MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — An Indiana man, deemed a serious violent offender, was granted pretrial release and ordered not to leave the state while awaiting his trial.
He didn’t comply, leaving Indiana and driving all the way to Georgia, where he allegedly killed his girlfriend.
Court records reveal that Ryan Ebler, 30, of Martinsville, was charged on Aug. 9, 2024, in Morgan County with unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, a Level 4 felony. Ebler has a history of abuse, charged in the past with strangulation and domestic battery.
Despite his label as a serious violent felon, the Morgan County Superior Court granted Ebler pretrial release on Aug. 9, 2024. He was not put on home detention or GPS tracking, just told not to leave the state without court approval and tasked with checking in twice a month with the probation department.
But Ryan Ebler will never stand in judgment before a judge or a jury of his peers for his Morgan County charges.
He died on I-64 in Kentucky on Jan. 10 while trying to get away from police during a high-speed chase. Only hours earlier, more than 300 miles away in Dalton, Georgia, Ebler’s girlfriend, Crystal Scotten, was found dead inside a burning home.
Scotten’s family spoke with Local 3 News (WCRB) about their loved one’s shocking death. The family expressed frustration with how the state of Indiana handled Ebler’s felony charge, which included postponing his trial seven times and granting him pretrial release without any monitoring.
“If it wouldn’t have been extended, he would have already probably been in jail or prison at this point,” Sarah Hunter, Scotten’s sister, told Local 3 News. “He would not have been able to commit this murder.”
Scotten had Hoosier roots. A mother of two, she grew up in Indiana with much of her family, including her sister, still living in the Hoosier State.
“I feel like that really is a slip up somewhere, knowing that he has such a violent history,” Hunter said. “I’m telling you he’s leaving the state, and you’re saying you can’t do anything.”
Ebler was reportedly driving Scotten’s vehicle when Kentucky State Police flagged him south of Lexington some five hours after police were called to Scotten’s burning home in Dalton, Georgia.
Ebler refused to pull over, reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour as he tried to escape. Troopers tried to stop the vehicle with tire deflation devices, but Ebler lost control of the vehicle near the 50-mile marker, crossed the center line and struck a semi. He died in the resulting collision.
Hunter told Lexington’s FOX56 that Ebler called Scotten’s family while he was fleeing Georgia in her vehicle, fabricating a story about how she died.
“He left and fled the scene in my sister’s car and, sort of calling, you know, mom, dad and other family members basically just saying that that she was dead,” Hunter said.
She said she found out about her sister’s death in the middle of the night.
“She’s always a very kind and caring person,” Hunter said of her sister in an interview with Local 3 News. “If there was anything that she could ever do to help somebody, she was always there to help.”