New Albany attorney questions why shooter in murder-for-hire plot spent just 43 days in jail

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) — A New Albany business owner remains in jail months after a murder-for-hire plot last year, but the man police said actually pulled the trigger spent just 43 days in custody.

On May 13, 2025, police said shots were fired from a black SUV on Bank Street in downtown New Albany. Four people were arrested in the months after, three of whom accepted plea deals, and two are already out of jail.

One of those is Aaron Brown. After he was arrested, Brown told police he was hired by Joseph Flesia to murder the victim and his pregnant girlfriend because the victim was "patched out of the gang in bad standing."

But Brown took a plea deal and was released from jail 43 days later, and a local attorney wants to know why.

"It's outrageous to me, because I live here and I'm aware of how concerned and afraid people were about our Harvest Homecoming event that was scheduled for the fall," Mathew Lemme said Monday. "And it bothered me to watch our public officials go on television and tell everybody 'Come on over here to Harvest Homecoming. It's perfectly safe. We've taken all kinds of measures' when I know one of the measures they took was to let a shooter out on the street."

Lemme represents Henry Bachmann, who was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder after a police raid in September, the fourth person to be arrested in connection to the murder-for-hire plot. Bachmann owns two businesses near the shooting scene, .

"Why did you let them walk?" Lemme said Monday. "And the reason, at this point, is because of Henry Bachman. But if Henry Bachmann didn't do anything — and Henry Bachmann didn't do anything — then all they're left with is a very embarrassing situation."

In the initial investigation, the New Albany Police Department, along with Indiana State Police, conducted search warrants at three New Albany locations: the Cloverleaf Bar and Grill on Culbertson Avenue, the North Star Tattoo Company on Vincennes Street and a residential address. Records show Bachmann is the owner of both businesses that were searched.

In a probable cause affidavit, police said the victim in the attempted murder told police he was a former member of an Outlaw motorcycle gang called Menace 13. He said there was only one person who would pay someone else to shoot him, a person police later identified as Bachmann.

According to a probable cause affidavit, police began searching Bachmann's cellphone records in June, during which police said they found incriminating call patterns, text messages, gang-related photos and indications of drug dealing. It was this evidence that led to the conspiracy to commit murder charge against Bachmann.

Brown, Joseph Flesia and Cody Vest, were all arrested in May in connection to the plot. Flesia was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and possession of cocaine. A plea deal he accepted stipulates his jail time runs concurrent with a sentence for other charges unrelated to the shooting. Brown was charged with criminal recklessness, possession of methamphetamine and more. He's been released following a plea deal. Vest was charged with assisting a criminal and possession of methamphetamine. He's also been released following a plea deal.

Today, Bachmann remains in jail with a $750,000 cash bond. But Lemme disputes police's narrative in the case, saying it relies on statements from the very people who admitted to carrying out the shooting — statements that are among a pile of records that remain sealed from the public. Lemme has already filed a lawsuit trying to unseal those records.

"An exciting and interesting story about a motorcycle gang has been placed out there, but the fact that that was a story cooked up by somebody that got a sweetheart deal and walks the street today and actually shot somebody — that would call that story into doubt," Lemme said. "The state has been protected, and Henry has been harmed by this mechanism that lets the state tell one side of the story and conceals the rest of the story."

Bachmann's attorneys are asking the court to reconsider his bond and are also challenging search warrants tied to the case. His trial could begin in April.

Floyd County Prosecutor Chris Lane hasn't responded to a request for comment.

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