Jun 2, 2016 3 min read

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A 19-year-old Indianapolis man was charged with killing three people over four days in attacks a prosecutor said he justified by citing the horror movie “The Purge,” which is about one day a year when murder is legal.

A Marion County judge entered a not guilty plea for Johnathan Cruz and ordered him held without bond during an initial hearing Thursday on three murder counts and other charges for the attacks starting May 12.

Angela Barger, who told reporters after the hearing she was Cruz’s girlfriend, said she was with him at least one day during that time and didn’t believe he committed the crimes.

“They’re making him out to be some type of crazy, violent person and he’s not,” she said. “Yeah, he had issues, but he wasn’t that violent.”

Detectives said a witness told them Cruz confessed he was “purging” by shooting and robbing people, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Police said this referred to the 2013 movie starring Ethan Hawke, in which during one night a year, all crime is legal. Detectives found a text message dated May 2 from Cruz saying “I Purge every night now.”

Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson said authorities have cellphone video of at least part of one suspected attack.

“I can’t get into his mind, but he certainly used the movie as at least his excuse or justification when he was recording himself committing these acts,” she said.

Court documents said Cruz fatally shot Billy Boyd and Jay Higginbotham May 12 and Jose Ruiz May 15 during attacks on the city’s east and north sides. He is also charged with the armed robbery of a man May 14.

Barger and Ricki Cline, the mother of Cruz’s 3-month-old daughter, said the people blaming Cruz for the killings are trying to protect themselves and that connections to “The Purge” were blown out of proportion.

“It’s irrelevant and it’s pointless,” Cline said.

The 2013 film focuses on what is called “The Purge,” a nationwide catharsis, which runs for 12 hours once a year, during which violent crime including murder is encouraged as a patriotic duty.

A sequel came out in 2014, and the series’ third film is scheduled for release this summer.

Cruz was already jailed since his May 16 arrest on felony charges from a restaurant confrontation with a teenage girl two days earlier.

His public defender, Kendal Gulbrandsen, didn’t immediately return telephone messages seeking comment.

In another incident some people on social media linked to the movie, a high school student’s hoax tweeted in August 2014, about an impending “Louisville Purge,” in which the Kentucky city would be overtaken by crime. The hoax kicked off a social media storm and prompted schools and other organizations to cancel events. No such purge took place.

Police declined to take action against the student, but Louisville Metro Police Department Sgt. Phil Russell said they took seriously any threat “that encourages and incites violence against our community.”