A trial has started for Gary Shanklin, charged with murdering a couple in East Chicago back in 2021
Shanklin has pleaded not guilty and was brought back from a jail in Illinois earlier this year. His lawyer, Brandon Hicks, plans to argue that Shanklin acted in self-defense, saying Burks was the aggressor.
The police were called to the scene on October 13, 2021, after a car crashed into a house. They found Martin shot inside the car and Burks lying in an alley nearby. Both were rushed to the hospital, but sadly, they didn’t survive.
Interestingly, just minutes after the shooting, Shanklin was found shot in the shoulder not far from his home. He told detectives he was just walking to a gas station when he heard gunfire and got hit.
When police wanted to test him for gun residue, he asked to wash blood off his hands first, but they told him it wouldn’t change the results. He insisted he didn’t shoot anyone and claimed he didn’t own a gun.
However, the residue test came back positive, and he had fresh cuts on his hands, which he explained away by saying he fell while running. Security footage even showed someone in his clothes fleeing the scene. It’s a tough case, and we’ll see how it unfolds.
