The 1992 Dayton Christmas murders were a series of murders committed by a four-member gang, during a three-day period around Christmas Day of 1992 in Dayton, Ohio, United States. The four murderers, led by ringleader Marvallous Matthew Keene, had killed a total of six people and injured another two, with varying motives of robbery and to silence potential witnesses, and the deceased victims included two friends of Keene. All four perpetrators, aged between 16 and 20, were arrested and charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder.
The trial of the four ended with Keene sentenced to death for five of the murders, while the rest – Heather Nicole Matthews, Laura Jeanne Taylor and DeMarcus Maurice Smith – were all sentenced to life in prison. Keene was ultimately executed by lethal injection on July 21, 2009, becoming the 1,000th condemned person in the U.S. to undergo a lethal injection execution since 1982.
Murders Over a three-day period from December 24 to December 26, 1992, a juvenile gang, who called themselves the "Downtown Posse", led by the 19-year-old ringleader Marvallous Matthew Keene, committed a series of six murders and multiple robberies across Dayton, Ohio.
Apart from Keene, the "Downtown Posse" consisted of three other members: Keene's 16-year-old girlfriend, Laura Jeanne Taylor; the gang's oldest member, 20-year-old Heather Nicole Matthews; and Matthews's 17-year-old boyfriend, DeMarcus Maurice Smith.
Murder of Joseph Wilkerson On December 24, 1992, three of the co-conspirators – Keene, Taylor and Matthews – teamed up together to rob a man Taylor figured would pay them for sex. The trio targeted 34-year-old Joseph Wilkerson, who was an acquaintance of Taylor, and they met up with Wilkerson under the pretext of wanting to have an orgy with Wilkerson.State v Keene , Ohio Supreme Court (United States).
After they had a drink, all four went into Wilkerson's bedroom, where they held Wilkerson at gunpoint and tied him to his bed with electrical cords. The girls ransacked the house for items to steal, while Keene kept watch of their hostage. The trio found a .32 caliber Derringer, which Keene used to shoot and kill Wilkerson by discharging the gun at his chest, with blankets covering the body to muffle the noise. Taylor also shot Wilkerson in the head after Keene stopped shooting.Marvallous Keene Clemency Report , Ohio Parole Board (United States).
After they murdered Wilkerson, the trio fled the house in one of Wilkerson's two cars.
Murder of Danita Gullette After the murder of Wilkerson, the trio, now joined by their fourth member Smith, went to hunt for more victims, and they took the life of 18-year-old Danita Gullette on the same day they killed Wilkerson.
Taylor, Keene and Smith, who were all armed with guns, went walking together and they chanced upon Gullette, who was calling someone on a pay phone. After this, Smith and Keene drew their guns and the former forced Gullette at gunpoint to take her shoes off. After taking the shoes, Smith and Keene shot Gullette to death, before they made off with her shoes and jacket. When they returned to the apartment, Taylor was wearing Gullette's jacket and Smith was carrying Gullette's shoes.
At the time of her death, Gullette was a high school senior and part-time fast food restaurant employee who had a two-year-old daughter.
Shooting of Jeffrey Wright After killing Gullette, the group went back to Wilkerson's house to spend the night, but on that same night, the group decided to target a third victim.
The third victim was Jeffrey "Jeff" Wright, who was the ex-boyfriend of Matthews. After he confronted Wright at their apartment and argued with Wright, Smith used a gun to shoot Wright in the legs four times, but Wright was able to escape to a neighbour's house, and he survived the shooting.
Murder of Richmond Maddox On December 25, 1992, a day after the murders of Wilkerson and Gullette and the non-fatal shooting of Wright, Keene returned to the house of Wilkerson to steal his second car and other valuables.
After the theft, the youngest member of the gang, Taylor, coaxed her 19-year-old former boyfriend Richmond Maddox from his parents' home and they both drove in Maddox's car, with Keene, Smith and Matthews trailing behind. After Maddox spotted the car of the trio, he became suspicious and sped up his car. While Maddox was driving, Taylor aimed the stolen Derringer pistol at the right temple of Maddox and fired a single shot, killing Maddox. Taylor was able to escape the car before it crashed on Benton Avenue and rejoined her accomplices.
Murder of Sarah Abraham and shooting of Jones Pettus On the early morning of December 26, 1992, a day after Maddox's murder, the gang went to rob a grocery store and shot three people, which resulted in the death of 38-year-old Sarah Abraham and the wounding of one man.
On that day itself, after the gang robbed a woman named Kathie Henderson and stole her car, they went to a grocery store with intent to commit armed robbery. Abraham, whose family owned the store, was working behind the cash register when Taylor entered the store to check the interior of the place itself. Abraham and a shop helper named Edward Thompson were the only two staff members present at that time.
After Taylor reported to her accomplices about the number of people inside the store, Keene and Smith went into the store with guns, and they threatened Abraham at gunpoint, ordering her to open her cash register and hand over the money. After Abraham complied and gave Keene $40, Keene shot Abraham in the head and simultaneously, Smith also shot at Thompson and another man named Jones Pettus, who was a customer of the store; Pettus sustained a gunshot wound to his abdomen but Thompson was not hurt due to the bullet missing him. The pair then departed from the store, leaving the three victims behind.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Abraham, who was mortally wounded, was rushed to hospital for treatment, but she died four days later. Pettus survived his injuries. Abraham left behind three children, the oldest of whom was 11 at the time of her murder.
Murders of Marvin Washington and Wendy Cottrill After the grocery store robbery, the gang became increasingly fearful that they might get exposed to the police if any of their friends snitched on them. Based on sources, at least two of the gang's friends, 16-year-old Wendy Cottrill and 18-year-old Marvin Washington, had known to a certain extent about the gang's crime spree throughout the last three days.
According to the testimony of Matthews in her trial, she and Taylor discussed about "jumping" Cottrill after believing that she might tell on the group. As for Smith, he thought of getting rid of Washington (as well as Cottrill) for having known about his involvement in the shooting of Jeffrey Wright. The group of four then planned to lure both Cottrill and Washington to another place.
After picking up Washington and Cottrill, the gang drove to a gravel pit in Dayton and forced the pair out of the car. While being threatened at gunpoint, both Washington and Cottrill protested that they had not gone to the police to snitch on them. However, Keene shot and murdered Cottrill, while Washington was shot to death by Smith.
The bodies of the pair were not found until five days later. A friend of Cottrill told the Dayton Daily News that Cottrill was three months' pregnant at the time she was killed.
Murder trials and sentencing Capture and charges On December 26, 1992, the same date when the murders of Sarah Abraham, Wendy Cottrill and Marvin Washington happened, the police arrested the gang some 72 hours after the first killing of Joseph Wilkerson. While the gang returned to a friend's house where they left Wilkerson's car, a police car tailed the group's car (the same one stolen from Henderson) after spotting the group behaving suspiciously. The group got wind of the police car, and Smith fled out of the car, leaving the rest to remain in the vehicle. Keene, Matthews and Taylor were all caught while trying to leave the house, and Smith was arrested thereafter.
After their arrests, the two adult offenders, Heather Matthews and Marvallous Keene, were both arraigned in the Dayton Municipal Court to face charges of aggravated murder and robbery, and they were each ordered to be held on a cash bond of $5 million. Mathias Heck Jr., a prosecutor of Montgomery County, expressed his intention to seek the death penalty for both Keene and Matthews; under Ohio state law, the offence of aggravated murder carries the death penalty or life imprisonment. Keene reportedly confessed to the murders during police interrogation.
DeMarcus Smith and Laura Taylor, who were both juveniles at the time of their arrests and crimes, were charged in the Montgomery County Juvenile Court and held without bond. Heck sought the approval to try both Smith and Taylor as adults, which may carry at least a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. As Smith and Taylor were underaged when the murders were committed, capital punishment was not allowed in their cases. In May 1993, it was confirmed that both Smith and Taylor would be tried as adults, after a judge found that the juveniles could not be rehabilitated within the juvenile system.
In response to the murders, many family members and friends of the victims and killers alike mourned for the deaths of the victims. One of Danita Gullette's brothers, Richard, said that his sister did not deserve to be shot down like a dog, while another brother, Darrell, who shared the same apartment as Gullette, said that a part of him felt empty after his sister died. A friend of Wendy Cottrill said that she did not wish for her friend to be forgotten as she appeared in a bond hearing for Keene and Matthews. Sarah Abraham's brother Solomon told the press that he felt the killers did the crimes for thrill instead of money, since they shot his sister even after she gave them money. Keene's mother said that she understood the feelings of losing a loved one to murder, as her older son Maurice (Keene's older brother) was shot and murdered by another man in 1991.
The first funeral of one of the victims, Gullette, was conducted on December 30, 1992.
Trial of Marvallous Keene Marvallous Keene was charged with murdering five of the six victims in the Christmas killings, four of whom he was the triggerman. Keene did not face a sixth murder charge for the death of Richmond Maddox. Keene claimed trial before a three-judge court and waived his right to a jury on September 30, 1993. Prior to his arrest and trial, Keene did not have a criminal record.
A three-judge panel, led by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Robert Brown, delivered the verdict on October 12, 1993, finding 20-year-old Marvallous Keene guilty of all 20 counts, including aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, attempted aggravated murder, kidnapping, burglary and aggravated robbery. A sentencing trial was conducted between October 25 and October 27, 1993.
On October 28, 1993, the three judges opted to impose the death penalty for each count of murder but adjourned the sentencing to a later date. Before the court's decision, Keene tearfully apologized during the hearing and attempted to plead for leniency by revealing that his brother died in a shooting case in 1991 and his fall-out with his father, both of which led to him having a troubled emotional state, but the court went ahead with capital punishment in the end.