A local man arrested Tuesday on a murder charge in connection with the May 29 shooting death of his 6-year-old daughter allegedly said it was an accident on the night of her death, according to an affidavit.
Jordan Thomas Chadick, 44, of 200 Springwood Road, Unit A-1, was taken into custody shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday during a traffic stop on Greenway Street on a felony count of first-degree murder, punishable by up to life in prison, and was booked into the Garland County Detention Center less than an hour later.
Chadick was being held on zero bond and was set to appear Wednesday in Garland County District Court. Emily White, a special prosecutor with the state office of the prosecutor coordinator, has been appointed to represent the state in the case after the Garland County prosecuting attorney's office recused.
A probable cause affidavit obtained from White's office Wednesday states in part that a person commits first-degree murder if the victim is 14 or younger at the time of their death.
The report says that Garland County sheriff's deputies responded to 200 Springwood, Apt. 1, around 9 p.m. after receiving several calls regarding a shooting there.
The first deputy who arrived found the apartment door partially open and an unidentified woman on the porch, saying they needed an ambulance. The deputy entered and found a man and a woman, later identified as Jordan and Melissa Chadick, and Melissa Chadick was holding a juvenile girl who "appeared lifeless and was covered in blood."
During the deputy's attempts to assess the scene and render aid to the girl, Jordan Chadick allegedly made statements like, "I was coming up," "We'll go through," and "I have no idea," "(expletive) me, man," "Somebody get my wife," and "This is the last time I'm going to be with her, cause you know where she's at right now, do you understand?"
Bodycam footage showed small blood stains on Jordan Chadick's feet and lower legs. He reportedly disobeyed the deputy's commands to stand back and kissed the girl on the face, saying, "baby," as deputies tried to render aid to her. Then he moved to the front porch, yelling and looking back at the deputies as they worked on the girl, the affidavit said.
At one point, deputies asked him what happened and he allegedly said they were going to bed and he "got his gun that he uses to protect his family" and the gun went off stating, "I don't know what happened."
Sheriff's investigators obtained a search warrant and executed it immediately, reportedly seizing a Glock 43X pistol that was on the living room table. A single spent shell casing was found on the floor between an end table and a chair. They also took blood swabs and crime scene photos of the area.
In a June 5 and July 21 interview with Melissa Chadick, she stated she and Jordan Chadick had separated in September 2022, noting their marriage was "volatile due to his alcohol and drug use." The day of the shooting, she said she, Jordan and their daughter went to her mother-in-law's condominium complex to let their daughter swim in the pool.
She said Jordan drank several drinks that afternoon and the "more alcohol he drank, the more violent he became." She said he confronted her about letting their older daughter use social media and she recalled his anger during the argument. They argued to the point she decided to leave and since he had ridden to the condo with them, Jordan returned with her to her home and refused to leave and "grew angrier about the social media accounts and the time their daughters spent on electronics." She said he was specifically upset about the 6-year-old daughter playing a game called Roblox.
Melissa Chadick said she called Jordan's brother and he was able to convince Jordan to leave and she allowed the daughter to go with him because she intended to "go to work" with him the next morning. She recalled several calls and texts between when he left her house and 9 p.m. "most of which she did not answer."
She said she responded to the scene at Jordan's apartment before any law enforcement were there and Jordan met her outside and "told her to prepare herself." She said she ran into the apartment and picked her daughter up and after deputies arrived she went outside and laid on the ground.
Melissa Chadick reportedly told investigators there were several times during their marriage when Jordan "held a gun to her head" to get her to comply with requests. She said his behavior became more erratic after they separated, which she likened to times during their marriage when he would be using illicit drugs, specifically meth.
Between May 30 and July 10, investigators interviewed Jordan Chadick several times on the phone and in person. During one interview, he was with his attorney, Louis Loyd, and recounted the trip to his mother's pool and the fight with his wife which he described as "heated." He also allegedly admitted to drinking five or six beers at the pool and recalled his brother later calling and asking him to leave his wife's house.
Jordan said he and his daughter got to his apartment between 5 and 5:30 p.m. and ate dinner. He said he carries a handgun which he kept in a backpack near the living room. He could not recall in detail what happened to his daughter, but stated he believed he took the gun from the backpack before they went upstairs to bed.
"Through the course of these interviews, Jordan gave different versions of the events and circumstances" which led to his daughter's death, the affidavit states, noting, "at times he drew diagrams of the scene and at times he reenacted the scene, alleging that the gun 'must have' discharged when it hit his leg."
Investigators obtained a search warrant for Jordan Chadick's phone, which reportedly indicated that immediately after the shooting he made three separate phone calls that were not to emergency first responder personnel.
On July 13, investigators received the autopsy report of the victim ruling the death a homicide. It was noted the victim was 3 feet, 11 inches tall, weighing 55 pounds, and had what appeared to be a quarter-inch by quarter-inch circular gunshot wound through the top of her head, near the vertex.
The direction of travel of the bullet was in "a sharp downward, back to front pattern," and created skull fractures, brain injury and massive blood loss.
According to the autopsy report, Jordan Chadick's recollection of the events leading to his daughter's death "cannot be reconciled with the manner in which she died."
On May 31, and July 17, investigators interviewed Melissa Chadick's sister, who came to the scene that night and said she heard Jordan Chadick tell her sister, "We've got to get our stories straight." She said she knew of a fight between Jordan and Melissa earlier in the day and that Jordan was drinking during the encounter.
The sister said Melissa had called her around 3:30 p.m. that day and said Jordan refused to leave her residence and she wanted her sister and her husband to come to her house and make him leave. A short time later, Melissa called her sister back and said Jordan was leaving and taking his daughter with him.
The sister said that, around 4 p.m., Jordan tried to call her, but she didn't answer. She noted he would often call her when he and Melissa were fighting to get her to help reconcile the dispute.
She noted she was on the phone with Melissa when she got to Jordan's apartment that night and could hear Jordan telling Melissa to "Get ready, get ready," and then heard Melissa scream "My baby!" and "something about CPR."
She said when she and her husband arrived at the scene later she smelled alcohol on Jordan's breath immediately.
The brother-in-law told investigators that after they arrived at the scene he tried to avoid Jordan, but Jordan kept approaching him saying things like, "The gun hit my hip," and "Here, take my phone." He noted he considers Jordan Chadick to be "an expert gun handler" based on his hunting habits and that he questioned how the gun could "go off" without his knowledge. He also noted he smelled alcohol on Jordan and believed he was also using meth.
Another sister of Melissa Chadick told investigators Jordan Chadick has "done meth" since he was 16 and reported previous incidents where he "put a gun to Melissa's head." She noted in her experience with Jordan if he was "drunk or high, he always had a gun in his hand," and that three months before the shooting Melissa had told her Jordan was using meth again.
Investigators also interviewed a female neighbor of Jordan's at the apartment complex who stated Jordan and his wife "would fight a lot." She said the night of May 29, her son "heard a bang" and then she heard Jordan scream so she went and knocked on his door. When Jordan answered the door, she asked him if everything was OK and he reportedly told her, "No ... everything is not OK."
She said she heard him say, "Oh my God, my daughter's dead, what have I done?" She said she called 911 and noted she had seen "small amounts" of blood on Jordan's face when he answered the door. She went back to his door with another neighbor and Jordan reportedly opened the door allowing them to see inside and they saw the child "laying in a pool of blood." She said she heard Jordan telling other neighbors, "No CPR" and "She's gone, no CPR."
According to a GCSO news release, Lifenet and the Garland County coroner responded to the scene that night and pronounced the juvenile deceased. After further investigation, a warrant was issued Tuesday for the arrest of Jordan Chadick and he was taken into custody a short time later.
According to court records, Jordan Chadick lists no prior felony history, but pleaded no contest on Oct. 10, 2007, to driving while intoxicated, first offense, a misdemeanor, and pleaded guilty on Aug. 8, 2012, to DWI, second offense, also a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to six months' supervised probation.