On a tragic day in June of 2016, 47-year-old Brandon Cole Sr. was found murdered in a barn in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, just a short distance from his home in Fayetteville and the nearby community of Greencastle. His death was not an isolated incident but part of a brutal triple homicide that also claimed the lives of 39-year-old Wendy Ann Chaney of Hagerstown, Maryland, and 36-year-old Phillip Matthew Jackson, on whose property the crime occurred.
The male victims were discovered with their hands bound by zip ties, having been shot and then set on fire.
The investigation that followed unraveled a sinister plot rooted in the drug trade. Authorities determined that Wendy Chaney was the primary target of a murder-for-hire scheme. She had been in a relationship with Kevin Coles and was involved in his drug distribution operation. After Coles and his co-conspirator, Torey White, learned that Chaney was cooperating with federal investigators, they orchestrated her murder to silence her. Brandon Cole Sr. and Phillip Jackson were tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming witnesses to the horrific events and consequently losing their lives to prevent them from speaking out.
The investigation, which spanned several years, led to the identification and arrest of multiple individuals connected to the crime. Kevin Coles and Torey White were identified as the masterminds behind the murder plot. They had hired members of a Baltimore-based gang to carry out the killing, promising them a sum of money, drugs, and firearms that were supposedly located on Jackson's property.
In April 2022, a jury found Kevin Coles guilty on all 16 counts against him, including murder-for-hire, witness murder, and drug trafficking offenses. He was subsequently sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, in addition to 35 more years for various firearms convictions. Following his conviction, Torey White was also found guilty of three counts of murder in May 2023. Other co-defendants, including Jerell Adgebesan and Kenyatta Corbett, who were involved in recruiting the killers, also faced charges. Devin Dickerson, another associate, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and crack cocaine. The extensive investigation and subsequent trials brought to light the ruthless nature of the drug trafficking operation and the lengths to which its members would go to protect their criminal enterprise.
