Illicit Deeds

She was a young “goal-getter” and salon owner was murdered days after she told authorities she feared for her life.

Destiny Harrison: The Murder Files available on January 2, 2020 at 6 PST

44-year-old David Jolly was shot and killed on September 29, 2019 in Fulton, GA while visiting friends and family.

The victim's sister, Tammy Jones, told Illicit Deeds that Jolly was murdered by a close family friend, Patrick Thornton, when they got into an argument over a stolen all-terrain vehicle when the shooting occurred.

Fulton police has identified Thornton as a suspect and have obtained arrest warrants. Thornton has been on the run ever since the shooting occurred.

David Jolly is described as a kindhearted man who would go out of his way to help anyone at any cost and was a very caring person.

Please help David's family locate his murderer so he can get the justice he deserves.

19-year old Tynesha Stewart was an American college student murdered on or about March 15, 2007 by her former boyfriend, Timothy Wayne Shepherd. Stewart was a freshman civil engineering major at Texas A&M University. Shepherd killed her when she came home for spring break because he was jealous that she had started a new relationship with another guy. Shepherd was 27 years old at the time.

Investigation

Shepherd committed the crime at his apartment at 17700 Red Oak #224 in northwest Harris County, Texas. Prosecutors believe that Shepherd disposed of Stewart's body by burning it on his two barbecue grills on the balcony of his second floor apartment. This reportedly took 2–3 days to complete. One of the two grills belonged to James Hebert, who often played video games and barbecued with Shepherd. Since they barbecued together frequently, Hebert kept his grill on Shepherd's balcony along with Shepherd's smoker. Dionne Whitaker, a neighbor whose patio is directly across from Shepherd's, saw Shepherd carry the two grills to the dumpster after days of intense burning. Other witnesses in the case include Shepherd's cousin, whom Shepherd told prior to the murder that he "could get away with killing someone". In another witness report, Shepherd has also stated that he would "boil someone and eat them up".

When initially questioned for ten hours by the police, Shepherd refused to discuss Stewart's disappearance. Afterwards, he spoke with activist Quanell X, whom officers credit with helping to obtain a confession from Shepherd. Quanell at the time informed Shepherd that police would look for incriminating forensic evidence if he was involved. Shepherd started crying as the two spoke, and later led the activist and a detective to a trash can where he stated he left the body. Shepherd confessed when no body was found in the trash container. However, investigators discovered Stewart's teeth in the disposal.

He was held in the Harris County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

The trial

Jury selection for his trial began on September 29, 2008. During the trial, Shepherd's neighbor Dionne Whitaker remembered the smell as being "worse than the smell of singed hair or burning tires". When Whitaker asked Shepherd about the smell at the time, Shepherd answered it was "the spices". Quanell X, who also testified as a witness, stated Shepherd told him "They're going to kill me, man. They're going to give me the death penalty." Additionally, Stewart's younger sister called Shepherd "controlling", and expanded her statement by telling an incident where Shepherd physically shook Tynesha out of anger after she picked up a cell phone call.

Shepherd was convicted of the crime on October 9, 2008, after jurors deliberated for four hours. He was given the maximum sentence of 99 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. During the punishment phase of the trial, Shepherd revealed how he murdered Stewart. He pressured her to reveal her new relationship at college, but she refused to answer and grabbed a knife from a table and began to approach him with it in her hand. She swung at him with the knife and nicked his fingers. Afraid she was going to stab him again, he grabbed her around the neck with one arm and tried to reach the knife with his other hand, though ended up choking her to death out of anger. He later went to the hardware store to purchase a jigsaw. He undressed the body and dismembered it in his bathtub using the jigsaw and other tools. He barbecued the remains on his grills in his patio.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports 49-year-old Denise Gay was sentenced to life in the death of Martre Coles. Gay’s daughter, 23-year-old LaToya Shantice Gay, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for her role in the crime.

Coles was found in a plastic storage bin in Henrico, Virginia, in April 2017. Prosecutors have said he suffocated after being drugged and stuffed into the bin. Both Denise Gay and her daughter were convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder.

Judge Lee A. Harris Jr. said Tuesday that evidence shows the two hatched a sophisticated plot to kill Coles and cover up the crime.

During a re-trial, prosecutors said Denise Gay, along with her daughter Latoya Gay, suffocated Coles in his room, on March 12, 2017.

Coles was reported missing for days, until his body was discovered bound in a plastic bin, left in a wooded area on Gorman Road near an eastern Henrico industrial complex.

Denise Gay's first trial resulted in a conviction of conspiracy to commit murder, but the jury was hung on the actual first-degree murder charge.

Prosecutors retold jurors their chilling account of the homicide on Thursday, in front of the actual gray bin in which Coles' body had been discarded.

Attorneys said that Denise and Latoya Gay drugged Martre before he began work on creating a plaster mask, aiming to gain acceptance into an arts university.

Denise Gay's then 12-year-old daughter testified that she saw her mother and older sister suffocating Coles with the mask, as she peeked into his bedroom door. The girl said she heard Coles yelling, "Get off me."

As she looked into his room, she saw her mom and older sister sitting on top of him with something white on his face, describing a struggle. The girl also said she saw Latoya Gay later pushing a "green" bin, never seeing Coles again.

Prosecutors went on to show jurors forensic cell phone evidence geographically pinning Denise Gay to Goodwill and Lowe's stores. They said she bought shoes, which she later put on Martre's body, and also bound his hands, as if to stage a kidnapping. Attorneys say Denise bought the shovel from Lowe's with cash.

Lime was also found in the bin with the body. Attorneys presented evidence that someone had done a search on a computer in the house, researching lime and dead bodies.

Prosecutors also presented text messages made between Denise and Latoya Gay, discussing trying to relocate and bury the body, after they initially abandoned it in a bin in the wooded area.

At that point, the body had been found by police and removed. Detectives had set up a camera at the site, which caught video of Denise later going back to the scene and searching for the body, with the shovel from Lowe's.

The defense attempted to poke holes in the prosecution's story, asserting that Denise Gay's 12-year-old daughter killed Martre, after admitting to previously stabbing him with scissors (for which she was charged), pouring bleach under his bedroom door and throwing knives at him.

Remembering Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney: