Mary Felton

Mary Felton, a 74-year-old Black woman, was a beloved matriarch and a pillar of the community in Gary, Indiana. A certified accountant who owned her own firm, Felton & Associates, she devoted her life to public service. She held key positions in three different mayoral administrations, served on the boards of the Gary Public Library and the Gary Community School Corp., and worked for the Calumet Township Trustee. Remembered by her family as someone who loved her community and family deeply, she was a proud mother of two sons, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She was also an active member of the NWI Corvette Club and her church.

On December 8, 2021, Felton went to the Gary police station to report a violent crime. She told detectives that a man she had previously dated, Earl Shearer, Sr., had broken into her home days earlier, raped her at gunpoint, and threatened to kill her if she went to the police. After giving her statement, two detectives escorted Felton to her white SUV in the station's parking lot. They checked under her vehicle but did not look inside before she departed.

Less than two hours later, police responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle and found Felton shot to death in the driver's seat. Her SUV was stopped at the intersection of 8th Avenue and Lincoln Street, just a few blocks from the police station she had just left. The investigation quickly revealed a chilling ambush. Surveillance video from the police parking lot showed a man matching Shearer's description sneaking into the back seat of Felton's vehicle while she was inside with detectives. A police K9 unit later followed a scent trail from the murder scene directly back to the police parking lot.

The next day, December 9, police arrested Earl Shearer, Sr., then 66, during a traffic stop in a neighboring town. He was subsequently charged with Mary Felton's murder. In a plea agreement, Shearer admitted that he broke into Felton's car at the police station and then shot her. He pleaded guilty to murder and a firearm enhancement, while other charges, including rape, were dropped as part of the deal.

In court, Felton's two sons gave victim impact statements, speaking to the profound loss of their family's matriarch, who had encouraged their own educational and professional success. In June 2022, a judge sentenced Earl Shearer to 85 years in prison—65 years for the murder conviction and an additional 20 years for the use of a firearm.