Jury convicts 51-year-old for murder of his girlfriend in 2020

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A jury on Wednesday found a 51-year-old man guilty of the 2020 murder of his girlfriend at an apartment on the west side of Indianapolis, the prosecutor’s office announced Thursday.

Tara Smith, 33, died of a gunshot wound to the chest at the crime scene.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was called to a report of a person shot just after 10:25 p.m. Oct. 28, 2020, at an apartment in the 2200 block of Grand Prix Drive. That’s at Darby Court Apartments.

A news release from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office says John Henry and his parents lived in the apartment. Henry and his mother initially told police that Smith had committed suicide, but detectives suspected foul play.

The couple’s children, ages 2 and 3, were in a bedroom of the apartment when Smith was shot, the release says.

The Marion County Coroner’s Office ruled Smith’s death to be a homicide on March 17, 2021. Henry was arrested Nov. 22, 2021.

Henry was being held Thursday in the Marion County jail without bond.

A sentencing hearing was for 9 a.m. Feb. 23 in Marion Superior Court 29.