Evansville Man Found Guilty of Murdering His Mother Following Retrial

After a meticulous investigation and a second trial, justice has been served in a tragic case that shocked the Evansville community. On July 24, 2025, a Vanderburgh County jury found Jaron Anthony Michael Wells guilty of murdering his mother, 41-year-old Shanay Hunt, in cold blood.

The guilty verdict came after Wells also pleaded guilty to a firearm enhancement charge brought by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office. Judge Ryan D. Hatfield presided over the retrial in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court.

The case dates back to July 14, 2023, when officers from the Evansville Police Department responded to a call at an abandoned house on Harriet Street. There, they discovered the body of Shanay Hunt. An autopsy confirmed she had been shot in the head with a rare type of ammunition not commonly available to the public.

Wells quickly emerged as a suspect after a friend of Hunt’s reported hearing his voice in the background of a phone call made shortly before the murder. Investigators later determined that Wells had purchased a .45 caliber Glock handgun and the rare ammunition less than a month before the crime. He sold both items within weeks of the murder and fled to Illinois in an apparent attempt to avoid detection.

But the trail he left behind was hard to cover. Evansville police, working in tandem with forensic specialists and handwriting analysts, connected the firearm used in the crime to Wells through purchase records and ballistic testing. When they located him in Illinois, a small blue notebook found at the residence contained a chilling confession—one that referenced a Saturday event that left him “without a living parent” and predicted it would leave his sister “devastated and disgusted.” The date, July 8, 2023, was indeed a Saturday.

A handwriting expert confirmed the note was written by Wells, and digital location data placed him at the scene of the crime. The depth and scope of evidence presented by prosecutors—ranging from surveillance footage to forensic ballistics and family testimony—was overwhelming in the retrial.

Deputy Prosecutor Ian Blair led the prosecution during the second trial. The first trial, held in February 2025, ended in a mistrial after a lone juror held out against a guilty verdict. The second time, the evidence proved too strong to deny.

“My office has worked hard for justice on this case,” said Prosecutor Diana Moers following the verdict. “After a hung jury in the first trial with just one juror holding out, we stuck with it and presented a plethora of overwhelming evidence to secure a conviction at a second jury trial. My dedicated deputies and law enforcement will not give up when seeking justice and because of that, one more dangerous person is off the streets of Vanderburgh County.”

Moers also extended personal thanks to the many officers and prosecutors who contributed to the case, including Detective C. Wiseman, Officer N. Henderson, Detectives T. Lincoln, A. Juncker, B. Underwood, A. McCormick, D. Powers, Lt. W. Arbaugh, Sgt. W. Hunt, and Deputy Prosecutors I. Blair, K. Maurer, J. Pollock, T. Carden, M. Richardville, J. Savage, and J. Carter.

Sentencing for Wells is scheduled for September 16, 2025. He faces between 45 and 65 years for the murder conviction, with an additional 5 to 20 years for the firearm enhancement.