Docs: Indy woman tried to run over boyfriend with 6 kids in vehicle

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis woman faces multiple charges after she was accused of trying to run over her boyfriend with her six children inside the vehicle.

Donesha Stewart, 32, is formally charged with two counts of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and a single count of criminal mischief, online court records show.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called around 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 22 to a domestic disturbance at a home on Cossell Street on the city’s west side.

The 911 caller told responding officers that he was Stewart’s boyfriend. He claimed Stewart had threatened him with a knife after accusing him of cheating and then tried to run him over, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by News 8.

The boyfriend claimed he ran from the house after Stewart grabbed a knife and stopped at a nearby gas station for a cigarette, court papers say.

The man told investigators that when he returned from the gas station, Stewart was “smashing all of his vehicle windows with a brick,” Det. Matthew Engelmann said in a sworn statement.

Court papers say that when the man asked Stewart why she was destroying his vehicle, she replied, “That’s what you get.”

The boyfriend told police he watched as Stewart gathered her six children, put them in her Dodge Durango, and prepared to leave.

“Stewart then accelerated and started to drive right at [the boyfriend] as he stood on the sidewalk,” Det. Engelmann wrote. “Stewart’s vehicle left the roadway and went over the curb. [The boyfriend] had to jump out of the way to get behind a tree to avoid being struck.”

Engelmann added that investigators located a fresh tire mark on the curb and in the grass near the sidewalk.

IMPD officers tracked Stewart’s Dodge Durango to a gas station on West Michigan Street and saw six children sitting inside the vehicle.

The driver, later identified as Stewart, told an officer that she had been arguing with her boyfriend over a laptop and an iPad and that he choked her, Det. Engelmann wrote.

Court papers say the officer “did not observe any signs of strangulation” on Stewart and “she had no injuries on her body.”

Stewart told police that she vandalized her boyfriend’s vehicle because he refused to return the iPad and laptop but denied trying to run him over.

An officer spoke with Stewart’s oldest daughter, who said she heard the pair arguing but didn’t answer when asked if she saw her mother try to run the man over, court documents say.

Stewart was arrested and transported to the Criminal Justice Center, where she was being held Thursday.

Online court records say a bail hearing is set for Wednesday, Jan. 3.