Victim 2 told officers that Xavier Allen Jaggers had said he had an equalizer. Jaggers, a 17-year-old Noblesville boy, ended up pointing a gun at another teenager in a patch of woods near McCordsville, striking him in the head before the gathering spiraled into a gunpoint robbery, according to court records. Xavier Allen Jaggers was booked into the Hancock County Jail on September 29, nearly four months after the June 8 confrontation, and has since pleaded not guilty to two Level 3 felony counts of armed robbery and a Level 5 felony count of intimidation.
The case traces back to a call that came into Hancock County dispatchers after IU Health Fishers staff reported a battery and robbery, according to The Daily Reporter. Deputies learned that an 18-year-old victim and a younger juvenile victim had arrived at a wooded area near the Stansbury neighborhood in McCordsville around 6 p.m. that evening, after someone contacted them about meeting up in a rural area. The two were later joined, deputies found, by a group that arrived in an SUV and included Jaggers and 17-year-old Nicco G. Matteucci, also of Noblesville.
A Night That Turned Violent in the Woods
According to the newspaper's account, the teenagers initially showed off their guns to one another in a patch of woods a couple hundred yards from the road, and Victim 2 fired his gun for a while before the situation deteriorated. A newer group of teens then allegedly pointed two guns at the pair, with one suspect grabbing and beating the younger victim while another suspect struck him in the head — leaving him with a laceration above his right eye that a responding deputy later observed, still bleeding.
The older victim, who carried the handgun, said he was hit in the head with a gun at least 20 times, per the same account, and was left covered in blood. Suspects allegedly told him they were going to kill him, threatened his life, and fired a gun near his head before stealing his gun and taking roughly $50 in cash. The younger victim's cell phone was also taken during the chaos and thrown into a field; his mother told officers it had been tossed near county roads 300 North and 400 West, though it was not found there.
The Charges and the Statutes Behind Them
Robbery in Indiana is ordinarily a Level 5 felony, but state law automatically elevates it to a Level 3 felony when a deadly weapon is involved or someone is injured, according to FindLaw's summary of Indiana Code § 35-42-5-1. That enhancement is why both Jaggers and Matteucci face two Level 3 felony armed robbery counts rather than lower-level charges. A Level 3 felony conviction in Indiana carries a sentencing range of 3 to 16 years, with an advisory term of 9 years and fines up to $10,000 per count, per Keating Legal.
Both teens also face a Level 5 felony count of intimidation, a lower classification that carries a fixed sentence of 1 to 6 years, with an advisory term of 3 years and a fine of up to $10,000, according to Justia Law's breakdown of Indiana Code § 35-50-2-6. Because both defendants are 17, they were sent directly into adult court rather than juvenile court — Indiana law automatically strips juvenile courts of jurisdiction over 16- and 17-year-olds charged with armed robbery, according to Washington County Prosecutors.
Court Appearance, Bond, and an Unresolved Co-Defendant
Jaggers had his initial hearing Wednesday in Hancock Superior Court 1, where the court appointed him a public defender, set a $30,000 cash bond, and entered his not guilty plea into the record. Hancock Superior Court 1 was the venue for Jaggers' initial hearing. As of press time, Matteucci had not yet been arrested despite charges already being filed against him, and the newspaper reported his initial hearing had not yet been set.
Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton, who has led the office since winning election in 2014 according to a UNC School of Law study, told the Daily Reporter he did not know whether additional teenagers present during the confrontation would face charges. Investigators also recovered 9mm and .45 ACP shell casings at the scene, and a common friend told officers both victims were pistol-whipped, saying he had never seen anything like it — he also said suspects pointed guns at him and threatened him, and that he had no idea there was a plan to rob and beat the two victims.
Conflicting Accounts From the Teens Involved
Matteucci offered deputies a different version of events, telling them he had gone to Hancock County to meet buddies and shoot fireworks, and that he sent a text saying the group was heading there to shoot guns. He said he got into a tussle with the younger victim over a bag containing one of the guns and claimed he was defending himself. Victim 2 told deputies Jaggers had said he had an equalizer.
The location itself sits at the heart of a cross-county dynamic that shaped the night. McCordsville lies in northwestern Hancock County, directly bordering Fishers in neighboring Hamilton County, according to the Town of McCordsville. The Noblesville teenagers, from Hamilton County, gathered with others in a rural stretch of Hancock County. The town has also become Hancock County's second-largest municipality, with nearly 7,000 people amid a multi-decade suburban growth boom, underscoring how fast the area straddling the two counties has developed. The older victim reported the theft of his gun on June 10, two days after the confrontation, setting off the investigation that would take sheriff's deputies nearly four months to build into formal charges.
