Lafayette man to plead guilty to low-level charges in 2022 murder-in-alley case

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Lafayette man originally charged with three counts of murder in the 2022 killing of a 52-year-old man in an alley has signed a plea agreement in which he will instead admit to low-felony charges of assisting a criminal and drug possession when he returns to court next month.

Charles Seymour Bressler, of the 100 block of Elston Road, was charged with three counts of murder and attempting to deal methamphetamine in October 2023. Court records show he will be sentenced Jan. 16 to the two new charges in the case.

Another Lafayette man, Patrick Scott Norman, was also charged in the death of Terry Robinson in near Green Street in November 2022; Norman has recently pleaded guilty to one count of murder but has yet to be sentenced, according to court records.

On Nov. 25, 2022, the Lafayette Police Department received a call from someone reporting a dead body in an alley near her home. When police arrived, they discovered the man, Robinson, also of Lafayette, had been shot in the head, according to a probable cause affidavit.

When police searched the area, they found a Speer .40 caliber Smith and Wesson cartridge case in the alley near Robinson’s body and two cell phones, according to the affidavit.

Earlier that same day, Lafayette police and fire officials responded to a vehicle that had been engulfed in flames. After firefighters extinguished the fire, police ran the plates on the vehicle and determined that the vehicle was registered to Robinson, according to the document.

Near the vehicle, police also found a lanyard that had several keys on it, but none of the keys were related to the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

While examining Robinson's Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicle records, police determined that Robinson also had a 1990 Chevrolet truck registered under his name. On Dec. 1, 2022, police found the truck at his girlfriend’s house, according to the affidavit.

The girlfriend informed the police that the truck had been parked at his home found the homicide and identified that the lanyard was owned by Robinson. After evaluating the keys, it was determined that the keys belonged to the truck, according to the affidavit.

An Indiana State Police lab report on March 1, 2023, linked the DNA of three people on the keys: Robinson, Norman and Bressler, according to the court record.

On Nov. 25, 2022, police received a call from a father informing officers that his son, Charles Bressler, had been with Robinson when he heard two gunshots go off, but he was unable to identify the shooter. Bressler told police that he and Robinson left Bressler’s residence to go to a gas station. But before making it to the gas station, Robinson took a detour, stopped the car and told Bressler to wait inside, according to the affidavit.

Bressler saw Robinson exit the vehicle and then heard Robinson exchange words with another individual before Robinson began to yell “no," “don’t” and “stop,” according to the document.

Earlier that day, police also reviewed city camera footage and saw Robinson’s vehicle being driven toward the location where police and firefighters found and extinguished the fire. They identified Norman walking away, according to the affidavit.

Bressler said Robinson and Norman were meeting a person to buy methamphetamine. The two left the vehicle, and then shortly afterward, Bressler heard the screaming and gunshots. Bressler ran toward the gunshot and found Robinson on the ground and proceeded to run home, according to the affidavit.

On Nov. 26, 2022, Norman also confided in a friend that he “might have killed someone,” according to the affidavit.

On June 19, 2023, Lafayette police received a report from the ISP lab indicating that the cartridge case found near Robinson’s body was fired by Norman's gun, according to the court document.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette man to plead guilty to low-level charges in 2022 murder-in-alley case