A Greencastle man was sentenced to 45 years in prison for murdering a 51-year-old Indianapolis man who was dragged to his death while trying to stop a carjacking at a gas station on the city's Near Eastside. Chad Martin had been released from the Marion County Criminal Justice Campus just two hours before he killed Shane Coffman on April 29, 2024, according to jail records cited in the case.
Coffman was inside the Argo gas station in the 2000 block of English Avenue when he noticed someone trying to steal his car, according to WIBC 93.1 FM. He approached the man later identified as Martin and tried to pull him from the driver's seat, but Martin drove off anyway, dragging Coffman across the parking lot before Coffman suffered fatal injuries. Coffman was rushed to an area hospital in critical condition but did not survive.
Surveillance video reviewed by detectives showed Martin intentionally steering the stolen blue Toyota Camry toward a gas pump, causing Coffman — who was clinging to the driver's side door — to strike physical barriers and sustain the traumatic injuries that killed him, according to WTHR. The station reports the Argo gas station sits near South Rural Street and Southeastern Avenue, less than two miles from the Criminal Justice Campus where Martin had walked out of custody roughly two hours earlier.
A Rapid Arrest, Then a Denial
Speedway Police officers located the stolen Camry and arrested Martin in the 1000 block of Holt Road on Indianapolis' west side about 25 minutes after the initial emergency call, per the same WTHR account. After his arrest, Martin insisted to IMPD officers that the car actually belonged to him. “The car was stolen from me, that's how I had the keys. Sir, I told the guy this is my car and I want it back,” he reportedly told police, while denying he had harmed anyone — a claim that stood in stark contrast to the surveillance footage detectives later reviewed.
Martin, who was 33 at the time of his arrest, lived in Greencastle, roughly 40 miles west of Indianapolis, WTHR reported. He had been arrested for drunk driving before the fatal carjacking took place, and Marion County jail logs showed he had cycled in and out of that jail 30 times since 2010.
An Alleged Robbery Days Earlier
Just three days before Coffman was killed, on April 26, 2024, Martin allegedly attempted to rob a west Indianapolis taco truck in the 6300 block of West 34th Street using a deadly weapon, WTHR reported in September 2024. Food truck employees later identified him from news coverage of the homicide, the outlet noted, suggesting a pattern of escalating violence in the days surrounding his jail release.
Guilty Plea and Sentencing
Martin pleaded guilty to murder on May 4, 2026. He was ultimately sentenced to 45 years in the Indiana Department of Correction for killing Coffman, according to online court records cited by WIBC. As part of the plea agreement, the State of Indiana dismissed a Level 2 felony robbery charge that had alleged serious bodily injury.
Under Indiana sentencing guidelines, murder carries a fixed statutory range of 45 to 65 years with an advisory sentence of 55 years, meaning Martin's 45-year term for the murder count represents the statutory minimum allowable penalty, according to a report from Daily News Now. Beyond the murder sentence, Martin also received nine additional years for armed robbery and one more year for operating a vehicle while intoxicated and endangering a person, bringing his total aggregate sentence to 55 years. Martin was also credited with a little over two years already served in jail.
A Family's Grief and a Push for Change
Shane Coffman was married to his wife, Julie, for 22 years and was a father of seven children and grandfather of 12, according to a WISH-TV account of his family's memorial. After the killing, Coffman's family publicly pleaded with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office and local judges not to grant plea bargains to violent repeat offenders, calling for reforms to release protocols at the Criminal Justice Campus.
Coffman's son had previously told FOX59/CBS4 that his father's death was made worse by how avoidable it seemed, saying the release was unfair and that “releasing people and expecting different results is unacceptable.” The family's public campaign has kept alive local questions about how repeat offenders like Martin, with dozens of prior bookings, are screened and released from Marion County custody — questions that remain unresolved even after Martin's sentencing closed the criminal case against him.
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