Thessalonians Cleo Berry, a 34-year-old Black man from Wilmington, Delaware, was killed during the early morning hours of May 24, 2018. Berry was traveling with his girlfriend, Isabel Cooper, who was seven months pregnant with their daughter, when their vehicle left the roadway near the intersection of Kiamensi Road and Rothwell Drive in Stanton. Police were initially dispatched at approximately 2:00 a.m. after receiving a report of a motor-vehicle accident.
When officers reached the damaged vehicle, they discovered Berry and Cooper unresponsive in the front seat with apparent gunshot wounds. New Castle County paramedics pronounced both victims dead at the scene. Cooper's unborn child also did not survive.
Investigators determined that Berry and Cooper had been shot from behind at close range before the vehicle crashed. What first appeared to responding officers to be an ordinary traffic collision quickly became a double-homicide investigation. Berry's family described him as a devoted father who enjoyed spending time with his children and worked as a massage therapist. He and Cooper had been preparing for the arrival of their first child together, adding another layer of loss to a crime that took three lives.
The investigation eventually focused on Walter T. Lolley, who had been one of the last people known to have contact with Berry and Cooper. Police initially sought Lolley as a person of interest and warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous. Court records later described Berry and Lolley as close friends who spent time together regularly, communicated almost every day and wore matching outfits on the day of the killings that Lolley had reportedly purchased. Investigators developed evidence that included witness statements, surveillance footage from a nearby gas station, DNA evidence and a bloodstained shirt found near the crime scene. The shirt was connected to Lolley and contained gunshot residue.
Lolley left Delaware after the killings. The United States Marshals Service apprehended him in Georgia on September 13, 2018, and he was extradited to Delaware in December. After his return, he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. He was held at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution on more than $2.1 million cash bail. A grand jury formally indicted him in April 2019 on two first-degree-murder counts and multiple firearm charges.
In February 2020, Lolley entered a Robinson plea to two lesser counts of second-degree murder. Under that type of plea, he did not expressly admit committing the killings but accepted convictions because of the strength of the evidence and the risk of proceeding to trial. Prosecutors agreed not to seek habitual-offender treatment and limited their sentencing recommendation to 30 years of imprisonment. Before sentencing, Lolley attempted to withdraw his plea, arguing that his attorney had failed to provide discovery, pursue suppression of evidence and properly explain the potential punishment. The court rejected those arguments after finding that the plea had been entered knowingly and voluntarily and that substantial evidence supported the convictions.
On July 23, 2021, Lolley was sentenced to an aggregate 100 years of incarceration, suspended after 30 years for decreasing levels of supervision. He later pursued postconviction relief, maintained his innocence and accused his former attorney of providing ineffective assistance. The Delaware Superior Court denied his claims in 2024, concluding that they lacked merit. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed that ruling on June 17, 2025, leaving his convictions and sentence in place. No additional suspect has been publicly identified or charged in connection with the deaths of Berry, Cooper and their unborn child.
