A jury has convicted 18-year-old Dawensky Zamor of murder for the May 2024 shooting death of 34-year-old Lance Little on the 7900 block of Harcourt Road in Indianapolis, a killing that happened when Zamor was just 16 years old. The verdict came after a three-day trial, and Zamor is now set to be sentenced on September 28 at 1 p.m.
According to WTHR, officers were called to the 7900 block of Harcourt Road on May 7, 2024, on a report of a person shot, according to court documents. Responding officers found Little suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and rushed him to a hospital in critical condition, but he later died from his injuries. Witnesses told police that Zamor pushed Little off the sidewalk and onto Harcourt Road before pulling out a gun and shooting him in the head.
Zamor then fled into his family's apartment, where an IMPD SWAT team eventually took him into custody. Investigators later found a handgun and clothing matching witness descriptions hidden inside the headboard of Zamor's bed, along with a spent shell casing on the floor of his bedroom, the station's report notes.
A Case Bypassing Juvenile Court Entirely
Because Zamor was 16 at the time of the shooting, his case never went through a juvenile waiver hearing at all. Under Indiana Code § 31-30-1-4, juvenile courts automatically lack jurisdiction over anyone at least 16 years old who is charged with murder, meaning those cases go straight to adult criminal court. That is a different legal path than the one taken in another recent Marion County case, in which a judge had to approve moving a teen suspect to adult court for a fatal shooting committed at age 15, as per Hoodline.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said the case underscores the consequences of young people gaining access to firearms and violence. “Dawensky Zamor's decision at age 16 took another person's life and changed countless others,” Mears said, according to the same account. He also called on the broader community to do more to teach young people that violence is not the answer.
Sentencing Range And Prosecutorial Track Record
Under Indiana Code § 35-50-2-3, a murder conviction carries a fixed prison sentence of between 45 and 65 years, with an advisory sentence of 55 years, plus a fine of up to $10,000, per FindLaw. At his September 28 hearing, a judge will weigh any mitigating factors, including Zamor's age at the time of the crime, against aggravating circumstances before handing down a sentence within that statutory range.
The Marion County Prosecutor's Office reported in July that its trial conviction rate in homicide cases had stayed above 90% for three consecutive years, a track record that has held as Mears' office has secured convictions in several high-profile Marion County homicide trials this year. Mears' comments on youth firearm access also echo a broader policy push: in July 2025, his office and IMPD announced they were jointly exploring neglect charges against parents whose juvenile children obtain firearms or take part in violent crimes, according to Mirror Indy.
Harcourt Road's History And Citywide Crime Trends
The 7900 block of Harcourt Road sits within IMPD's North District, a 79-square-mile patrol area serving more than 200,000 residents with roughly 181 sworn officers, according to city data from Indy.gov. It is not the only violent crime with deep roots on that corridor: just a few blocks away on the 8200 block of Harcourt Road, the 1993 murder of 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss went unsolved for decades until DNA testing led to a 45-year sentence for her killer earlier this year.
Little's killing happened during a year when IMPD investigated 208 total homicides, including 173 criminal homicides, a decline from 216 total homicides in 2023, per WTHR reporting at the time. At that point in 2024, IMPD was clearing just over half its homicide cases while operating nearly 300 officers below authorized strength, according to the station's October 2024 coverage. More recently, IMPD statistics reported in July showed homicides in Indianapolis had dropped nearly 20% compared to last year, approaching levels not seen in more than two decades.
