Ohio man acquitted of murder in 2020 South Bend shooting death on Elmer Street

SOUTH BEND — An Ohio man was acquitted of a murder charge Wednesday after a jury trial in Superior Court in connection with the March 2020 shooting death of Alan Diaz, 19, in the 1600 block of North Elmer Street.

Adonis Harris, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, had been charged with murder, along with three other men, in the March 3, 2020, shooting death. Prosecutors alleged the four men were involved in a home invasion in Michigan earlier that evening and then shot a man who had just sold them marijuana.

October 2020:Four men charged in North Elmer Street shooting death in South Bend

Harris was found not guilty Wednesday before St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John Marnocha after a three-day jury trial.

South Bend officers responded to the 1600 block of North Elmer Street on March 3, 2020, on reports that someone had been shot. Officers found Diaz on the walkway leading to a house with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Diaz was pronounced dead at the hospital, with an autopsy determining the cause of death to be a single gunshot wound.

Investigators with the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit in court documents said at the time they were contacted by Cass County deputies who informed the unit that a suspect in a home invasion in Michigan told them the four men also had taken part in an incident in South Bend.

Court documents said one of the four men who was involved with the incident in Michigan said the group drove to Indiana to buy marijuana from Diaz with some counterfeit money.

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com.

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