John Jefferson
Left: Vincent McCurtis. Right: Brandon Jackson (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police). Inset: Bryan Ward (Flanner Buchanan Cremation and Burial).
An Indiana judge on Monday sentenced two men to prison for beating a man to death because the victim said he liked a woman’s legs, records show.
Vincent McCurtis, 31, was found guilty of murder as a habitual offender and was sentenced to 79 years behind bars. Brandon Jackson, 24, was convicted of reckless homicide and received five years in prison. They killed 56-year-old Bryan Ward in Indianapolis on May 14, 2023.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to a report of an assault at a home in the 1700 block of Howard Street on the city’s southwest side. Cops found a victim, later identified as Ward, suffering from “injuries consistent with trauma.” Victims rushed him to the hospital where he was first listed in critical condition but died the next day.
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Several people were inside the home at the time of the incident and cooperated with cops. They pointed the finger at McCurtis and Jackson. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, a woman told cops she arrived home next door and Ward made a comment about liking her legs when she walked inside. Ward made another flirty comment that McCurtis took exception to and said no one talked to his “sister” like that. Ward said he would no longer speak to the woman in that matter, per the affidavit.
The victim walked to his truck to leave but McCurtis and Jackson chased him down. The woman heard McCurtis screaming “tie him up,” and “get him inside” and “I’m going to kill him.” McCurtis came back to the front of the house where the woman was and asked her if killing him was what she wanted. She answered in the negative and said they should just let Ward leave, according to cops.
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“No, this is what I do. This is who I am. I’m going to take care of it,” McCurtis told the woman, cops wrote. “I’m going to kill him for you.”
McCurtis then said he was going to drown Ward in a bathtub. After leaving for a short while in the victim’s truck, McCurtis came back and said he wanted Ward alive so he could “finish him off.” At this point, the woman went into her home. But McCurtis came knocking on her door shortly thereafter and said “come see what I did for you.” He said he was stripping the victim naked and bringing him outside to show everyone what he did, the affidavit said.
The woman called the police and left her home to wait for the cops to show up.
Jackson and McCurtis denied involvement but they had scratch marks all over their bodies. They were initially arrested for attempted murder but charges were bumped up to murder after Ward’s death.
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