NEW ALBANY — Seven years after a Cummins Inc. retiree and gun store owner was robbed and murdered, the last of three suspects convicted of the crime has been sentenced in federal court.
DeJuan Andre Worthen, 30, of Indianapolis was sentenced Oct. 15 in U.S. District Court in New Albany to 30 years in prison. Senior Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the Southern District of Indiana handed down the sentence for the Sept. 21, 2014 murder and robbery of Scott D. Maxie, 61, who owned a gun store in Jennings County.
Barker had earlier sentenced two other co-defendants in the case. Worthen’s brother, Darryl Worthen, 32, of Indianapolis received a 60-year sentence in November, 2015, while his 28-year-old cousin, Darion Harris, was ordered to serve 30 years at a sentencing in July, 2019.
Events that led to the shooting began near Hayden on Friday, Sept. 19, when Darryl Worthen, an employee of a shipping service, delivered a package at Maxie’s business, the Muscatatuck Outdoors Gun Shop, police said.
The next day, Worthen brought his brother and cousin from Marion County to the gun shop to check out what inventory the shop carried, according to police. They drove back to Indianapolis and made plans to rob the owner the following day, investigators said.
On Sunday, Sept. 21, at about 3 p.m., one defendant disconnected the security camera inside Muscatatuck Outdoors and confronted Maxie, according to court documents. Police and prosecutors said it was Darryl Worthen who shot and killed Maxie with a semiautomatic handgun before the three suspects grabbed 45 firearms and returned to Indianapolis.
While the defendants sold and distributed many of the firearms, police said they also kept several for themselves.
It was the victim’s ex-wife, Dawn Maxie, who found her ex-husband several hours later lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to his head, and called police, court records state.
Local, state and federal officials arrived and spent the remainder of Sunday night and all of Monday at the scene collecting evidence.
Police said they used local residents’ description of the suspects’ vehicle, ran a search and came up with a name associated with the car that was traced to the suspects in Indianapolis.
Indiana State Police and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officials spent the early morning hours of Tuesday watching the apartment where the three men lived.
Once the three left the apartment in two separate vehicles, a traffic stop was conducted and the trio were arrested, according to court records.
Four of the 45 guns (12 long guns and 33 handguns) believed to have been taken from the shop were recovered in Indianapolis. Also found in the apartment were ammunition, boxes and packing material, all believed to have been stolen from the gun shop, police said.
Jennings County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Belding said the decision to have the three suspects charged federally was made after thoughtful consultation with the family members. The prosecutors said his goal was to have all three defendants serve the maximum sentence under the law by using federal sentencing guidelines.
“Hopefully, now that all the defendants involved have been sentenced for their role in Mr. Maxie’s murder, the family can have some closure,” Belding said.
