Inset: Malik Halfacre (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department). Background: Halfacre is arrested after a standoff with police in Indianapolis in 2021 (WRTV/YouTube).
Malik Halfacre, 28, an Indianapolis man who gunned down and killed a 7-year-old child and several of his girlfriend’s family members after a dispute over a stimulus check worth $1,400, has been sentenced to 145 years in prison.
Halfacre pleaded guilty in June to the March 2021 murders of Eve Moore, 7, Dequan Moore, 23, Tomeeka Brown 44, and Anthony Johnson, 35.
Halfacre’s girlfriend, Jeanettrius Moore, was also shot but survived. She is the mother of the 7-year-old girl who died. Dequan Moore was Jeanettrius Moore’s brother; Tomeeka Brown was her mother. Johnson was a cousin to Jeanettrius Moore.
The tragic shooting erupted on March 13, 2021, at a residence on Randolph Street when police said Halfacre was caught rifling through Jeanettrius Moore’s purse in search of a stimulus check she received amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime notes that when police responded to the home, they found Jeanettrius Moore inside and said that the woman told officers Halfacre had fled with their 6-month-old daughter after opening fire. Halfacre’s sister later contacted police and told them that she had the child and during an interview with detectives, Halfacre’s sister said her brother had shown up at her home, knocked on her door, came inside and dropped off the baby and “all of the baby’s stuff” before leaving.
Halfacre’s sister told detectives that her brother admitted to the slayings.
“She then described how he called a friend on her phone and the friend agreed to help Mr. Halfacre get out of town,” the affidavit notes.
Police were able to track down Halfacre’s friend and surveilled the house until the friend left the home and police were able to interview him during a traffic stop. The man told police that Halfacre was inside his girlfriend’s residence on Eastridge Road.
Local Fox affiliate WXIN reported in 2021 that when a SWAT tam showed up to that property, an hourslong standoff unfolded.
“SWAT negotiators did attempt to make contact with him. They did attempt to get messages into the house. They made contact into the residence of letting him know that gas would be placed into the residence. They waited for him to come out. They waited over three hours as they waited for him patiently,” Genae Cook, a public information officer for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said in 2021. “After approximately three or four hours SWAT team members made entry and located Malik Halfacre inside the residence inside the attic area. The suspect then gave up without incident.”
When Halfacre was finally taken into custody, police said he told them that he and Jeanettrius Moore were arguing “because he wanted some of her stimulus check” and that after he shot everyone, “he took the money, J.M.’s purse, and her car and left the scene.”
In an interview with WXIN after the murders, Yolanda Graham, the paternal grandmother of the 7-year-old girl who was killed, said she does not wish her granddaughter to be known just as a victim of gun violence.
“We do not want to talk about the violence,” Graham said. “It’s been enough of that. We want to lift her up, we want to lift up everybody involved because there are a lot of people involved, and we just want everybody to remember that they are people. They are not just victims, and it’s more to them than just what happened here.”
Eve Moore was described as a bright girl and a “funny kid” who was “always in good spirits, always happy, always laughing always playing.”
Halfacre had a criminal record prior to the March 2021 quadruple homicide. He shot a man in 2017 but ended up pleading to a lesser charge of pointing a firearm, WXIN reported.
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show Halfacre was originally charged with four counts of murder and a single charge of attempted murder. He was also charged with armed robbery, felon carrying a handgun and auto theft.
Ryan Mears, a prosecutor for Marion County in Indianapolis, initially considered imposing the death penalty on Halfacre, local NBC affiliate WTHR reported. But within a few months of Halfacre’s arrest, he pleaded guilty to the murder and attempted murder charges and the rest of the charges were dropped.
On Friday after Halfacre was sentenced, Mears expressed gratitude to the families of the victims for their patience during such a difficult, grief-stricken period.
“The defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison and this resolution provides finality to the criminal matter, as our community continues to heal from this horrific tragedy,” Mears told WXIN.
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