Hi, Gary’s sister here. Some were wanting to know how social media helped getting Ricky Davis’s conviction.
Officers found several personal items at the crime scene, along with a cellphone. They searched to find who owned the phone and pulled records for it. Once they had a name from the cell, along with the cell phone number they looked into social media accounts. Facebook stores your phone number and some people use it to login to their account in place of using email. On Facebook they found pictures of a very unique bracelet exactly like one found at the crime scene. They also pulled Facebook records as well. They learned that Ricky had made several changes to his Facebook profile account, changing his name, deleting Gary as a friend, his “new” phone number, etc. They brought him in for questioning and during that time they had printed out a few Facebook photos from his account. He denied ever knowing Gary. The detectives had a casual conversation with him asking if he had a dog. He replied that he did. Identified he did. They showed him a picture from Facebook and it was a picture of a dog and an arm/hand stretching wearing a pretty unique bracelet. Showing him the photo they asked him if he’d ever seen the photo he replied he had. They asked if that was his dog. He replied yes it was. They asked if he knew whose arm /hand that was. He replied it was his. They asked if that was his bracelet, he replied yes it was and followed up with he hadn’t seen it in awhile because he had lost it few months ago. That bracelet was found at the crime scene. There was also a casino card found at the scene. The name on that card was his girlfriends. He said that his girlfriend had lost that card several months earlier. They allowed him to leave. Continuing interviews with several other people building their case. The phone records showed that his phone pinged the tower close to the crime scene. It also had several texts and calls to my brother on the days leading up to the day Gary was killed. They had enough information to get a warrant for his arrest. It was approximately 2-3 weeks after his death when they arrested him. Once arrested he admitted to knowing him and spoke to him, setting up a drug deal for pot for his buddy.
He opted for a speedy, bench trial. During the trial all the cell phone tower pings, Facebook proof showing he owned the bracelet that was found and messenger messages along with texts played a huge part to convict him.
He was found guilty 2 years and 1 day after he killed my brother. He took Gary’s life over 250.00 of pot. Irony of it all is all he had to do was talk to my brother telling him he didn’t have the 250.00 and he would have given it to him and told him to catch him when he had it, instead of trying to steal it and runaway prompting my brother to take it back and go running to his motorcycle. During that time Ricky pulled out a gun and started shooting. Hitting him in 3 places. The one that killed him went into his heart. After conviction he was moved to the Pendleton Correction facility in Oct and he couldn’t handle the big boy jail and what he’d done. He decided to hang himself in his cell the end May 2019.
i know we learned a lot regarding social media and what all they can find out.
thank you for taking the time to explain this. I’m so sorry for what your family has been through, and for having to keep reliving it just to correct the record.
What you shared makes it really clear that social media didn’t “solve” the case on its own, but it absolutely helped investigators connect the dots. Once police had a phone and were able to tie it to a person, social media became a way to confirm identity and ownership, especially with something as distinctive as that bracelet. That part where he denied knowing Gary but then casually confirmed the Facebook photo was his dog, his arm, and his bracelet is chilling—because it shows how a simple conversation, paired with preserved posts and records, can dismantle a lie.
It’s also important that you pointed out the changes he made afterward. People often assume changing a name, deleting someone, or updating a number erases the trail, but those changes can be tracked when records are requested. Add in the bracelet found at the scene, the casino card linked to his girlfriend, and the phone records placing him right there and showing communication with your brother leading up to the day he was killed, and it becomes a powerful chain of evidence instead of a single detail that can be explained away.
And the part that sticks with me most is what you said about how unnecessary it all was. A life taken over $250 when a conversation could’ve avoided it entirely. I’m glad you shared this, because it’s both a real-world lesson about what digital footprints can reveal and a reminder that behind every “case update” is a family living with the loss.
Thank you again for speaking up and for honoring Gary by telling the truth about what happened.
That was an amazing account of what happened. Thank you so much for sharing it. It is so satisfying to see someone brought to justice after such a sensless crime.
On September 3, 2016, Gary S. Rees Jr., 44, was found lying beside his motorcycle on the northeast side of Indianapolis with at least one gunshot wound. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene. Investigators initially explored a possible gang connection but later ruled that theory out as they worked the case.
Detectives identified 23-year-old Ricky Davis as a suspect weeks into the investigation. The U.S. Marshals Service located and arrested Davis on a preliminary murder charge. Prosecutors used cellphone tower data and call history records to place Davis near the scene during the relevant time frame. On September 4, 2018, a judge sentenced Davis to 60 years in the Indiana Department of Correction, with credit for time served and good behavior, resolving the case legally two years after Rees was killed.
Did anyone in the Indianapolis community have contact with Gary Rees or information about the shooting that could still shed light on the events that night?
