After four-day trial, Wolf found guilty of murder
Aug. 19—GOSHEN — An Elkhart man accused of shooting and killing another man in June of last year has been found guilty of murder.
The trial of Jordan Wolf, 23, entered its fourth and final day Thursday in Elkhart County Circuit Court. Wolf was facing one count of murder in the shooting death of Forrest Howard, 27, South Bend, following a robbery in the 500 block of South Fifth Street in Elkhart at around 5 a.m. June 19, 2021.
Day 4 of the trial consisted primarily of closing arguments, with the prosecution and defense presenting to the jury a brief summation of the various evidence and testimony they'd presented over the course of the past three days of the trial.
With the closing arguments concluded, the jury was then dismissed from the courtroom at around 12:20 p.m. to begin deliberations, at which time they were reminded by Judge Michael Christofeno that they must remain together and not communicate with anyone else until they were officially discharged.
The jury ended up deliberating for about two hours, returning to the court at around 2:07 p.m. to declare that Wolf had been found guilty of his murder charge.
After confirming with the jury that their verdict was unanimous, Judge Christofeno then proceeded to enter a judgment of conviction regarding Wolf's murder charge.
Additionally, Christofeno noted that the court acknowledged that Wolf had pleaded guilty to an additional penalty for use of a firearm, a sentencing enhancement, connected to his murder case.
"The court accepts the plea of guilty, and finds the defendant guilty of Page 2, penalty for use of a firearm sentencing enhancement under Indiana Code," Christofeno said. "The court now enters judgment of conviction against the defendant, Jordan J. Wolf, for Page 2, penalty for use of a firearm sentencing enhancement."
Christofeno then ordered probation to prepare and file with the court a written pre-sentence investigation report for Wolf's case.
Following the reading of his conviction, Christofeno scheduled Sept. 15 as the date for Wolf's sentencing.
Wolf was then remanded to the Elkhart County Correctional Complex until his sentencing.
THE CASE
According to details provided in the probable cause affidavit in the case, an autopsy following Howard's murder in Elkhart June 19, 2021, determined he had been shot three times prior to his death.
Investigators with the Elkhart County Homicide Unit reviewed security camera video in the area, which showed Wolf fighting with Howard, and then pushing him and shooting him. Wolf and another man seen in the video then flee in a car driven by another person, police said in the affidavit.
About four days after the shooting, a detective interviewed the driver of the car seen in the video. The driver said he was hanging out with Wolf and the other man when Wolf asked to be taken to South Fifth Street. Some time after dropping the men off, the driver said he pulled into an alley that bisects the street, where he found Wolf and the other man with Howard, according to the affidavit.
The driver told the detective he saw Wolf and Howard fight, with Wolf then shooting Howard. He heard two shots, followed by a pause, and then a third shot. The detective said in the affidavit that story lined up with what the security footage showed.
However, the driver's account about what the other man was doing was inconsistent with the video, the affidavit shows. Investigators had also earlier interviewed the other man, who'd claimed he had left the area and didn't know what happened. The affidavit shows that account didn't match with the video.
The driver, meanwhile, also alleged Wolf had taken about his handgun, and the pieces were tossed at a location in Michigan. Investigators followed up on that information and recovered a handgun part, similar to the one described, that had been found by Edwardsburg police in one of the areas the man had referenced, according to the affidavit.
Information in the affidavit shows Wolf was arrested in the murder case June 24, 2021, at the Elkhart County Correctional Complex.
