Johnathon Buza, Appellant-Defendant v. State of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff (2026)

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Case Summary

[1] In April of 2023, Johnathon Buza and Manuel Heaton went fishing in the Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area in Warrick County. Heaton was discovered, shot to death, the next day. The bullets found in Heaton's body had come from Buza's .40 caliber handgun, and Heaton's firearm was missing from his holster. A jury found Buza guilty of murder, felony murder, and Level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm. After vacating his conviction for felony murder, the trial court sentenced Buza to sixty-five years executed for murder, enhanced by twenty years by virtue of his use of a firearm in committing the offense, concurrent to twelve years executed for unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon (“SVF”). Buza contends that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of Heaton's firearm, found on Buza's property after the murder. Buza also contends that he did not personally waive his right to a jury trial on the conviction that qualified him as an SVF or on the firearm enhancement. Because we agree that Buza did not waive his right to a jury trial on those matters but conclude that any error in the admission of Heaton's firearm was harmless, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand with instructions.

Facts and Procedural History

[2] Starting in 2017, Buza began “trying to make money off the stock market” by day trading. Tr. Vol. IV p. 154. In 2020, Buza and his wife, Hillary Key, declared bankruptcy. Buza and Heaton were “close friends.” Tr. Vol. IV p. 180. To “correct” their credit after filing bankruptcy, Buza and Key “piggyback[ed]” off of Heaton's credit cards. Tr. Vol. IV p. 155. Heaton had American Express and Discover credit cards, with the Discover account linked to Heaton's name but Buza's address and phone number. Buza had also engaged in day trading with accounts linked to Heaton's name and Buza's address and phone number.

[3] On March 3, 2023, Buza arranged to purchase a tan .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun from Caleb Vaughn. The sale included a magazine and multiple backstraps for the gun. Buza did not inform Key of the purchase, instead telling her that Heaton had given him the gun as a gift. During the week leading up to April 21, 2023, Heaton and Buza had spent time “hanging out” and fishing at least three or four times. Tr. Vol. IV p. 180. On April 21, Heaton informed his father that he was going fishing with Buza.

[4] Buza informed Key that he was going fishing with Heaton and she recalled that he left the house between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m. At around 10:58 p.m., Heaton's location data placed him at the Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area. Between 10:48 and 10:58 p.m., Buza's cellular telephone data also indicated that he was in the area of the Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area.

[5] At 12:06 a.m., Buza posted two pictures showing the water and a fishing pole, and the photos appeared to be from the Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area. At 12:15 a.m., a message from Heaton's Facebook profile was sent to his friend Marcus Crane stating that Heaton and a friend were fishing but had had bad luck. At around 1:08 a.m., location data showed Heaton's telephone moving south, and at 1:33 a.m., Heaton's telephone was in a location consistent with Buza's house. Around the same time, another message was sent from Heaton's Facebook account which read, “[h]e left so I'm alone” and “[t]wo dunks [(sic)] out here cussing at me[.]” Tr. Vol. III p. 179. Buza later informed police that he knew the password to Heaton's phone. Buza's cellular telephone also began using a tower near his home at around 1:13 a.m. At around 1:52 a.m., Buza texted Key that their son had woken up.

[6] On the morning of April 22, 2023, Kristopher Paxson went fishing in the Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area. Paxson noticed Heaton's body lying near the water and called the police. Heaton had died from multiple gunshot wounds. Police arrived and observed that Heaton had “severe” trauma and “a large amount of pooling blood around the head.” Tr. Vol. II p. 192. Police also observed two fishing poles at the scene and “numerous ammunition shells around the body.” Tr. Vol. II p. 192. Heaton had an empty holster on his belt, and police did not locate any firearms on the scene. Police eventually recovered eleven Smith & Wesson .40 caliber shell casings and eleven 9mm caliber shell casings. Heaton's cell phone and car keys were not located at the scene.

[7] The projectiles recovered from Heaton's body that were able to be analyzed were determined to have been fired by the same firearm, Buza's .40 caliber tan Smith & Wesson firearm. Later DNA analysis indicated that the release button on Heaton's gun holster contained two profiles, which were two billion times more likely to contain DNA from Heaton and Buza than Heaton and an unknown, unrelated individual.

[8] Also on April 22, 2023, Buza and Key went to Nashville, Tennessee and stayed in a Hilton Hotel under Heaton's name. Before leaving for Nashville, Buza brought his car to a car wash and video surveillance captured him throwing items away. A search of the dumpster later uncovered a cellphone and a tan pistol backstrap. That evening, one of Buza's friends viewed a post online indicating “that a body had been found at Blue Grass.” Tr. Vol. IV p. 143. The friend showed the post to Buza, who “started shakin[g]” and “freaking out and crying.” Tr. Vol. IV pp. 144, 171. Buza “immediately assumed it was [Heaton.]” Tr. Vol. IV p. 144.

[9] Pursuant to a search warrant, police searched Buza's house in Evansville and recovered a piece of paper in a safe containing Heaton's personal information, Heaton's credit cards and debit card in a black box in the house, and handgun grips in a trash can. Police also recovered a blood-splattered tackle box in the garage containing fishing equipment. DNA analysis indicated that the blood on the tackle box was one trillion times more likely than not to have come from Heaton and excluded Buza as the source.

[10] On April 23, 2023, the State charged Buza with Count I, murder; Count II, felony murder; Count III, Level 2 felony robbery resulting in serious bodily injury; and Count IV, Level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm by an SVF. The State later added a sentencing enhancement for the use of a firearm in the commission of an offense and requested life imprisonment without parole (“LWOP”). Approximately one week later, Key moved out of the rented residence she and Buza had shared. Buza also no longer lived at the residence, as he was in jail. Key did not have “personal knowledge of anything that was done” in the house since she had moved out until September of 2023. No one else lived in the house in the intervening months, and the landlord began mowing the yard to the tree line.

[11] On September 3, 2023, a neighbor discovered a black box on the property containing a tan Smith and Wesson .40 caliber handgun, which he turned over to the police. The firearm's serial number was traced to Caleb Vaughn, who had previously sold the gun to Buza. Police obtained the consent of the landlord to search the property, during which search they recovered Heaton's black and silver 9mm caliber handgun in a white Meijer bag. On September 6, police obtained another warrant to search the property and located a telephone containing Heaton's emergency identification information, including his name, age, height, and weight.

[12] During the bifurcated jury trial, Buza objected to the admission of Heaton's 9mm handgun, which objection the trial court overruled. The State, during closing argument, suggested that Buza had staged a shootout by taking Heaton's gun and firing it, and that Buza had attempted to cover his tracks. The jury found Buza guilty of murder, felony murder, and Level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm and found Buza not guilty of robbery resulting in serious bodily injury. In the LWOP phase, the jury recommended a term of years.

[13] Buza stipulated to the fact of his prior conviction as to the firearm possession charge and to the firearm enhancement. On September 26, 2025, the trial court vacated Buza's conviction for felony murder and sentenced him to sixty-five years executed for murder, enhanced by twenty years for the use of a firearm, concurrent to twelve years executed for unlawful possession of a firearm by an SVF.

Discussion and Decision

I. The Admission of Heaton's Gun into Evidence was Harmless.

[14] Buza contends that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of Heaton's 9mm handgun. Specifically, Buza contends that the landlord had not had the authority to consent to the search of the premises before the gun had been discovered. The State contends that Buza did not properly preserve this issue for appeal, and that, even if he did, he had not had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the property at the time of the search. We need not address the merits of this issue, however, because even assuming, arguendo, that the trial court erred in admitting the evidence of Heaton's gun, we conclude that any such error was harmless.

[A]dmissions of evidence in violation of the Fourth Amendment are subject to harmless error analysis. Harmless error occurs when the conviction is supported by substantial independent evidence of guilt which satisfies the reviewing court that there is no likelihood that the erroneously admitted evidence contributed to the conviction. Violations of the Fourth Amendment must be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. We must find that there is no substantial likelihood the error contributed to the verdict, or, in other words, that the error was unimportant in relation to everything else before the jury on the issue in question.

Barker v. State, 96 N.E.3d 638, 652 (Ind. Ct. App. 2018) (internal citations omitted), trans. denied.

[15] Initially, we are unconvinced by Buza's argument that the admission of the handgun could not be harmless because “the fact that Heaton's 9mm handgun was found on Buza's property directly linked Buza to the murder[,]” the State “presented evidence at trial that Heaton's 9mm handgun was the source of several shell casings recovered at the scene[,]” and the State “used this evidence to establish the narrative that Buza fired the 9mm at the scene [․] to stage a shootout.” Appellant's Br. p. 16. The State presented evidence independent of the challenged 9mm gun indicating that Buza had taken Heaton's gun from its holster, including the evidence that several 9mm fired cases were found at the scene of Heaton's murder, that Heaton's gun was missing from its holster, and that Buza's DNA was found on the release button of Heaton's holster.

[16] Furthermore, the State presented ample evidence that Buza had murdered Heaton. Buza had been with Heaton at the Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area on the night of Heaton's murder. Buza had also been, at that point, “piggybacking” off of Heaton's credit cards and was apparently very involved in Heaton's financial accounts. Tr. Vol. IV p. 155. Furthermore, Buza's own .40 caliber gun fired the projectiles recovered from Heaton's body. Heaton's blood was found splattered on the tackle box in Buza's garage, Heaton's telephone had been discovered in Buza's backyard, and, upon learning that a “body had been found at Blue Grass[,]” Buza had begun shaking, crying, and “immediately assumed it was [Heaton.]” Tr. Vol. IV pp. 143, 144.

[17] In light of the ample evidence that Buza had murdered Heaton, we conclude that there is no likelihood that the allegedly erroneously-admitted evidence contributed to Buza's conviction. Any error in the admission of Heaton's weapon was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

II. The Trial Court Erred in Failing to Obtain a Personal Waiver of Buza's Right to a Jury Trial Relating to Count IV and the Firearm Enhancement.

[18] Both parties agree that Buza's “stipulations” regarding both the conviction that qualified him as an SVF and the firearm enhancement did not serve as a valid personal waiver of his right to a jury trial on those matters. We therefore reverse and remand on this issue with instructions for the trial court to advise Buza of his right to a jury trial on both matters and to proceed accordingly. See McQuinn v. State, 197 N.E.3d 348, 354 (Ind. Ct. App. 2022) (holding that the defendant had not personally communicated a desire to waive his right to a jury trial on an unlawful possession of a firearm by an SVF); see also Barnett v. State, 24 N.E.3d 1013, 1016–17 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015) (discussing the trial court's finding that defendant had made a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent waiver of his right to trial by jury as to the firearm sentencing enhancement).

[19] We affirm the judgment of the trial court in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this memorandum decision.

Tavitas, C.J., and Felix, J., concur.

Attorney for Appellant, Matthew J. McGovern, Fishers, Indiana

Attorneys for Appellee, Theodore E. Rokita, Indiana Attorney General, Daylon L. Welliver, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana

Bradford, Judge.