Raymond Childs III shot everyone in the house in the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 2021, at a home near East 34th Street and North Sherman Drive.
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis man was sentenced to 360 years for murdering six family members in 2021.
A Marion County judge sentenced Raymond Childs III on March 10.
A jury found Childs guilty in October 2024 of all six murder charges against him, as well as charges of attempted murder and carrying a handgun without a license. The new trial came after a judge declared a mistrial on July 23, 2024, in Childs’ first trial after something that was said during witness testimony.
Childs, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, shot everyone in a house in the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 2021, in the 3500 block of Adams Street, near East 34th Street and North Sherman Drive.
Childs killed the following people:
- Raymond Childs Jr., 42, his father
- Kizzie Childs, 42, his stepmother
- Elijah Childs, 18, his brother
- Rita Childs, 13, his sister
- Kiara Hawkins, 19, Elijah’s girlfriend
- Khaos Hawkins, Kiara’s unborn baby boy, who was days away from being delivered
Another brother, who was 15 at the time, allegedly witnessed the shootings and ran out of the house before being shot twice. He survived.
The brother said Childs had gotten in trouble for coming home past his curfew and got into an argument with his parents before shooting family.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said Childs’ extended family got the murder weapon from him and turned it over to police within hours of the murder. Officers then took Childs into custody at a family member’s house.
Credit: WTHR
Raymond Childs III was convicted of killing six family members Jan. 24, 2021, at a home in the 3500 block of Adams Street.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears issued the following statement following the sentencing:
“The defendant brutally murdered six people: his father, stepmother, older brother, younger sister, his older brother’s girlfriend, and her unborn child. There is no penalty that could ever reflect the harm and unimaginable loss caused by the defendant’s actions.
This resolution would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of law enforcement, our trial team, and the victims’ families, who have shown incredible strength and resilience in the face of an unimaginable tragedy.
We should join together to support and honor the families of Raymond Childs Jr., Kezzie Childs, Elijah Childs, Rita Childs, Kiara Hawkins, and Khaos Hawkins and the legacies they leave behind.”
Credit: Marion County Prosecutor’s Office
The gun allegedly used in the mass murder of a family on Adams Street in Indianapolis on Jan. 24, 2021.
During the sentencing hearing, Childs said, “I lost family just like everyone else did. I’m not no murderer. I’m not no killer.”
Western Michigan University professor Dr. James Henry, who is an expert on the effects of trauma on children, shared details on his interviews with Childs during the sentencing hearing.
Henry said he reviewed multiple instances of alleged domestic violence by Childs’ father that Childs witnessed.
According to Henry, Childs is below average intellectually and has difficulty finding words to communicate his thoughts.
Henry testified that Childs was exposed to complex trauma, describing instances of seeing his mother being physically harmed by boyfriends and feeling helpless that he wasn’t able to protect her.
According to Henry, Childs moved in with his father when he was 12 years old and never heard from his mother again. Henry said Childs felt abandoned, loss and rejection that his mother didn’t want to see him.
However, Childs’ mother testified earlier that his father limited time she could spend with him because he was very strict about where his kids could go and what they did.
Henry testified that Childs said all the children in the home couldn’t wait to turn 18 years old so they could “get out of there.”
Henry said he diagnosed Childs with post-traumatic stress disorder, as Childs deals with intrusive thoughts and a hypervigilance to perceived danger.
The defense asked the judge to consider Childs’ age at the time of the incident, also noting mitigating factors of Childs’ mental health, PTSD diagnosis and subjected to a history of abuse and domestic violence.
The defense also argued that evidence didn’t show Childs planned to kill his family, noting long-term exposure to “complex trauma” is the reason the murders happened.
(Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect Elijah Childs was the suspect’s brother, not sister as previously written.)