Jesse Stanford, a 30-year-old Black male from Cambridge, Maryland, was visiting a residence in the Kentwood Mobile Home Park near Dover when a violent home invasion unfolded on the evening of January 5, 2019. At approximately 5:57 p.m., Delaware State Police troopers were dispatched to the 200 block of Kentwood Drive after receiving a report that someone had been shot inside a mobile home.
When troopers arrived, they found Stanford suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper torso.
Investigators determined that two intruders had entered the residence and confronted the people inside. Stanford reportedly struggled with the suspects while they were attempting to carry out a robbery, and he was shot during the confrontation. Two other adults were present in the home, but neither was physically injured. After the gunfire, both intruders fled without taking any property. Stanford was rushed to a local hospital in serious condition. Although the shooting occurred on January 5, he remained hospitalized until he succumbed to his injuries on January 7, 2019.
For more than a year, the identities of the two people who entered the home remained undisclosed as detectives with the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit continued gathering evidence. The circumstances suggested that the residence had been deliberately targeted, but authorities did not publicly explain what led the intruders there, whether Stanford knew them, or what they had intended to steal. The investigation eventually led detectives to Cahlil N. Simmons of Felton and Jaquell A. McDonald of Lincoln.
On February 14, 2020, members of the U.S. Marshals First State Task Force located Simmons at a residence on Farmhouse Trail in Felton and took him into custody without incident. Simmons was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and first-degree conspiracy. He was arraigned and committed to the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution after being unable to post a $550,000 cash bond.
Two weeks later, detectives obtained warrants for McDonald. On February 28, 2020, members of the U.S. Marshals task force and the Troop 3 Governor's Task Force found him walking near Walker Road and Kenton Road in Dover. He was arrested without incident and charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a person prohibited and first-degree conspiracy. McDonald was committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution in default of more than $1.1 million cash bail.
The arrests appeared to represent a major breakthrough in the case, but they did not result in trials or convictions. Later in 2020, the Delaware Department of Justice entered a nolle prosequi in the cases against both Simmons and McDonald, formally discontinuing the prosecutions. Public reports did not provide a detailed explanation for the decision. As a result, neither man was convicted of Stanford's murder, and the fatal home invasion ended without a judicial determination of responsibility.
