INDIANAPOLIS – A judge sentenced a Marine who killed a Fishers couple in a devastating July 2022 crash.
Jaime Heredia Jr. pleaded guilty in October to two counts of reckless homicide in connection with the crash that killed a Fishers kindergarten teacher and her husband.
The sentence included five years in the Indiana Department of Correction and three years of probation. Upon release, he’ll have to undergo drug and alcohol monitoring and is required to do community service.
Four counts related to driving under the influence were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
Investigators said 51-year-old Ashley Lansdell and 56-year-old Grant Lansdell died when Heredia, who was going nearly 80 mph, slammed into their car near 56th Street and Glenn Road in Lawrence on July 11, 2022.
Grant Lansdell suffered from multiple blunt force trauma injuries and died at the hospital. His wife died from her injuries more than two weeks later.
The crash was tremendous blow to the Fishers community. Ashley Lansdell was a teacher at Fall Creek Elementary School and had been with Hamilton Southeastern Schools since August 2012. Grant Lansdell was heavily involved in local music programs.
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors played video from the crash, which showed Heredia swerving erratically while driving and eventually ramming into the side of the couple’s Ford Fusion at a high rate of speed.
Crash background
Heredia was driving a government-issued Ford Focus that rendered the couple’s car virtually “unrecognizable,” according to court documents. The Lansdells were trapped inside the vehicle and had to be cut out of the vehicle.
Heredia told police he was exceeding the speed limit and tried to slow down when he saw the other vehicle. But data from a crash reconstructionist showed he had sped up to 78.7 mph just a second before impact.
The speed limit in the area is 40 mph.
Heredia told police he’d had a 20 oz. Corona around 7:30 a.m. that day. He didn’t submit to a chemical test because he was afraid he’d test positive for opiates, telling investigators he’d been taking pain medication for an injury. He was supposed to be off the medication on June 24, 2022.
He said he’d taken only over-the-counter pain medication on the morning of the crash.
An investigator concluded that pain medication “may have been a factor” in the crash based on Heredia’s “slow and slurred speech pattern” and “previous narcotic pain medication use.”
A blood draw found Heredia had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.074, which was below Indiana’s legal limit of 0.08.
Heredia, who was on his way to the Marine Corps office after a physical therapy session, had received permission to drive the government-issued car.
After the crash, he called a corporal who took a trash bag Heredia had given him at the scene. The corporal discovered it contained three empty alcoholic drink containers and a flask. Witnesses said they saw Heredia remove bottles of alcohol from the vehicle.
Heredia, in order to use the car, had signed an agreement saying he wouldn’t smoke, drink or break any laws while driving it.
Devastated family discusses impact
Pat Ross, the father of Ashley Lansdell, read a letter from the couple’s daughter, Mia Igneri Ross. Mia was 16 when the crash happened and is now 19 and in college. Ashley was her mother and Grant her stepfather.
“I had only 16 years with my mother,” she wrote. “My life completely changed.”
She was devastated after losing her parents and said they have missed—and will miss—all the special moments of her life, including prom and her high school graduation.
“It is despicable that you have taken two beautiful souls. No one will ever forgive you for that,” she wrote.
She said her mother’s death impacted hundreds of lives—not just her family but those of former students and their families. Grant was a “creative soul” who brought the “joy of music to everyone he could.”
“I believe the defendant deserves the longest possible sentence for killing my parents—killing my mother and father and forcing me to grow up so quickly. Destroying more lives than you can imagine. Taking away joy from so many other people,” she wrote.
“Life is precious, and he should not have the luxury of living freely.”
Pat Ross’ impact statement
After reading the letter on behalf of his granddaughter, Ross delivered his own impact statement. He recalled a two-week vacation with his daughter and her family. It was a trip they took every year in late June. They parted in Pennsylvania as the Lansdells headed home for Indiana.
Ashley Lansdell had a colonoscopy scheduled for that July 11 day. Ross tried to contact her to find out how it went, but she didn’t respond to calls or text messages. He received a call about the crash later in the afternoon and heard that Grant died and Ashley was grievously injured.
His thoughts soon turned to his granddaughter, who was alone and had been informed she’d lost her stepfather. She found her mother on life support at the hospital and it didn’t “look good” for her survival.
Ashley held on for 16 days and died on July 27.
Ross and his wife, both in their 80s, moved to Indiana from Pennsylvania for two years to help their granddaughter finish high school. Mia was a junior and her grandparents felt it was only fair for her to have someone close by to help her. She graduated in May 2024.
“She could never replace her mother because they were best friends,” he said of his granddaughter.
Ross said the loss took a toll on him and his wife physically and emotionally. They uprooted their lives to be with Mia, but all their family traditions are gone—vacations, trips to visit Indiana, Christmas Eve dinners. No more family videos or family photos. No Father’s Day cards. No more being called “Old Reliable” by his daughter.
No more hugs and no opportunities to tell his daughter he loved her.
It’s all gone, he said, because of Heredia’s reckless decision and his erratic driving.
He said instead of helping the other people he’d hit, Heredia called someone to remove “incriminating” items from his car.
“I can see no justification for not giving the defendant the maximum sentence,” Ross said.
Judith Reeser (Grant Lansdell’s mother)
Judith Reeser, Grant Lansdell’s mother, also spoke. She first addressed Ashley’s family, telling them that Ashley was part of her family and would always be in her heart. She hoped they understood she would speak about “her Grant” during the sentencing hearing.
She’ll never forget his smile and inquisitive nature. He attended Indiana University, but she didn’t realize he’d never come back to live on the East Coast.
He went to IU because the university offered him the best financial package. Reeser recalled the day she received a call from her other son, Bret, that Grant had been killed in a crash. She lived alone at a retirement home.
Her thoughts first turned to Mia and Grant’s two daughters. She felt helpless and knew she couldn’t do much because of distance and time. Grant’s daughter Julie had to identify her father’s body and notify other members of the family about what happened.
“It was such a hard night,” she recalled.
She was relieved that Mia’s grandparents traveled to Indiana to help her. But Reeser felt guilty she couldn’t be there for her granddaughters.
Since her son’s death, she finds herself becoming more and more isolated. She relives the crash every day.
“The violent images of the crash flare up every time I get an email from the lawyers, the attorneys or [her son] Bret or anyone related to this case,” she said. “I just kept seeing the same picture over and over again of this violent crash and my son being cut out of a car.”
She criticized Heredia for taking two years to agree to a plea deal as the families grieved and dealt with the legal ramifications of their loved ones’ deaths. She asked the court to give him the maximum sentence—and for him to serve the counts consecutively.
Bret Lansdell (Grant Lansdell’s brother)
Bret Lansdell also spoke at the hearing. Grant was his older brother by four years.
“You never rendered aid, as a Marine should,” he said, directing his next words at Heredia. “Whenever you hear the word Marine, I hope it stings you deeply.”
He said there was “nothing honorable” about Heredia.
“You are among the ranks of the dishonorable,” he said.
Bret Lansdell said there’s a curve near his work and some days he imagines Heredia careening over the hill and hitting him, just as he had hit Grant and Ashley.
He remembered the difficult day he called his mother to share the tragic information.
“You took Grant from us, but you took so much more,” he said. “The worst thing you did was to take his music away from the world. The 11th of July was the day the music died, for all of us.”
He recalled Grant’s skill with the trombone and how he and Ashley loved Dave Matthews Band. The two brothers looked forward to spending their retirement years together.
“You robbed us of that special time,” he said. “This was no accident. Never use this word.”
Including the letter from Ashley Lansdell’s daughter, seven family members told the court how the crash affected them and asked for the maximum sentence.
Heredia talks in court
Heredia fought tears as he took the stand to deliver a statement of his own. He said he wondered why the couple died while he stayed alive and questioned if things would’ve been better if it had been him instead.
“I hated myself. I was ashamed,” he said after the crash. “I’m a forever changed man. I will never understand why this had to happen. I have learned not to question God but to simply accept this part of my life—a part that has been some of my darkest days.”
Heredia has two kids, and his wife has a third on the way. While he lives in Indiana, his family lives in South Carolina. He doesn’t want them to grow up fatherless, as he had.
He recounted his mother’s strength and how the crash—and the circumstances surrounding it—had disappointed her and created distance between them. Still, he said she never gave up on him and found it in her heart to forgive him.
He asked the court for leniency and requested to be allowed to go home to South Carolina.
Judge sentences Heredia
Judge Angela Dow Davis acknowledged that, no matter what she decided, no one was going to be happy.
She said there were some mitigating factors, including the fact Heredia didn’t have a criminal history and was the father of young children, making time in the Indiana Department of Correction a burden on his family. She believes he’s genuinely remorseful and wants to make amends.
But the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones, the judge said. She noted the crash was no accident, that Heredia was speeding and had been drinking before it happened. She pointed out he called another Marine to help him cover his tracks.
“You were a Marine. You were trained,” she said. “Instead of, after you were speeding and caused the accident, you didn’t help. And the court finds that as an aggravator.”
She added, “You were only thinking of yourself, and you were trying to get the trash and the empty bottles out of the car.”
He was speeding, after drinking, in a government-issued vehicle. The harm to the Lansdell family was significant, affecting not just the family but Ashley Lansdell’s students and the many people Ashley and Grant had touched throughout their lives.
“The fact that you called somebody to get rid of the evidence—that’s appalling to the court,” she said.
She ultimately decided on 10 years, with five years in the Indiana Department of Correction. Five years were suspended, with three of those to be served on probation. Heredia can serve his probation in South Carolina. The state had asked for an eight-year prison sentence.
He also had a total of 490 days of credit for time served and good behavior, meaning he’ll serve less than four years in prison.
Sentence reaction
The victims’ families were hoping for the maximum prison sentence. Multiple family members said as much during their victim impact statements in court.
But they’re also trying to move forward with their lives and were aware of the limitations of the justice system.
“You can never get what you want to,” said Pat Brown, Ashley’s father. “That’s the best we got, we got to move on with our lives and he did admit to killing two wonderful people, and to get that time is the best we can get.”
“There’s no way to make the time come back, but justice will be served when he does his time,” said Bret Lansdell, Grant’s younger brother.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears released the following statement:
“Today, family members shared their heartfelt stories about how Ashley and Grant utilized their expertise and passions to leave a lasting impact on those around them. The families have carried themselves with such grace throughout this incredibly painful journey. We hope with the conclusion of the criminal case, they may find some solace as they continue to honor the legacies Ashley and Grant have left behind.”
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears
