A Father's Fight

Jeff Green stands in front of the Evansville Civic Center holding a sign in his left hand and a picture in the other. The sign reads, "MURDER COVER-UP, OFFICER INVOLVED, LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND" in simple black bubble letters on a piece of white poster board. The picture is of a beautiful young woman, makeup done and her hair brushed to perfection. He is very soft-spoken, his words enunciated with care, his story heartbreaking.

My 16 year old daughter was murdered in Evansville, Indiana, by Joshua Fairley. She was beaten, strangled and shot in the head while an Evansville police officer, Kevin Donahue, sat in his car. He was at the scene for over two hours, after he had been standing in the middle of the crime scene going through my daughter's purse. Her blood was being spread throughout the apartment while he ignored all the evidence and sat in his car for over two hours. They could have saved her life.

Sixteen-year-old Haley Green arrived at the Evansville, Indiana, home of her then thirty-year-old boyfriend, Joshua Jeremy Fairley, in the early morning hours of June 24, 2010. What she didn't expect was to find another woman in the bed that she routinely shared with Fairley. Nevertheless, when Haley spotted Summer Jones lying in bed next to the man she was in love with, she began to display the teenage temper that comes with immaturity. Haley started screaming to let her in the house, banging on the doors, walls, and windows. Haley was screaming for the occupants to let her into the house. She managed to break a window in the bedroom and attempted to climb through it, though Joshua Fairley was able to push her back out of the window. Haley eventually used a key and gained entry through the front door. A terrified Summer Jones had gathered her clothing and sought refuge in the kitchen of the Virginia Street home. As she hurried to dress herself the kitchen light snapped on and Jones was faced with an out-of-control Green being restrained by Fairley. Green was screaming, "Who you got in here? A sixteen-year-old? Is it a sixteen-year-old?" Once Joshua had successfully pinned Haley Green to the floor, Summer Jones could leave the home without falling victim to the fisticuffs that Haley obviously intended.

Summer fled to the home of her father, Martin Brunty. Brunty lived just three-tenths of a mile from the home of Joshua Fairley, a literal five-minute walk. Once inside the home of her father, she spoke with him briefly and then asked Martin to accompany her back to the Virginia Street home to pick up the vehicle that she forgot that she had left there when she fled the home in terror. When Summer and her father arrived back at her vehicle, parked in front of Fairley's home, the passenger side window lay shattered on the curb and in the seat of her car. Jones called 911 dispatch to report the act of criminal mischief and vandalism and Kevin Donahue, an officer with the Evansville Police Department, responded. Summer Jones told Donahue what happened inside the house, explaining that's why she knew who had smashed out her window. She told the officer that she had last seen Haley inside the house with Fairley. Summer had blood on her, the bedroom window was busted out, a purse and wallet lay unattended on the front porch and the door was broken. Officer Kevin Donahue went through the purse found on the porch, and just next to the overturned chair found the identification of Haley Desirae Green. Officer Donahue used the identification that he found and asked Summer Jones if she could identify Green as the person that tried to attack her inside the home. Jones positively identified Haley Green as being the woman that was inside the home, and the one she suspected had shattered the passenger side window of her car. Officer Donahue knocked on the broken front door, got no response, and retreated to his car. Summer Jones and her father, Martin, left the scene to get the window on the car fixed, leaving the officer alone in front of the Virginia Street home. Although there was blood on Summer Jones, blood on the bottom of the officer's shoes, and in his car, both were walking on broken glass and Haley's blood already stained the broken glass still in the window frame, one can only guess what possessed an officer of the law to completely ignore evidence of the violent crime that had taken place and sit in his patrol car for a period of over two hours. Without further investigation, Officer Donahue left the scene.

Later that evening, around five o'clock, local pizza shop owner Dave Frank sent an employee to the house to check on him after a phone call to Joshua Fairley went unanswered. Employee Jeff Phillips called his boss from the home of Fairley, telling Frank that the front door and bedroom window was broken and Haley Green was dead on the floor, a pool of blood beneath her. It is worth noting that Haley was found six feet from the window that was visible from the front porch with a sword in a sheath on her lap. That would indicate that either the officer missed the body of Haley while he was there, or she wasn't there when the officer stood on the front porch. If the latter was the case, it is backed up by Joshua Fairley, who claimed that he watched the officer sitting in his car while Haley was slowly dying on the floor. When police finally entered the house, Joshua Fairley was found in the bathroom, a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. Responding paramedics whisked Fairley away, ultimately sending him to an Indianapolis hospital. Though Joshua placed the gun under his chin and pulled the trigger, the bullet would exit the top of his head, blasting through his left eye and leaving Fairley close to death, but alive. Emergency surgery to remove his damaged eye and fix his skull and jaw, as well as a frontal lobotomy, was performed. After spending six weeks in the hospital, Fairley was arrested in Indianapolis for the murder of Haley Green.

The employee that was sent to check on the whereabouts of Fairley was the boyfriend of Haley's aunt Angie, Jeff Phillips. Both he and his girlfriend claimed that they knew Fairley well, but they had no idea that Haley knew him. Fairley claims that he had a sexual relationship with Haley for a year before her death. He further explained that the relationship was able to be maintained with Haley spending a lot of time at his house because Angie would often cover for the couple, allowing Haley to visit Joshua instead of requiring the young girl to stay away from the much older man. Haley's mother, Robin, seemed to be confused as to why Haley was at that Virginia Street house, not even knowing that her daughter was in Evansville at the time.

Fairley opted to plead guilty to the murder of Haley Green in exchange for 50 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections, though the family of Haley wanted a trial. Fairley and his attorney would file post-conviction relief but was denied on two occasions. In 2016, Fairley made a case for a retrial, citing his mental state at the time of the guilty plea as well as ineffective counsel and denial of due process. His case was denied and he will remain behind bars until at least 2033.

Haley Desirae Green was born on November 27, 1993, and was violently taken from the world on June 24, 2010. Since then, her father has been in a fight to receive justice for his daughter. During that time, Officer Kevin Donahue has risen through the ranks of the Evansville Police Department and is currently a sergeant. While he sat, unconcerned, in the car entrusted to him by the citizens of Evansville, Haley Green was actively dying inside. Kevin Donahue was embraced by the qualified immunity that comes with being an Evansville police officer and has never been reprimanded for his role in the death of Haley Green.

There is a current petition being circulated by Jeff Green, father of Haley Green, asking for an a investigation into the actions of the Evansville Police Department and officer Kevin Donahue. Please take a moment to sign the petition.

https://www.change.org/p/a-voice-for-a-murdered-child-public-integrity-investigation-in-evansville-in?fbclid=IwAR3f-qNgF0P9_53Rhfk5II_-p4uSRt6r59YNRwnzxlDrnQkvRYy6yoa38Mw