INDIANAPOLIS -- Jacob McIntosh told police he held two guns to Jesse Daniels’ head and pulled both triggers. He told them he did it for his mother.
When the first officers arrived at his Indianapolis home on Jan. 13, McIntosh was lying on the ground, a bruise starting to show on his forehead.
In the living room, police found Daniels’ body lying next to the back door. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
Officers asked McIntosh what had happened, and he told them: “I shot him.”
In a probable cause affidavit filed in Marion County Criminal Court on Wednesday, detectives pieced together the rest of the story.
McIntosh and his girlfriend told officers they had arrived home a short time earlier to find Daniels “being aggressive and threatening.” McIntosh’s girlfriend told police he and Daniels got into an argument, during which Daniels punched McIntosh in the face.
When the fight ended, McIntosh went upstairs. He returned holding a gun in each hand. Then there were gunshots.
McIntosh’s brothers woke up to the sound of gunshots and a woman screaming. One called 911, and then hid his brother’s firearms to keep them away from McIntosh. Neither saw the shooting.
McIntosh’s mother told police her son and Daniels — her boyfriend — got into a fight, and that afterward she was lying on the ground with Daniels “kissing his forehead and making sure he was OK.” A short time later, she said, her son walked back into the living room and shot Daniels three times in the head while he was still on the ground next to him.
In an interview with police, McIntosh claimed Daniels had been taking advantage of his mother and that he stole from her. He said he “would take a life to not let that happen.” Then he told them about how he shot Daniels.
“I’m glad he’s gone,” McIntosh reportedly told police. “I ended his life to begin a new one for my mother.”
When police asked McIntosh where his mother was at the time of the shooting, he said she was right next to Daniels.
A review of police reports filed at the home's address found no previous incidents involving both Daniels and McIntosh's mother.
In July 2012, McIntosh was accused of assaulting his mother’s former boyfriend after his friends were kicked out of the house. According to a reported filed in that incident, McIntosh struck his mother’s then-boyfriend four times in the face – causing him to bleed from the nose and lower lip. McIntosh was never arrested in connection with that incident.
Crime scene specialists recovered a .40-caliber Glock and 9mm Kimber handgun at the scene, along with multiple fired cartridge casings. An autopsy determined Daniels died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
McIntosh was taken into custody on a preliminary charge of murder following his interview. On Wednesday, prosecutors filed paperwork formally charging him with murder, and he appeared before a Marion County judge on Thursday for an initial hearing.
As of Thursday evening, McIntosh was being held at the Marion County Jail without bond.