Court Documents Reveal DNA Samples That Led to Teen’s Arrest for Breaking into a Home Two Years Ago

Source: Indiana State Police / Indiana State Police

INDIANAPOLIS — A teenager has been charged with murder more than two years after breaking into a home and shooting and killing 22-year-old Naya Ruffin.

Octavionn Long, 19, was charged with murder, burglary resulting in serious injury and robbery resulting in serious injury.

Court documents say the crime went unsolved for two years after Long and another man, wearing masks, broke into a home in northeast Indianapolis, shot and killed Ruffin and stole items from a safe.

Ruffin was asleep on the couch after an argument with her boyfriend in the bedroom. The young man and the man entered by breaking the sliding glass door and had a gun in their hands.

The boyfriend told police he heard Ruffin screaming before she was shot. The teenager and the man wanted to know what was inside the bedroom and put the gun to her boyfriend’s head. While entering the safe, her boyfriend heard a gunshot. He then saw Ruffin outside the house.

Her boyfriend made sure her child was safe and was sleeping in another room, then she saw Ruffin lying outside after the shooting/ She was taken to the hospital but did not survive.

Police took DNA samples from the blood found in the safe, in the bedroom and under the boyfriend’s fingernails. The evidence linked Long, who was currently serving time at the Branchville Correctional Facility on an unrelated case. Police said Long denied being in the apartment but confirmed his DNA matched multiple samples at the scene.

Court documents also linked Long to a crime involving Ruffin’s boyfriend in 2021. Although the boyfriend was unable to identify anyone in the photo lineup because the intruders were masked, he described them as younger, one tall and broad-shouldered.

Long was taken to Branchville Correctional Facility while police investigated. He could face up to 65 years in prison or possibly life in prison.