VERDICT: Second shooter convicted in 2023 Villa Capri complex ambush
- Jamie Duffy
- 25 minutes ago
- 4 min read
ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. ---Christopher Recht will soon join his friend, Terrance Sanders, Jr., in an Indiana prison.
Friday, Recht, 21, was convicted of murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and criminal gang activity for the homicide of Ayvion Parker, 19, and the shooting and injury of his 17-year old brother, Alilah, on Sept. 12, 2023.
The jury also found him guilty of the firearm enhancement which can add up to 20 years in Indiana. Recht will be sentenced May 15.
Two more co-defendants, Lamont Martin, Recht’s brother, and Corrion Parks, now 22, were charged in the incident. Parks took a plea and was sentenced on Feb. 6 to 45 years, concurrent sentences for murder and attempted murder. Martin, now 19, is still on for a trial in August. .
The rival gang members grew up together, Chief Counsel Tesa Helge said Friday during closing arguments, and others who spoke to The Probable Cause have said the same.
On the first day of the trial, Ayvion Parker’s mother took the stand to say his name and acknowledge Recht, sitting at the defense table with his attorneys, David Felts and David Joley.
“He’s been to my house,” she said.
Someone who knew all these kids when they were younger and saw the evolution of the Big Swen Gang (BSG) and the Big Money Gang (BMG) said these boys got in trouble early in their teens and had been locked up together at DOC (Indiana Department of Correction) as juveniles. He believes intervention for vulnerable boys should begin as early as possible and that female participants in these murders should be held accountable.
“When did Christopher change from a seven or eight year old sitting around the pool to an 11-12-13 year old running around with guns?” he asked, incredulously.
Everything was normal until one of the kids said something really nasty about one of the mothers, the source said. From that point on, it was war played out on the streets of southeast Fort Wayne.
The deadly gang war got worse when BSG member Terrance Sanders, Jr., now a convicted co-defendant, got shot in the face.
The animosity escalated on Sept. 11 when Ayvion and other BMG members recorded and posted a rap video on YouTube, making fun of Sanders and calling him “Scarface,” according to the probable cause affidavit submitted by lead homicide detective Aaron Johnson.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 12, Ayvion Parker was playing Call of Duty in an apartment at Villa Capri apartments off South Anthony Boulevard.
A female witness told detectives the people at the apartment overheard Ayvion on his cell phone having an argument with T.J. (Sanders.)
After this argument, Sanders and Recht twice borrowed a black Chevy Cruze from an unwitting female, first to scope out the Villa Capri apartments and second, to return to the apartment complex and ambush Ayvion as he walked out the front door.
Read earlier articles here about the trial:
They timed it perfectly as they worked with a female inside the apartment who reported Ayvion’s movements.
After the homicide, Sanders and Recht and their gang, BSG, boasted about what they’d done, posting photos on to social media of the deceased Parker lying in front of the apartment where he was shot and another photo of Alilah crying over his dead brother.
Those photos were part of the evidence, but not the rap video Recht triumphantly wrote several days later, calling Ayvion out by his nickname “Boogie” and describing the shooting of his brother, rapping that he walked with a limp like Cheddar Bob, a character in a movie. That rap language wasn't allowed as evidence, but it was included in the probable cause.
Read about Terrance Sanders, Jr's conviction here:
Alilah’s testimony was very important, Helge told the jury. It was wrung from him after the prosecutors sent a subpoena, and finally, after the prosecution offered a plea deal for two gun charges in exchange for what he knew. The plea deal also offered a ticket out of town to keep him and his family safe.
The little brother testified he saw both Recht, the driver, and Sanders shooting from the front of the car. During the ambush, Alilah picked up one of his brother’s guns and shot back and saw Lamont and Corrion Parks shooting at him from the rear, he said.
The Parker family had to pick up and move out of town to keep safe. Even so, the gang tracked him to Chicago and beat him up when he went to a party, according to his testimony on Tuesday.
During the four-day trial, prosecutors said there were threats made outside the courtroom scaring away the female witnesses who had already given incriminating testimony.
Friday morning, before closing arguments, the jury listened to an hour-long interview of Recht with Johnson and homicide detective Liza Anglin.
Johnson, lead detective, was impressively patient with Recht as Recht dissimulated on nearly every question. Couldn’t recall what he did that night, who he was with, the names of the two girls, one of whom so graciously lent him her car only to find out there were bullet holes in it.
“Who do the streets say killed Boogie?” Johnson asked. Evasively, Recht referred him to Instagram. “Everybody talks about everybody’s drama there,” he answered.
When asked about the BMG and BSG gangs, he told Johnson: “I won’t say I don’t know these names, but I didn’t have nothin’ to do with that.”
Finally Anglin had had enough: “You’re not being honest,” she said, adding a few other choice words.
A few minutes later, Recht was out of luck as Johnson read his charges and Anglin repeated them.
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