The Indianapolis woman was 18 when a planned marijuana transaction involving her younger brother ended in gunfire.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN — Makayla Sue Bauman was remembered by her family as an outgoing and compassionate young woman whose smile could brighten a room. On July 1, a judge imposed a 45-year prison sentence on the teenager who admitted killing her.
Emanuel Carter, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder in Bauman’s Sept. 29, 2024, shooting death. He was 15 when he fired toward a vehicle as Bauman’s younger brother tried to escape what investigators described as an armed attempt to steal marijuana. Carter apologized briefly at his sentencing. The judge accepted a negotiated agreement that placed him in prison for 45 years and dismissed accompanying charges of robbery and dangerous possession of a firearm by a child.
The sentence gives the case a legal ending, but the public record also preserves a different account of what was lost. Bauman had turned 18 less than a year before her death. She was the daughter of Scott and Jennifer Bauman and the sister of Kaden Bauman. Her obituary described a young woman who loved shopping and spending time with friends, who was intelligent and lively, and who made sure ordinary gatherings were rarely dull.
Those memories stand apart from the few minutes that came to define the criminal case. Bauman was riding with her brother on the night of the shooting when he drove to meet Carter for a marijuana sale. Investigators said the proposed transaction involved one ounce for $140. Her brother knew Carter from Beech Grove High School and had arranged to meet him at an apartment complex. Bauman was not described as the person negotiating the deal; she was in the passenger seat when the meeting turned violent.
According to the probable cause affidavit summarized by local news organizations, Carter and a second person approached the vehicle carrying guns. Bauman’s brother said one of them ordered him to hand over everything and threatened his life. Faced with armed people outside the car, he shifted into reverse. Shots were fired toward the passenger side as the vehicle moved away. Bauman, seated in that part of the car, was struck in the chest.
Her first reported words after the gunfire were a simple statement to her brother that she thought she had been shot. He tried to drive away and seek help. As her condition worsened, he stopped in the 5900 block of Riva Ridge Drive on Indianapolis’ southeast side. Officers from Indianapolis and Beech Grove responded shortly after 9 p.m. and found him tending to his sister. Emergency workers took Bauman to a hospital in critical condition, but she died there.
The scene where police found the siblings was not the same place where the planned transaction had begun. That movement became part of the early investigation, requiring detectives to reconstruct what occurred before the emergency call. They interviewed Bauman’s brother, reviewed the route and examined physical evidence. Court records cited by WTHR said officers recovered five spent shell casings in two different calibers. Investigators treated the 9 mm and 10 mm casings as evidence that two firearms had been discharged.
Bauman’s brother identified Carter as one of the armed people but could not confidently identify the second. Police later said the other person was Carter’s brother, according to reports based on the affidavit. News reports reviewed for this article do not establish whether the second person has been criminally charged. That unanswered question remains outside the judgment entered against Carter, whose guilty plea resolved only his own criminal responsibility.
An autopsy provided a limited medical account of Bauman’s death. According to court documents described by WTHR, one bullet entered the right side of her chest and lodged in her left shoulder. The fact was central to determining the cause of death but does not require a more graphic description. Bauman had been alive and speaking after the shooting, and her brother had attempted to get her to safety. The injury nevertheless proved fatal despite the response by police and paramedics.
Carter was arrested the next day. During the investigation, he reportedly told detectives that he and his brother had been the targets of a robbery and that someone in the vehicle displayed a gun. Police said they found no evidence that either Bauman or her brother was armed. Investigators also obtained a statement from another witness who said Carter had announced an intention to rob a white boy of marijuana before the meeting. That reported statement supported the state’s view that the confrontation had been planned as a robbery rather than a defensive response.
The initial filing exposed Carter to several criminal allegations. Prosecutors charged him with murder and also pursued robbery and a firearm offense tied to his age. Because he was a juvenile when Bauman was killed, the state first had to move the murder case into adult court. That decision opened the way for an adult felony prosecution and the sentencing range that applies to murder under Indiana law.
By the time Carter entered his guilty plea, he had reached 17. His age still mattered, but it did not prevent the court from imposing a punishment that will extend far into adulthood. The final agreement called for the minimum fixed term in Indiana’s general murder sentencing range. State law provides for 45 to 65 years, with an advisory sentence of 55 years. The parties settled on 45, while the state agreed to dismiss the other two charges.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said the move to adult court was essential to achieve accountability. His statement emphasized that Carter had taken a life at 15 and that the sentence reflected the seriousness of that act. Mears also acknowledged a limit shared by every criminal judgment in a homicide case: No number of years in prison can return the person who died or remove the damage experienced by surviving relatives.
Carter’s apology at sentencing was brief, according to the available courtroom report. The public account does not include a detailed explanation from him about the shooting, his decisions before it or what he understands about their effect on Bauman’s family. A guilty plea is a formal admission sufficient to support conviction, but it does not necessarily answer every personal question held by survivors. The court’s role was to determine whether to accept the negotiated resolution and impose the agreed punishment.
For Bauman’s younger brother, the case began not with a court filing but with the experience of being beside his sister when she was struck. He was the person who attempted to drive away, heard her say she had been wounded and stopped when he realized her condition was worsening. He then tried to help her until officers arrived. His witness account became a core part of the prosecution, but it also records the immediate harm experienced by a surviving sibling.
Bauman’s family held visitation and funeral services in Indianapolis in October 2024. She was laid to rest at New Crown Cemetery. Her obituary listed parents, a brother, grandfathers and numerous extended relatives and friends who survived her. It also noted relatives who had died before her. The family directed memorial contributions to Riley Children’s Hospital, turning public attention from the circumstances of her death toward an institution that cares for children and families.
The obituary’s description of Bauman offers details the criminal affidavit could not. Investigative records had to reduce the event to times, locations, shell casings, witness statements and injuries. The memorial account instead described character: outgoing, loving, intelligent and joyful. Both records concern the same person, but they serve different purposes. The first explains why Carter was prosecuted. The second explains why the loss cannot be measured only by a prison term.
The plea agreement also avoided a trial that would have required Bauman’s brother and other witnesses to recount the shooting in open court. It guaranteed a murder conviction and a 45-year sentence, while eliminating the risk that a jury could reach a different result after contested testimony. In exchange, prosecutors gave up the chance to seek convictions on the robbery and firearm counts or to request a longer sentence within the murder range.
Exactly how long Carter will remain confined cannot be calculated simply by subtracting his age from the 45-year term. Correctional officials must account for time served before sentencing and determine any credit available under Indiana law and Department of Correction rules. The judgment itself, however, is clear: Carter stands convicted of murder and has been ordered to serve a term spanning more than four decades.
Carter’s sentence ends the principal prosecution. The available public reports do not identify another scheduled hearing in his case or confirm a separate prosecution against the second person described in the affidavit. For Bauman’s family, the next stage will take place outside the courtroom, with the conviction entered and the 18-year-old they remembered as their source of laughter and light still absent.
Author note: Last updated July 28, 2026.