Bloomington man found guilty in 7-day murder trial
To read day six trial coverage, click here.
After roughly three hours of deliberation, the 12 jurors selected to determine Quentin Lamont Porter Jr.’s responsibility in the murder of Malik Darea Sims found him guilty on all five charges.
Porter was arrested on July 24, 2024 for murder, auto theft of Sims’ Audi A4, identity deception, theft of Sims’ phone and theft of Sims’ credit cards.
About 20 people sat in the gallery of the courtroom, waiting for Owen Circuit Court I Judge Don VanDerMoere II to take the jury’s decisions out of a manila folder. Porter stood while the judge read the word “guilty” again and again.
The gallery was silent, full of both Sims’ and Porter’s family and friends. Some propped their heads up with their hands, some buried their heads in them.
Porter sat down after the decisions were read. Public defender Megan Schueler rubbed his back.
“I accept the verdicts and I remand you to the custody of the Owen County Security Center,” VanDerMoere said.
After Porter was escorted from the room, Sims’ mother hugged Prosecutor Benjamin Kim and Chief Deputy Prosecutor Parker Trulock. Sims’ other supporters shook their hands. Some cried.
On the seventh day of Porter’s trial, the prosecution and defense both gave their closing arguments and final attempts at urging the jury to vote in their favor.
Trulock used his argument to review the evidence presented on each day of the trial, putting it on a timeline in a slideshow for the jury to follow. He reminded the jury of several things he said are not being disputed in this case: the fact that Sims was murdered, the fact that Porter drove Sims’ Audi A4 away from the scene of the crime and that Porter used Sims’ credit card after his death.
What the jury needed to decide was whether or not Porter was responsible for Sims’ death.
Trulock reminded the jury that Porter bought his Taurus G2C 9 millimeter handgun less than a week before Sims was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. The day before and the day that Sims died, Sims’ roommates alleged he showed up repeatedly, asking for Sims, acting jittery and sweaty.
Trulock then walked the jury back through the location data and surveillance footage following the route Sims’ vehicle took from his Bloomington apartment to Stephenson Road in Owen County, where he was found, to Porter’s grandmother’s house in Indianapolis.
He went on to list the transactions Porter made with Sims’ credit card, buying jewelry and supplies to clean the bloodied car. Trulock played clips from Porter’s police interview the day he was arrested.
After the timeline, Trulock described several “contradictions” Porter made in the interview. The explanation Porter gave to police for being the last person seen with Sims was that Sims took him along to make a “play,” which was purported to be a drug deal by the defense, and was shot by someone in a white SUV.
Trulock illustrated inconsistencies in Porter’s story, such as changing his answer in regard to whether or not the alleged shooter saw him sitting in Sims’ car. He also pointed to Porter’s struggle to answer a detective’s question about where he put his bloody clothes.
Porter said he tried to drag Sims’ body into the Audi, but wasn’t able to get it all the way inside. Porter said he washed the clothes, that they were in the laundry at his mother’s house, that they never got bloody and only his hands and arms did.
Trulock pointed to large amounts of blood found in the driver’s seat of the Audi, even though Porter said Sims died outside the vehicle and he tried to load him into the backseat. He said Sims’ blood was found in the stitching of the seams of the seat. Trulock denied Porter’s claim that the driver’s window was broken by a rock.
In this case, there were only two options: Porter killed Sims, or his story was true. Trulock said there was no evidence to prove that what Porter said was true.
“The evidence proves that Quentin Porter murdered Malik Sims,” he said. “The state asks that you hold the defendant accountable for his own actions.”
Public defender Jacob Fish gave his argument to the jury using hand drawn poster boards. He told the jurors that finding Porter guilty means proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It can’t be highly likely, probable or anything less.
Fish highlighted what he believed were gaps in the state’s investigation, noting the absence of a gunshot residue test in the car and lack of blood found on the door. He said the prosecution minimized the amount of marijuana Sims sold and didn’t investigate far enough into the people he was involved with.
“They didn’t look because they didn’t want to,” Fish said, saying that the state didn’t investigate into areas where the results wouldn’t fit their story.
The detectives had already made up their minds when they brought Porter in for an interview, Fish said, stunting the comprehensiveness of the investigation and evidence.
As the jurors left the courtroom, free to return to their lives after seven days listening to evidence and testimonies, one told Fish, “You did a hell of a job.”
VanDerMoere announced Porter’s sentencing would take place at 1 p.m. Aug. 26, 2026.
