In the late hours of a Wednesday night in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the grim discovery of two young men lying unresponsive in the parking lot of a Walmart on Old Fort Parkway shattered the evening's quiet. On January 29, 2014, 19-year-old Andre Chesterfield and his cousin, Latre Lillard, also 19, were found with gunshot wounds. When police arrived, they found a significant amount of blood near the heads of both victims and shattered vehicle glass nearby.
Andre, a former football player at
Oakland High School, was remembered by his coach as a good student with a positive attitude. He had briefly been a student at Middle Tennessee State University. His sudden and violent death left his family and the community in shock.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly gained momentum. Murfreesboro Police identified two brothers, Danarius 'Chicago' Coleman, 19, and Demetrius Coleman, 21, as the primary suspects. Danarius was apprehended in Nashville on February 5, 2014, while Demetrius was arrested in Chicago with the assistance of the local Violent Crimes Task Force and Chicago Police about two weeks later.
Authorities alleged that the motive for the killings was a drug-deal robbery that had turned violent. According to testimony from Danarius Coleman's girlfriend, he had spoken of an 'easy takedown' and later admitted to the killings, claiming it was a matter of self-defense as the victims also had guns. The vehicle the Coleman brothers used was later found burned. The Rutherford County Grand Jury indicted both brothers on two counts of first-degree murder. In court, both Danarius and Demetrius Coleman pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them. The two men were subsequently jailed as they awaited trial for the deaths of Andre Chesterfield and Latre Lillard.
