A woman has been charged with helping her boyfriend plan a break-in at her father’s Hammond, Indiana home, during which a resident was sexually assaulted at gunpoint.
Officers responded about 9:45 a.m. Monday to a home in the 3000 block of Crane Place after someone reported that an armed home invasion was in progress, a spokesman for Hammond police said.
According to criminal affidavits filed in the Superior Court of Lake County, Indiana, 18-year-old Alexis Michelle Lietz had recently moved into her father’s home and talked to her boyfriend, 18-year-old Elias J. Costello, about breaking into the house. She is accused of drawing him a map of the inside of the home and giving house keys to one of their co-conspirators.
Costello, 21-year-old Nathaniel Asbury and a 16-year-old boy used the key to enter the house via the front door while Lietz stayed in a parked car in the alley behind the house, according to prosecutors. Asbury and the boy sexually assaulted a female victim at gunpoint in the living room of the home while Costello went through the house stealing jewelry, cash and other valuables.
In a subsequent interview with detectives, Costello said he also “grabbed and touched and hit the victim in a sexual manner,” prosecutors said.
From left: Nathaniel Asbury, Elias Costello and Alexis Lietz | Hammond police
At some point during the home invasion, a male resident of the home called his mother at work to tell her that someone had tried to break down his bedroom door and asked if anyone else was in the house, according to the affidavits. His mother then called 911.
Asbury and the 16-year-old ran out the back door when they noticed police officers outside the home, according to prosecutors. They left a shotgun inside the house. The victim then ran out the front door calling for help.
Officers pursued Asbury and the boy as they ran away on foot through surrounding backyards, according to the affidavits. They were both eventually caught and arrested.
Costello was taken into custody after officer searching the house found him hiding under a pile of blankets in a basement closet, prosecutors said.
When interviewed by detectives, Lietz admitted her role in the break-in and said she told her co-conspirators where valuables and security cameras were located inside the house, according to the affidavits.
Asbury, of Hammond, was charged with two counts of rape, burglary, armed robbery, criminal confinement, intimidation, pointing a firearm and resisting police, according to police. Costello, of East Chicago, was charged with rape, burglary, armed robbery, criminal confinement and sexual battery. Lietz was charged with conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
The 16-year-old’s charges were not announced, and his case will be handled in juvenile court, police said.