A Gary woman faces charges after admitting she shot her boyfriend dead during an argument, court documents allege.
Marquita M. Davis, 31, of Gary was charged Sunday with voluntary manslaughter, a Level 2 felony, and a firearm enhancement.
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If convicted on all charges, she faces up to 50 years. She is in custody, held without bond.
Gary Police responded Saturday to an apartment on the 3500 block of Washington Street.
Davis was shot in the hand, while the victim, Johnathan Tolbert, was found shot once in the chest near the bedroom nightstand. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A pink Glock handgun with a casing lodged in the chamber was nearby. The nightstand drawer was partly on his legs. Police found five phones on the bed. Three belonged to Davis.
“He tried to grab the gun from me and shot himself and me,” she told police.
Later, she admitted it was not true.
After providing inconsistent stories, Davis told police that she dropped him off at a friend’s house in Chicago that afternoon, then went to her mother’s residence.
The couple got into a toxic text fight and she refused to pick him up, she said. He got back before sunrise.
At first, Davis told police they fought over the gun, but later admitted she pulled it on him to intimidate him. She said he yelled at her and threatened to rip her hair out and beat her. Police noted she didn’t have other injuries other than her shot hand.
She “just wanted to go to sleep” and was “done dealing with him,” documents show.
When a detective quizzed her on how she could have shot herself in the hand and Tolbert in the chest with the same bullet, she got quiet and asked for a lawyer.
During the interview, Davis admitted she slapped him after he was shot and started to pour milk on him to wake him, because she didn’t have cold water and didn’t know what to do.
An apartment surveillance video captured a man pounding on the window, before Davis gave him a key. It appeared to show a woman’s voice yelling for “several minutes” before a gunshot was heard.
Anyone with more information can call Det. Jason Szemes at 219-755-3855.