PROSECUTORS FILE TO DROP RAPE CASE
Prosecutors filed to drop charges Friday in a rape case, saying they couldn’t prove it.
Court filings do not yet show if it has been granted.
Kenneth Jones, 47, was scheduled for trial Monday.
Gary detectives responded June 17, 2024, to the home on the 1400 block of Delaware after police got a tip that a girl was held there.
At the house, another girl, “Nikki,” tried to undress her in an upstairs bedroom. A second man tried to have sex with her but she refused. Both Jones and the second man forced her to perform a sex act.
Jones blew smoke from a “glass pipe” in her face, making her dizzy, the affidavit states. She later guessed it was crack cocaine. The second man told her he had sex with young girls, and told her not to “say anything about it” or he would go to jail.
In a police interview, Jones denied touching the girl or blowing smoke in her face but admitted the girl was being held in the home. Co-defendant Tommie Johnson’s next hearing is April 9.
Jones’ previous trial ended in a mistrial in March 2025.
CASE DROPPED IN LAKE STATION TRUCK STOP STABBING
Prosecutors also dropped charges in a truck stop stabbing, saying they couldn’t prove it, filings show.
A woman said it all began after Ricardo Burnett called her an expletive when she didn’t thank him for opening the door at a Flying J Travel Center Denny’s on Ripley Street in Lake Station.
They argued. Her 23-year-old boyfriend tried to step in.
Burnett, a trucker from Deer Park, New York, and Florida, pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed him at least eight times in the chest, abdomen and arms, records allege.
He told the cops it was “self-defense.”
Burnett, now 50, was originally charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon.
TRIO FACING CHARGES IN MEIJER THEFT
Prosecutors have charged three people after police say they stole nearly $350 worth of merchandise from a Meijer in Merrillville, filings show.
Marcos Ortiz Betancourt, 26, of Chicago; Betty Carolina Huerta Rojas, 28, of Gary; and Emily N. Torrealba-Pajaro, 23, of Gary, each face a charge of organized theft, a Level 6 felony, and misdemeanor charges of theft, according to Lake County court records. Ortiz Betancourt has an additional misdemeanor count of operation of a motor vehicle by an unlicensed driver, while Torrealba-Pajaro has misdemeanor counts of resisting law enforcement and unlawful encroachment on a law enforcement officer.
According to court records, officers were called around 4 p.m. to the store, located at 611 W. Lincoln Hwy, for a reported retail theft. Police later stopped a red Toyota Corolla about a mile north, near Madison Street and West 75th Avenue, and took four people into custody.
Court documents state the group entered the store around 3:19 p.m. Surveillance video showed one man and Ortiz Betancourt acting as lookouts, while Huerta Rojas and Torrealba-Pajaro concealed merchandise. The two women were seen near the electronics section unwrapping items and attempting to hide them, according to the affidavit.
The stolen merchandise included beauty products, hair products and various electronics, with a total value of nearly $350.
mcolias@post-trib.com; Post-Tribune archives contributed.
