Do you know who murdered Holland Brown and Marquita Smith in 2005? Holland Raulston Brown, a 28-year-old Black male from Wilmington, Delaware, was killed on February 7, 2005, in a double shooting that also took the life of 19-year-old Marquita Smith. That day, Wilmington police responded to the 2600 block of Jefferson Street after a report of shots fired. When officers arrived, they found Brown and Smith inside a white Ford Crown Victoria parked in a lot.
Both had been shot, and both succumbed to their injuries.
Brown’s death left behind the image of a young man known to family and friends as “H,” someone remembered as a Wilmington resident who had attended public schools, worked as an apprentice with Local 199, enjoyed traveling, played chess, and spent time with his family. His obituary listed two children among the loved ones who survived him, along with his father, siblings, extended relatives, and friends. The sudden violence of the shooting turned what had been an ordinary stretch of Jefferson Street into the scene of a cold case that remained tied to two families’ grief.
The investigation eventually focused on Aaron Archy. By 2008, police had accused Archy of killing Brown and Smith during a robbery in Wilmington, and 6abc reported that he faced trial in the February 2005 double slaying. At the time, Archy was already connected to another homicide case: the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Luis Perez in November 2005. Archy was convicted in that case and sentenced to life in prison plus 33 years for first-degree murder and weapons charges.
The Brown and Smith case, however, did not end with a conviction. In late 2008, prosecutors told Superior Court that they would not prosecute Archy for the February 2005 killings. The public explanation was limited; prosecutors did not give a reason in the report, while Archy’s attorney said there was not enough evidence. Wilmington police had also not publicly detailed how investigators came to suspect Archy, nor what they knew about a reported second suspect.
As a result, the deaths of Holland Brown and Marquita Smith remained part of Wilmington’s cold-case record. The known story is stark: a shots-fired call, a parked white Ford Crown Victoria, two young victims found shot inside, an accused suspect whose charges were dropped, and no publicly reported conviction for the double killing.
