Gary Police and a SWAT team went to a Calumet Township trailer park in August 2021 looking for Orlando Burgos \u2014 a suspect in a neighbor\u2019s brutal beating.<\/p>\n
The woman, Sheri Richardson, soon died.<\/p>\n
While there, in the 6000 block of W. 36th Avenue, officers went to the trailer Burgos rented looking for him. He wasn\u2019t there. Instead, Marquis \u201cSmiley\u201d Falls emerged holding out his 10-month old daughter out facing forward.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prosecutors Milana Petersen and Brad Carter alleged he used the child as a \u201chuman shield.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense lawyer Bob Varga refuted the accusation, noting there was no bodycam footage of the incident. Gary Police only added the equipment across the department in 2023 after a $1 million federal grant, newspaper archives show.<\/p>\n
He also pressed Det. James Nielsen, who testified that Falls shook the baby, when it wasn\u2019t documented previously in a police report or charging affidavit. He also questioned whether the various officers\u2019 memories were consistent.<\/p>\n
Falls, now 40, was charged with neglect, a Level 6 felony, and misdemeanor resisting law enforcement.<\/p>\n
In December, prosecutors added a Level 2 felony criminal confinement charge, filings show, over the objection of his previous lawyer. The latter charge alone carries 10-30 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Falls pleaded not guilty at trial. He rejected a time-served plea deal in the fall.<\/p>\n
Jurors convicted him on all counts Wednesday night. His sentencing hearing is June 3.<\/p>\n
Varga declined comment after the verdict.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Come) to the front door, we are not here for you,\u201d an officer yelled, according to court filings. \u201cBring the baby to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my house, what (do) you all want,\u201d a man, later identified as Falls, replied.<\/p>\n
Court documents state during the encounter, Falls went back inside the trailer, then fled, leaving the baby on a hallway floor near a \u201cferocious\u201d pit bull. Officers shot the animal to \u201cprevent the dog from attacking\u201d them.<\/p>\n
Former Gary Police Det. Olivia Vasquez testified Wednesday that the trailer was \u201cdisgusting\u201d with moldy bottles in the kitchen sink.<\/p>\n
She recognized Falls, but didn\u2019t know his name at the time. The baby was \u201cflailing\u201d as he held her outside, describing the way he held her like a \u201cMichael Jackson incident\u201d \u2014 when the late pop star dangled his baby over a balcony railing in Germany.<\/p>\n
The child was \u201ccovered in (bug) bites,\u201d flushed and red, she said.<\/p>\n
On cross-examination, she told Varga that she hadn\u2019t contributed to a police report.<\/p>\n
In a taped October 2021 police interview, Falls told an FBI special agent that he was \u201cscared for me and my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agent testified Falls was a \u201ccouch surfing\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n
On the stand, Det. Nielsen held a doll, appearing to moderately shake it in front of him to demonstrate what he saw at the scene. The child was crying, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet the (expletive) out of here,\u201d Nielsen said Falls yelled repeatedly to police.<\/p>\n
The trailer was so \u201cdisgusting,\u201d \u201cnasty,\u201d and \u201chorrible\u201d that he later threw his boots out, he said.<\/p>\n
On cross-examination, Varga said it was the \u201cfirst time\u201d he learned police alleged Falls shook the baby. When asked why that was not documented in reports or other case paperwork in nearly a half-decade, Nielsen said it was an \u201cerror.\u201d<\/p>\n
The child\u2019s mother Harley Ferguson was arrested outside the trailer after she was uncooperative with officers. She was charged with a neglect case. She signed a pre-trial diversion agreement in 2022.<\/p>\n