Jury convicts man in Gary carjacker slaying

Yahoo

09-05-2025

Jurors convicted a man Thursday in a Gary carjacker killing after more than three hours of deliberations.
Rashad Thompson, 38, of Gary, was found guilty of murder.
His sentencing date is May 29.
When Leroy McCambry stole a Jeep from an East 5th Avenue Citgo gas station in Gary, he unwittingly interrupted Thompson reselling marijuana edibles inside, court records allege. He ended up getting chased and shot on the road, flipping and wrecking a home's garage on the city's west side two miles away.
Thompson's brother Maurice, who allegedly drove the chasing Chevrolet Equinox, was granted bail in October — indicating a potentially weak case. Prosecutors filed to dismiss his case on Jan. 29, saying they couldn't prove it. He did not testify at his brother's trial.
In closing arguments, Deputy Prosecutor Jacquelyn Altpeter alleged Rashad Thompson was in the passenger seat and opened fire on McCambry in the resulting chase.
The Jeep was shot 12 times, she said. McCambry, 22, of Chicago, was found fatally shot once in the torso in the vehicle under a pile of debris on the 300 block of Hayes Street, documents show.
After the crash, two men got out of the other vehicle.
'Where he at,' one says.
According to court records, Rashad and Maurice Thompson split up, not realizing McCambry was in the crashed garage. They ran back and took off. Witnesses said both men had guns. Inside the Jeep, cops found a white paper bag with five pouches with over 170 grams of 'Kushy Punch' marijuana edibles sold in Michigan and California.
There was no evidence McCambry was armed, or shot back, Altpeter told jurors. The whole chase took less than ten minutes.
Afterwards, Rashad Thompson changed his clothes, went back to the gas station and later called 911 as if he was the victim, she said.
Defense lawyer Michael Campbell argued there was a 1.6-mile gap. No video picked up the shooting. Prosecutors couldn't prove Rashad was at the crash scene, or fired the bullets that killed McCambry.
Their best witness — a woman who called 911 after the crash — picked multiple people from a lineup and only told police a couple days later that she saw a gun.
She never mentioned his client's prominent face tattoos, despite being a few feet away.
Another man — whose doorbell camera recorded the crash — couldn't give police a better description of the two armed men.
A Lake County ballistics expert noted his bullet examination was inconclusive, Campbell said. No casings were recovered. There was no cell phone GPS data that put his client there, he said.
Without it, could someone have targeted Thompson's Jeep, thinking they were shooting at him, the lawyer asked.
Altpeter countered that his characterization was 'incorrect.'
She replayed the woman's 911 call where she described a 'brown SUV' — i.e. the Equinox — and heard shots before the Jeep crashed. The surrounding evidence — gas station video, license plate readers, traffic cameras, 911 calls, video from the crash site — added up, she said.
Just because they 'didn't see somebody, it doesn't mean you can't convict,' she said.
Thompson was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, unlawful carrying of a handgun and a gun enhancement, but Senior Judge Kathleen Lang only had jurors deliberate on the murder charge.
By the end of trial, prosecutors dismissed Thompson's marijuana dealing charges.
Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson and defense lawyer Ferdinand Alvarez assisted.
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