The story of Ant Dogg

This video is an audio interview I did on the Southside of Indy for a column about the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy over a drug debt.

I used the interview in the following column on the case. After the column is an AP story about the sentencing of the shooter.



In a rugged alley, youths reflect on one of their own

Indianapolis Star, The (IN) January 8, 2003

By JOHN STRAUSS

The girl was 14 years old and said she had been there all day, in the alley with Ant Dogg's other friends, a few days after he was killed.

His death certificate says the victim of the shooting was William Anthony Boicourt.

But around East Street, a few blocks south of Eli Lilly and Co. headquarters, they just called the 14-year-old "Ant" because he was only 5 feet tall and 100 pounds.

Dog is what you call somebody you're friendly with. So after the girl and other kids made sure I wasn't a cop, one of them walked up and smiled. "What up, dog?"

Just talking to people about Ant, I said.

"He was just a neighborhood boy," said Chelsea. "He was everybody's best friend. He had no enemies that I know of."

This was said in an alley where you might expect to find enemies. Two boys walked past with a large, fierce-looking dog at the end of a rope. The brick building next door was abandoned, the yard littered with car parts and beer bottles.

Part of a garage wall across the alley was marked as the place where Ant was shot to death late Jan. 1 -- spray-painted graffiti tributes, wine bottles, a pair of dice and other tokens.

Some of the dead boy's friends passed around a blunt, a large marijuana cigarette.

I didn't bring up the drug angle that police say was behind the killing, but the girl did: "We don't think it was drug-related. I didn't know Anthony to smoke weed or nothing."

Another kid, John, walked up.

"So what if he smoked weed? Everybody f - - - - - - does," said the boy, who could have passed for 12.

He was angry at another friend of Ant's, 14-year-old Keith Allen Munden, who is charged with murder.

A 17-year-old also has been arrested, and the two blame each other for the killing.

"The evidence that we've been able to compile so far indicates it was the 14-year-old (Munden) who pulled the trigger," Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Tuesday. "It was an execution-style murder, very deliberate."

Ant was shot four times, including once in the back of the head, with a Winchester 30-30.

This is the kind of lever-action rifle seen in the movies about the wild West, which is what the streets sometimes look like these days.

Police say the killing was over a debt, and that somehow drugs were involved. "If somebody feels disrespected, they retaliate," city police Detective Alan Leinberger said.

Back in the alley, Michael Wiegand walked up to see what was going on. He's a restaurant worker and lives with his wife a block away.

The kids need a neighborhood center to keep them off the street, he said.

Actually, the streets are just fine, Chelsea said. "If they want to walk the 'hood, they're going to walk the 'hood," she said of the teenagers.

"Nobody's going to keep them inside."

A few blocks up East Street, a squad car had pulled somebody over. Wiegand said police were often in the area because of crime. The kids don't seem to know any other way.

"We love this neighborhood," Chelsea said. "This is our life, right here. This is the 'hood. We was born and raised on East Street, and that's where we always will be."

Maybe. Generations have grown up here. It would be good to see these kids survive childhood, too.

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Below is an AP story from the sentencing.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
June 21, 2004, Monday, BC cycle
Boy, 15, gets 55 years for shooting pal over drug debt
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 318 words
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS

A 15-year-old boy accused of shooting a younger drug associate over a debt was sentenced to 55 years in prison by a judge who scolded him for his nonchalance.

Keith Munden, was convicted of shooting William Anthony Boicourt, 14, in an alley on Jan. 2, 2003.

"While he was left on the ground to die his lonely death, you went home to the comfort of that warm house and pretended nothing happened," Marion Superior Court Judge Sheila Carlisle told Munden in sentencing him Friday.

Boicourt's mother, Lillian Henry, testified she had given her son life, but "Keith Munden took it away."
"It hurts me to think that even after Keith serves his sentence, he will still be young enough to have an opportunity to come out, get a job, get married and have a family," Henry said.

With credit for good behavior, Munden could be released from prison when he's in his early 40s.

Deputy Prosecutor Ralph Staples described Munden as a "hoodlum" and said the evidence left no doubt that Munden shot Boicourt four times with the bolt-action, .30-caliber rifle.

The evidence presented during the trial showed Boicourt and Munden used and sold a variety of drugs. Munden admitted being upset over $400 that Boicourt owed him for a half-pound of marijuana, but denied shooting his friend.

However, two witnesses, Nicholas Harritt and Munden's then-girlfriend, Randi Knight, 17, testified that Munden lured Boicourt to the back of a car and shot him four times.

Harritt, 19, who drove the car and sold Munden the rifle used to killed Boicourt, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for assisting in the murder.

Paul Boicourt, 20, took the stand and read a poem in memory of his brother, who was known as "Ant Dogg." He was a slight 5 feet and 100 pounds when he died.

"Lil' Ant Dogg was an angel, in a neighborhood of hell," Boicourt said. "A tiny little homey came from heaven for a spell."