Man charged with 4 Indianapolis slayings to plead guilty

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The man charged with a drug-related quadruple homicide on Indianapolis' southeast side will be spared the death penalty under a plea agreement in which he will serve four life sentences without parole, prosecutors said Monday.

Kenneth "Cody" Rackemann, 26, agreed to plead guilty to four counts of murder and one count each of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, the Marion County Prosecutor's Office said Monday. He's due in court Friday for a change of plea hearing.

Rackemann agreed to serve the life sentences consecutively, or one after another, plus 20 years on the two other charges, prosecutors said.

He had been facing death penalty charges in the shooting deaths of four people during a botched robbery at an Indianapolis drug house early last year.

Rackemann, who had worked security for one of the victims, drug dealer Walter Burnell, 47, allegedly was searching for a safe inside the home shared by Burrell and victim Jacob Rodemich, 43, when he started shooting those inside, prosecutors have said. Rackemann fatally shot the two men and Kristy Mae Sanchez, 22, and wounded Hayley Navarra, 21, before he ran out of bullets, they have said.

Rackemann then allegedly called in 21-year-old Valencia Williams, who was sitting in a car outside, to kill the fourth victim, a probable cause affidavit said. Williams killed Navarra as she begged for her life, according to the affidavit.

The prosecutor's office said it had no comment Monday on the plea agreement.

Rackemann is the second of four defendants to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.

Samantha Bradley, 22, pleaded guilty in August 2014 to conspiracy to commit robbery resulting in death. Prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her in exchange for testimony against her co-defendants. She faces a sentence of 20 to 50 years in prison under her plea deal.

Charges are pending against two others.