Jaron Smullen, a 29-year-old Black/African American man, was fatally shot following an argument on the afternoon of December 3, 2019, in Wilmington, Delaware. Shortly after 4 p.m., police were called to the 100 block of East 24th Street, near the city's Prices Run neighborhood, after two people reported a shooting and described the gunman running away. Officers found Smullen gravely wounded in the doorway of 112 East 24th Street.
He had been shot in the lower torso or stomach area and was taken to Christiana Hospital in critical condition.
Despite efforts to save him, Smullen died from the gunshot wound more than 11 hours after he was found. Court records state that he was pronounced dead on December 4, creating a slight difference from records that identify December 3 as the date associated with the fatal attack. Smullen was a father of three children, and reports noted that his youngest daughter had celebrated her first birthday only days before the shooting. His death left his children, parents, siblings, extended family and friends mourning a life lost during a confrontation that escalated within moments.
Investigators determined that Smullen, who was also known by the nickname “J-Town,” had been arguing with a man known as “KJ.” Police collected surveillance recordings from the neighborhood and interviewed several people familiar with both men. The available footage reportedly captured the dispute in two separate segments several minutes apart. According to the police affidavit later used in court, the disagreement intensified until KJ drew a handgun and shot Smullen in the stomach area before fleeing with the weapon.
Witnesses provided investigators with information about the confrontation and helped identify KJ as Keith Talley. One witness told police that she had been present while Talley and Smullen argued, although she left before the gunfire and did not personally see the shooting. She knew Talley well enough to identify him and told detectives that he had been dressed entirely in black. Another witness described the argument, discussed cellphone footage that may have recorded part of it and identified Talley as the person who shot Smullen. A third witness, who knew both men, described the tense seconds preceding the gunfire and indicated that the dispute had reached a point at which the witness was afraid to step between them.
Surveillance evidence showed the confrontation as well as Talley leaving the area after the shooting. Witness accounts suggested that Smullen repeatedly made movements that Talley may have interpreted as reaching for a firearm, though the court record does not indicate that Smullen was found with or used a gun. One witness recalled Talley saying that he did not want to fight. Prosecutors nevertheless maintained that Talley escalated the argument by drawing his handgun and firing the fatal shot.
Wilmington police arrested Keith Talley on January 27, 2020, approximately eight weeks after the killing. He was initially charged with murder and related firearm offenses. Although some early records referred to a second-degree murder charge, a New Castle County grand jury indicted him on July 13, 2020, on first-degree murder and associated charges. The indictment was delayed until Delaware courts resumed grand-jury proceedings after disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the case approached trial, Talley's defense sought to prevent prosecutors from using the witnesses' identifications. His attorney argued that police identification procedures involving a single photograph and photographic lineups had been unfairly suggestive. The Delaware Superior Court examined the interviews, the witnesses' prior familiarity with Talley and the circumstances under which each identification had been made. In January 2022, the judge denied the motions to suppress, ruling that the procedures did not create a substantial likelihood that Talley had been misidentified. The ruling allowed prosecutors to use the identification evidence at trial.
Talley ultimately did not proceed through a completed murder trial. He accepted responsibility in a resolution that resulted in a 21-year prison sentence for Smullen's killing. Reports announcing the sentence in April 2022 identified Talley as the man who fatally shot Smullen during the heated argument. The punishment brought the criminal prosecution to a close more than two years after the shooting, transforming a case that began with witnesses describing a gunman running from East 24th Street into one that ended with an identified offender convicted and sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment.
The legal outcome answered the central question of who was responsible, but it could not undo the consequences of the violence. What began as a neighborhood argument ended with Smullen bleeding in a doorway, his family losing a son, brother and father, and three children growing up without him. The surveillance recordings, witness statements and police investigation eventually led authorities to Talley, whose arrest, prosecution and 21-year sentence formally resolved the homicide case.
