In the early morning hours of October 17, 2020, the life of 20-year-old Jaedyn Khadim Ma Wright, a third-year communications media major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, was tragically cut short. Wright was found unresponsive in the parking lot of the Carriage House Apartments on Oakland Avenue near the university's campus in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Emergency medical services were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at a local hospital.
The investigation into the death of the Rankin, Pennsylvania native quickly revealed a grim plot. Authorities determined that Wright's death was the result of a drug deal that had turned into a robbery. Investigators identified four individuals who had allegedly conspired to rob Wright of marijuana. The suspects were identified as Terrion Gates, then 18, of Johnstown; Isabella Edmonds, then 17, of Indiana, Pennsylvania; Delmar Chatman, then 21, of Johnstown; and Isaiah Moore, then 20, of Philadelphia.
The arrests of the suspects came in stages. Isabella Edmonds was taken into custody on October 18, 2020, and was charged as an adult with criminal homicide, robbery, and conspiracy. Delmar Chatman was arrested within a day of the shooting. Isaiah Moore was apprehended in Philadelphia by Pennsylvania State Police on October 25, 2020, and faced the same charges. The final suspect, Terrion Gates, who was identified as the alleged gunman, remained at large for several months. He was eventually captured by the U.S. Marshals Service in Altoona in March 2021.
The legal proceedings brought some measure of closure. In September 2024, a jury found Terrion Gates guilty of second-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery. Prosecutors argued that while the initial plan may have only been a robbery, Gates escalated the situation by bringing a gun and firing the fatal shot. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The following month, Isaiah Moore pleaded guilty to his role in the shooting death of Jaedyn Wright. The cases against Delmar Chatman and Isabella Edmonds were still reported as ongoing.
