Maricruz “Nana” Sanchez, a 20-year-old female Hispanic/Latino from Milford, Delaware, was driving westbound on Milford Harrington Highway near Sandbox Road on the afternoon of March 31, 2021, when a dark-colored SUV came up beside the 1998 Honda Accord she was driving. Investigators said the SUV crossed the double yellow line, pulled alongside Sanchez's car, and someone inside opened fire. Multiple rounds struck the Honda, and Sanchez's car left the roadway and came to rest in a field.
She was rushed by ambulance to a hospital in critical condition, but she died from her injuries on April 2, 2021.
Delaware State Police later described the shooting as an ambush tied to retaliation for an earlier incident that Sanchez was not involved in. Court filings later gave more of the background: just after midnight on March 31, Tayone Matthews had been shot in the arm at Brightway Commons in Milford, and investigators linked the later roadway shooting to that earlier violence. According to court records, Khalil Pitts, Sanchez's boyfriend and the father of their two children, was suspected in the earlier shooting of Matthews, though the records state Pitts was not arrested for that incident. By that afternoon, Sanchez was on Route 14 between Milford and Harrington when the SUV chased the Honda and gunfire erupted.
Witness accounts described a terrifying sequence on the highway. A truck driver traveling westbound saw the vehicles pass quickly and then heard loud noises before the Honda went off the road. When he approached the car, he saw bullet holes and a car seat in the back. Another witness reported seeing an arm extend from the passenger side of the SUV and fire several rapid shots toward Sanchez's car. The medical examiner later determined Sanchez died from gunshot wounds to the head and left wrist, and the manner of death was ruled homicide.
For more than a year, the case remained under investigation. Detectives eventually developed Adryan Jean-Baptiste of Felton, Delaware, as a suspect. On December 19, 2022, Jean-Baptiste was arrested without incident when he reported to Dover Probation and Parole. He was taken to Delaware State Police Troop 3 and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree conspiracy. He was arraigned and held at Sussex Correctional Institution on a cash bond reported as $1,002,000.
Court records later identified the SUV as a blue Nissan Rogue and described Jean-Baptiste as the driver. The prosecution's case included testimony from Ricky Hicks and Lorenzo Williams, who said Jean-Baptiste made incriminating statements while they were incarcerated together. According to those filings, Jean-Baptiste allegedly admitted that he and James Eley went after Sanchez in retaliation for the earlier shooting of Matthews. The filings state Jean-Baptiste believed Pitts was in the Honda when the chase began and identified Eley as the passenger who fired the fatal shots. Publicly available sources located for this synopsis did not show a separate arrest, charge, or conviction for Eley in Sanchez's killing.
Jean-Baptiste went to trial in Kent County Superior Court in 2024. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder, and he received a natural life prison sentence without probation, parole, or any other reduction. He appealed the conviction, arguing in part that the evidence was insufficient and that issues involving spectators wearing shirts with Sanchez's image affected the trial. In the State's 2026 appellate filing, prosecutors argued the conviction should be upheld, saying witness testimony, motive evidence, vehicle evidence, and Jean-Baptiste's alleged admissions were enough for the jury to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
