Docs: Man killed his wife; “She was disrespecting me”

PLAINFIELD, Ind. — After spending time in the hospital, a 47-year-old man was arrested for murder on July 1.

According to court documents, on June 27, officers at the Plainfield Police Department responded to the 2000 block of Creekhollow Road for a shooting. Officers found the victim suffering from gunshot wounds; she was pronounced dead on the scene and the suspect was on his knees with blood on him.

47-year-old Steeve Chavannes was detained once officers found him right inside the door. He was handcuffed to a stretcher and was transported to a local hospital to treat wounds to his head.

The protection order

Chavannes and the victim Evelie LaCroix were in a relationship that ended with LaCroix kicking Chavannes out of her house.

According to court documents, Chavannes was served with a protection order that forbade him from contacting or harassing LaCroix.

This was a result of an incident that occurred on June 13 and 14, when police discovered Chavannes hiding on the property.

The day of the shooting

Court documents indicate that Chavannes called a friend asking him to pick him up from a gas station in Indianapolis. The friend agreed and picked up Chavannes, and they drove to Plainfield to the residence of LaCroix because Chavannes said he needed to pick up some personal belongings.

The friend told Chavannes to stay in the car while he went to retrieve his belongings. The friend went to the door, where LaCroix’s daughter answered, stating that her mom was at work. She later told police that she lied as her mother was sleeping, awaiting to be woken up for work.

The friend agreed to leave and come back another time to pick up Chavannes’ belongings.

The friend told police that he and Chavannes drove out of the apartment complex and down the road when Chavannes told the friend to drop him off because he had a friend who works close by that he needed to see.

The friend let Chavannes out and drove away. He then called his girlfriend to tell her what happened. She responded by saying he needed to go back and check on Chavannes, as he was probably headed back to fight with LaCroix.

The friend then checked the trunk of his vehicle to see if his firearm was there, and it was not.

Chavannes later told police he took the gun while his friend was talking to LaCroix’s daughter.

Following getting out of the vehicle, Chavannes headed back to LaCroix’s.

The shooting

LaCroix’s daughter told police that before the shooting, Chavannes had been violent with her mom. She said Chavannes had hit her mom and stabbed her with a screwdriver once.

At the time of the shooting, LaCroix’s daughter woke her mother for work shortly after Chavannes and his friend left around 4:30 p.m.

Shortly after, she said she heard a pop and glass breaking, then a second pop, and her mom was screaming, then a third pop and her mom stopped screaming.

She told police she peeked through the bedroom door to see Chavannes and her mother on the floor with a lot of blood, and no one was moving. That is when she went back to her room, locked the door and called the police.

Chavannes’ confession

After Chavannes was awake and conscious, police officers interviewed him in the hospital.

Upon asking Chavannes what happened, he responded that he remembered everything.

“I shot my wife,” Chavannes told police.

When asked why, he said because she was disrespecting him.

He later told police that he intended to “take her life,” and he tried to shoot himself after shooting her.

When asked if he had anything else to say, Chavannes told police to tell LaCroix’s daughter he was sorry for killing her mom.

Charges

Chavannes has been charged with murder, burglary with a deadly weapon and domestic battery in violation of a protection order.