A Fishers family was asleep in their own home when six masked men allegedly forced their way in through the attached garage, pistol-whipped the husband in front of his wife and two children, and fled with thousands of dollars in cash and the keys to his BMW and Lexus. Three weeks later, a routine traffic stop over an expired license plate unraveled the whole operation, leading police to two Indianapolis men now facing a stack of felony charges.
Fishers police arrested Billy Weathers III and Michael Weathers in connection with the Sept. 4 home invasion and robbery, according to court documents described by Fox 59. Investigators say the suspects had followed the victim from his workplace in Indianapolis all the way to his home in Fishers, a detail detectives later confirmed using Flock cameras and CCTV footage.
Court documents said the group had conducted stalking and surveillance of the victim and his family before the break-in, the station reported. Once inside, one of the masked men allegedly struck the victim in the forehead with a pistol while demanding money and access to a safe, leaving him with multiple bodily injuries as his wife and two children remained in the house.
Thousands in Cash, Vehicle Keys Taken
The six men, wearing ski masks and hoodies, allegedly made off with between $5,000 and $7,000 in cash, two cell phones and the keys to the victim's BMW and Lexus, per the same account. The victim managed to set off the car alarm of a vehicle parked in the driveway before the suspects fled in a white Chevrolet SUV.
Police have not released the names of any other suspected participants beyond Weathers III and Weathers, and the case appeared to go cold for weeks. That changed on Sept. 25, when a Fishers detective pulled over a gray 2008 Chevrolet Impala near E. 106th Street and USA Parkway after determining the vehicle's license plate had expired.
Traffic Stop Turns Up Guns, Fake ID, Cash
The stop unraveled quickly. Police found $2,237 in Billy Weathers' wallet and a government ID bearing a false name and date of birth, the station's report states. Weathers reportedly admitted to having a marijuana joint in the vehicle, then told detectives he was returning to Indianapolis from Ball State and had only stopped in Fishers to take a nap.
A search of the Impala turned up black ski masks and gloves, a loaded black AR pistol, a loaded black-and-tan handgun, and a loaded black Glock equipped with a machine-gun conversion device, per the same account. Weathers said the AR pistol and the black-and-tan handgun belonged to him and that he'd bought both firearms at a gun show at the Indiana State Fair, but he and Michael Weathers denied owning any firearm fitted with a conversion device.
The 21-year-old also could not explain to investigators why his vehicle had been seen parked across from the victim's home for more than two hours, and the victim had separately reported seeing the suspects parked outside his house again on Sept. 25, before a marked police vehicle prompted them to leave the neighborhood. Weathers gave police an incorrect phone number and refused to answer further questions about a recent burglary, according to the report.
Charges and Next Steps
A later search of the Impala uncovered clothing items that police said matched what several of the robbery suspects had worn during the Sept. 4 invasion. Billy Weathers III and Michael Weathers now face preliminary charges of burglary with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, possession of a machine gun and false government identification, the outlet reported.
Both men were transported to the Hamilton County Jail, with Michael Weathers held on a no-bond hold, and both appeared in Hamilton Superior Court 1 for an initial hearing. Federal regulators have separately pursued cases over devices that convert semiautomatic pistols into machine guns, with the ATF treating such conversion devices themselves as machineguns under federal law, though that broader enforcement context is separate from the state charges filed against Weathers III and Weathers.
