Amanda Blackburn’s murder in November 2015 has been repeatedly described by her husband Davey Blackburn, as well as throughout media coverage, as a random home invasion. Three men have been charged in connection to her murder. Two of the three, Jalen Watson and Diano Gordon have received plea deals on lesser charges of burglary. Last month, Watson was sentenced to 29 years in prison. Gordon has a hearing set for June, as well as Larry Taylor.
Amanda Blackburn shooting
One of three men charged in the 2015 fatal shooting of Amanda Blackburn has been sentenced to 29 years in prison for his part in the killing, according to court records.
Jalen E. Watson, who in 2017 pleaded guilty to one count of robbery and two counts of burglary in the killing of the Indianapolis pastor’s wife, was sentenced last month to serve 29 years for the robbery charge and 20 combined years for the burglary charges, the records show. The sentences will be served concurrently.
Amanda Blackburn was the daughter of Phil Byars, pastor of First Baptist Church in Elkhart. Her husband, Davey Blackburn, was pastor of Resonate Church in Indianapolis at the time of the shooting.
Watson’s guilty plea was part of a deal in which seven other charges, including murder and auto theft, were dismissed. Two other men, Larry Taylor Jr. and Diano Gordon, were also charged in connection to the killing.
The plea agreement requires Watson to cooperate with the state in the prosecutions of both Taylor and Gordon, according to the man’s sentencing order. It says the court may “consider reducing defendant sentence” after he has completed his cooperation and if he has a “clean conduct report.”
Blackburn was shot and killed Nov. 10, 2015, in her home in the 2800 block of Sunnyfield Court on the northwest side of Indianapolis. She was 12 weeks pregnant with her and her husband’s second child at the time.
Police said her slaying was tied to a neighborhood burglary. Investigators said the suspects saw Davey Blackburn, the woman’s husband, leave his house and seized the opportunity to also burglarize the Blackburn home.
A neighbor reported hearing shots about 35 minutes after Davey Blackburn left, and Amanda Blackburn died two days later.
Indianapolis police later learned that Blackburn’s death was part of a violent, eight-day crime spree, court documents say.
The Blackburns had moved to Indianapolis a couple of years earlier and founded a new place of worship they called the Resonate Church. The family had lived for four years in South Carolina, where Davey Blackburn was an assistant pastor at NewSpring Church.
A change of plea hearing in Gordon’s case is scheduled for June, court records show. Taylor has a hearing set for the same month.
Just three days after Amanda was shot, someone at Newspring Church affiliated with Perry Noble, Davey’s former employer, registered the domain Nothing is Wasted for Davey and his then church, Resonate Church. He live tweeted the hashtag Nothing is Wasted during Amanda’s funeral.
On February 1, 2016, less than 3 months after the murder of his wife, Davey Blackburn formed the business titled NIW Serendipity LLC in Indianapolis. NIW stands for Nothing is Wasted, Davey’s go-to mission statement, now a personal coaching business, since the immediate days after Amanda’s murder.
NIW Serendipity LLC by watchkeep
Upon news of the three suspects’ arrest a few weeks after Amanda’s murder, word began circulating that the suspects had gang ties. The Indy Star reported that the gang was originally called the “Fam gang.”
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Back in 2009, they called themselves the FAM Gang. It was a gang comprising at least a dozen teens living on the city’s North and Northwest sides. Police noted at the time that one of the ways to enter the gang – the initials stood for Forever After Money, but it also referred to FAMily Untouchable — was to rob someone. Two of its members back then? A then-14-year-old kid named Jalen “Lil Watt” Watson and a teenager named Diano “D-Loc” Gordon, who was 17 years old and had the words “FAM GANG” tattooed on his forearms. … |
Could the robbery spree that culminated in Blackburn’s murder also be a gang crime, perhaps even an initiation?
When asked Monday, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Sgt. Kendale Adams emphatically said no.
“Gangs are fluid,” Adams said. “There was no known gang activity connected to this particular crime.”
It is not known whether Taylor had any ties to the “FAM Gang,” though court records show that Watson and Gordon were members as recently as 2011.
Another news story reported that authorities said the men arrested in connection to Amanda Blackburn’s murder referred to themselves as “The Kilt Gang.” I recall reading discussions in late November 2015 about Davey’s social media connections to members of this gang. Davey deleted these Facebook connections shortly after these connections were exposed.
I received the following information that was sent to law enforcement showing the mutual friends that Davey Blackburn had in common with one of the suspects, Diano (“D-Loc”) Gordon. The mutual friends were Treezy Jones, Hootie Hoot and Kyle Horton-Dunnigan. Some of the mutual friends can be traced back to July 2013.
How was a young mother murdered in her home at 7 am on a weekday morning? She lived in a cul-de-sac with a boxer dog. …
Posted by The Amanda Blackburn Case on Sunday, April 18, 2021
“Hey, look, just to give you a heads up, she took quite a beating. Don’t be startled when you see her.”
Jono Blackburn, Davey’s brother https://t.co/noLFTmwalZ #amandablackburn pic.twitter.com/ibFQgStI23— Amy Smith (@watchkeep) April 2, 2020
Have you seen the new post on the ABC page where Davey says in an interview the paramedics had to tell him to go wag the blood off his hands? And he also says he wouldn’t trade what happens for the world.