” Cantrell argued. “That’s not a crime.”
Alvin Price, 66, Klorya and Ashley’s father and Antoinette’s stepfather, testified Monday that he knew Pouncey for five or six years.
He said on cross-examination that Pouncey had been a welcome extended family member.
Under questioning from Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Lanham, he said Pouncey could be “distant” and “standoffish.”
A next-door neighbor testified extensively on the three 911 calls she made that night. She doesn’t know Pouncey or Ashley well, only to say hi in passing.
The first was after she heard arguing and a gunshot.
“I thought he had shot her,” she said.
The officer “just came by” to “flash lights on the house,” then left.
About 30 minutes later, the second 911 call came after more arguing.
More Top Picks Best Noise Canceling Headphones For Kids
“Oh, you are gonna shoot me in front of my kids,” she heard Ashley yell. “I’ll die for my kids.”
“If anything happens and I don’t say anything, I’ll feel bad,” the neighbor said on the second 911 call.
Around 3:22 a.m., she made the third call.
“They shooting! They shooting!” She screamed on the call.
“Please tell (the police) to come back!”
She heard about 10-15 shots. She saw a vehicle take off.
Did you talk to the police at the scene, Koonce asked.
“I tried to afterwards,” she said. “They told me it was an investigation.”
They later took her Ring footage, she said.
VonBank testified Tuesday. Prosecutors played bodycam footage from only the third 911 call.