COLUMBUS, Ind. — A man accused of a fatal shooting at a Columbus mobile home park has officially been charged with murder, Bartholomew County Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay announced.
Corbin Hippensteel, 30, faces one count of murder after authorities claim he shot and killed Alejandro Flores, 54, at a home at 2630 Joseph Cox Court, on November 27.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Columbus Police Department (CPD) officers arrived at the residence to find Flores in a chair with a gunshot wound to the forehead and exhibiting no signs of life.
A witness told police he had gotten home from work when a man, later identified as Danny W. Sanders, knocked on his door, asking him to call 911. The man said his grandson, Hippensteel, had just shot and killed someone and explained it was with a “.22,” according to the affidavit. Sanders said Hippensteel, who he said had mental health issues and had been drinking and “ranting and raving” since the day before, had shot Flores in Sanders’ home.
Hippensteel had invited Flores over and while no arguing was heard, Sanders allegedly stated he heard Hippensteel all of the sudden threaten to shoot Flores, ultimately taking a revolver out of his pocket and firing at him. Hippensteel was found nearby on Middle Road and taken into custody.
A search warrant was obtained and detectives, after closer inspection, saw that Flores had at least two, possibly three small bullet wounds to his head, according to the affidavit. They also supposedly located an empty box for a Heritage Rough Rider .22 in a room that Sanders said he had been allowing Hippensteel, who is homeless, to stay in. Police say they found the .22, with matching serial numbers to the box found in Hippensteel’s room, in Sanders’s bedroom. The gun contained empty shell casings and unfired rounds.
Another search warrant was approved to explore a homeless camp in a wooded area south of Rocky Ford Road and east of Marr Road where Hippensteel was believed to have been staying leading up to the murder. There investigators found more .22 ammo similar to that found in the gun used in the shooting.
The case is pending in Bartholomew Circuit Court. The Honorable Judge Kelly Benjamin will set the case for an initial hearing. Hippensteel is being held without bond in Bartholomew County Jail.
