SAVANNAH ROSS - 10 yo (2010) - Crawfordsville (S of Lafayette) IN

10-year-old girl fatally shot at Crawfordsville home
Police say a 10-year-old girl was fatally
shot inside her central Indiana home when her mother’s boyfriend
accidentally fired a gun.

Crawfordsville police Detective David Long reports that witnesses
are saying that 27-year-old Steven Bixler was acting carelessly with a gun in a
bedroom where four children were playing when it went off, striking the
10-year-old in the torso.After the Saturday afternoon shooting, Bixler and the girl’s mother
took her to a Crawfordsville hospital, where she later died.
Bixler was arrested on preliminary charges including reckless homicide.
He’s been released from the Montgomery County Jail on bond.

10-Year Old Girl Shot & Killed in Montgomery County


Updated: Monday, 06 Sep 2010, 5:30 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 06 Sep 2010, 1:33 PM EDT


CRAWFORDSVILLE (WISH) - The Montgomery County Coroner is investigating the death of Savannah C. Ross, Crawfordsville, age 10.

According
to police, 27 year old Steven Bixler, shot and killed his girlfriend's
10 year old daughter. Bixler's siblings say the shooting was accidental. Police
say Bixler was in a room with four children when the rifle he was
carrying fired. A bullet hit the 10 year old girl in the abdomen.
Police say after the shooting, Steven Bixler and his girlfriend drove
the girl a short distance to St. Clare's Hospital where she later died.

"She was an outgoing child, she had fun. She did good in school. She liked to sing, she liked to dance" said Ashley Bixler.

The
Crawfordsville Police Department is investigating the case. Officers
arrested Steven Bixler on preliminary charges of reckless homicide,
criminal recklessness, and pointing a firearm. He was released from the
Montgomery County Jail after posting bond. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday morning at Terre Haute Regional Hospital.

Police are reviewing the case with the prosecutor’s office to determine if Bixler should face additional charges.

Updated: Sep 11, 2010 10:51 AM Crawfordsville -Investigators are releasing new details surrounding the deadly shooting of a ten-year-old girl. It appears a game among children led to a tragic end.Until Friday, police had remained virtually silent after ten-year-old Savannah Ross was shot and killed in her home last Saturday. Now the man who police say is responsible for her death is formally charged.Prosecutors charged 27-year-old Steven Bixler in the shooting death of his live-in girlfriend's daughter. He faces charges of reckless homicide, criminal recklessness and pointing a firearm.The shooting happened on Saturday at the family's Crawfordsville home. Preliminary autopsy results showed that Savannah died from a single shot to her pelvic area."She just got shot. That's all I know," said Ashley Bixler, the suspect's sister, speaking shortly after the incident. "That it was an accident and it should never have happened."Court records reveal conflicting accounts of what happened. Bixler told police he picked up a muzzle loading .50 caliber rifle and that it discharged, striking Savannah in the next room. But according to a witness who was in the home, a group of children were playing a game of cops and robbers with a toy pistol.The witness says Savannah's mother told Bixler to grab a gun and act as if he was going to shoot one of the children just to scare them. The witness says Bixler went into the room. After that, the witness reported hearing one shot and Bixler screaming,"Oh my God, it went off! It went off! I didn't know it was loaded!"According to court records, two children who were in the room reported to police that Bixler walked into the room and shot Savannah. Investigators say Bixler later contradicted his earlier statement, saying that he brought the gun into the room and that Savannah wanted to see the weapon and it discharged.Bixler is being held in jail on a $50,000 bond. He turned down Channel 13's request for an interview.Prosecutors filed a court motion Friday claiming that Bixler is a habitual offender.http://www.wthr.com/story/13133341/court-documents-show-conflicting-stories-in-girls-deadly-shooting?redirected=true

Guilty plea filed, sealed in 10-year-old's fatal shooting

11:14 PM, Feb. 18, 2011

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- A man accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend's 10-year-old daughter last year while she was playing cops and robbers has signed a plea agreement, the Montgomery County prosecutor's office confirmed Friday.

The charge or charges which Steven R. Bixler, 27, is expected to plead guilty to will likely not be released until March 22, the date of his sentencing hearing in Montgomery Circuit Court.That's because the proposed plea agreement was sealed by Judge Harry Siamas.Bixler, of Crawfordsville, is charged with reckless homicide, a Class C felony; criminal recklessness, a Class C felony; and pointing a firearm, a Class D felony, in the Sept. 4, 2010, shooting death of Savannah Ross.

He also is charged with being a habitual offender, which is a sentencing enhancement.

Bixler had been slated to stand trial beginning Tuesday.

The shooting took place at 102 W. Oak Hill Road, where Bixler, Savannah and Savannah's mother, Iris Marcum, resided. The house is off U.S. 231, just north of downtown Crawfordsville, and about 27 miles south of Lafayette.

Savannah was shot in the pelvis with a firearm that investigators described as a .50-caliber muzzleloader.

Here's what Crawfordsville investigators believe took place, according to court documents and information previously provided to the Journal & Courier: Savannah was the oldest of five children playing cops and robbers with a toy gun and handcuffs in her bedroom that afternoon.

Also present at the house were her mother, Bixler, an aunt and the aunt's fiancé.

Bixler had just returned from the store, where he bought candy cigarettes and soft drinks for the kids, when he decided to check whether any guns in the gun cabinet were loaded.

The firearms belonged to Bixler's brother.

Bixler allegedly gave conflicting stories to investigators about what took place. At first, he said the gun discharged as he picked it up and fired into an open door that led into Savannah's bedroom.

But that scenario did not match with the layout of the home.

Later, he admitted taking the muzzle loader into Savannah's bedroom and further claimed that the girl stepped forward and said, "Let me see," before the gun discharged.

In both stories, Bixler told investigators that he did not realize the rifle was loaded.

That was backed by another adult in the home, Larry Long, who is the fiancé of Savannah's aunt. Long, however, also said that Bixler went into Savannah's bedroom at the behest of Marcum -- reportedly because the children were being too loud while playing.

Marcum never responded to questions by investigators about whether she told Bixler to "take a real gun and scare the children.

"After she was shot, Savannah told a 7-year-old boy in the room, "I think I'm dying."

Bixler and Marcum drove her to nearby St. Clare Medical Center, but the girl died as emergency responders were preparing to fly her to an Indianapolis hospital.

A published telephone number could not be found Friday to reach Marcum for comment.

Bixler was being held Friday in the Montgomery County Jail on a $24,000 surety bond.

The lead charge against him, reckless homicide, is punishable by two to eight years in prison. The habitual offender charge carries an additional penalty of four to 12 years incarceration.