INDIANAPOLIS — A 19-year-old from Indianapolis is charged with murder more than two years after a home invasion left 22-year-old Naya Marguerite Ruffin lying dead on the ground.
On Thursday, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against Octavionn Long in connection to the April 29, 2022, home break-in. Long is charged with murder, burglary resulting in serious injury and robbery resulting in serious injury.
Court documents reveal how Ruffin’s murder went unsolved for roughly two years after masked men broke into an apartment on the city’s northeast side and shot her while robbing a safe in the bedroom.
Ruffin had reportedly been sleeping on the couch after getting into a fight with her boyfriend, who was asleep in the bedroom. Two masked men allegedly broke through the sliding glass door armed with a rifle while the couple slept.
The boyfriend recounted hearing Ruffin scream only to be greeted at the bedroom door by one of the masked men. “What’s in here?” the intruder asked.
The masked man and the boyfriend fought but the boyfriend was overpowered and had a gun pointed at his head. The masked man reportedly opened a safe in the bedroom and stole items from inside.
At some point, the boyfriend heard a gunshot in the front room and saw Ruffin flee out the front door. After the intruders left, the boyfriend checked on his daughter sleeping in another room and then ran out into the main room. He spotted broken glass but no Ruffin.
He eventually found the 22-year-old woman lying outside. Neighbors were attempting CPR on the woman and screaming for people to call 911. Ruffin was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Court documents reveal that swaps taken from blood found in the bedroom, on the safe, and from under the boyfriend’s nails eventually led to Long. By this time — Dec. 7, 2023 — Long was already in custody at Branchville Correctional Facility in Perry County.
Investigators went and spoke with Long who denied ever being at the Indianapolis apartments on San Paulo Circle where the home invasion occurred. But police took DNA samples from Long and said they matched multiple samples found at the apartment.
Court documents also link Long to a suspect involved in a past criminal encounter with Ruffin’s boyfriend from June 2021.
Police showed photographs of Long and a few other suspects to the boyfriend in October, but the boyfriend didn’t recognize anyone from the lineup. He told police the intruder he fought with was tall and broad-shouldered and had been wearing a mask and a hood.
He did believe the suspects were younger.
If convicted of murder, Long could face up to 65 years in prison. Murder sentences could also carry lifetime sentences or even the death penalty in Indiana.
Long is still being held in Branchville Correctional Facility.
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