Nate Chaney, a 22-year-old Black / African American man from Charleston, West Virginia, was fatally shot on January 14, 2016. Although the date supplied for the case is January 12, contemporaneous news coverage and later law-enforcement reporting consistently place the shooting and Chaney’s death on Thursday, January 14. The gunfire erupted at about 12:15 p.m. at the Littlepage Terrace Apartments in the 1700 block of Washington Street West on Charleston’s West Side.
Police said Chaney was shot multiple times, including in the head, in a parking lot near the apartment where he was staying or visiting. He was rushed to CAMC General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The killing happened in broad daylight and became another violent episode during an especially deadly period on Charleston’s West Side. It was the fourth fatal shooting in the area in only a matter of weeks. Investigators emphasized that they did not believe Chaney’s killing was connected to the other recent shootings. Instead, Charleston police quickly developed information pointing toward a dispute involving a drug debt. Police later alleged that Chaney had been shot at point-blank range, with several rounds striking him in the head.
Within a day, investigators publicly identified Dimitris Domenique Malone, also known as “Meech,” as the person they believed was responsible. On January 15, Charleston police announced that a murder warrant had been issued and that a manhunt for Malone was underway. Police said the shooting arose from the drug debt rather than the broader violence then affecting the neighborhood. Malone, who was originally from New York and had been living in Charleston, disappeared before authorities could take him into custody.
As months became years, Chaney’s family continued pressing for an arrest. His father, Nate Chaney Sr., said his son had recently enrolled in college and hoped to pursue law, while also having an interest in rap music. Chaney left behind a son. On the first anniversary of the killing, relatives and friends returned to Littlepage Terrace at approximately the same time the shooting had occurred, while Charleston police acknowledged that they believed they knew who committed the crime but had been unable to capture the suspect. Investigators said they were working with New York authorities and a task force in their effort to locate Malone.
The criminal case formally advanced in 2017 when a Kanawha County grand jury indicted Malone in connection with Chaney’s murder. Prosecutors accused Malone of shooting Chaney repeatedly in the head outside Littlepage Terrace. An arraignment was scheduled in Kanawha County Circuit Court, but Malone was still a fugitive and did not appear. The indictment ultimately left authorities with a serious murder prosecution waiting for the day Malone could be found and returned to West Virginia.
That search lasted more than four years. By 2020, investigators had information indicating that Malone was living in Vermont under various aliases and had effectively established a new life there. In early August 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia issued a federal arrest warrant charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Federal marshals from West Virginia and Vermont joined Vermont State Police and Rutland police in narrowing the search to the greater Rutland area.
On September 3, 2020, officers converged on a residence in West Rutland, Vermont, that had been rented by another person. Malone was located inside and arrested without incident. His capture ended the years-long manhunt and finally placed the person Charleston investigators had accused from almost the beginning into custody. Authorities then moved forward with the West Virginia murder prosecution.
By April 2022, Malone was appearing in Kanawha County Circuit Court before Judge Carrie Webster and was charged with first-degree murder in Chaney’s shooting death. At a pretrial conference on April 1, the court scheduled his trial to begin April 19, 2022. The online reporting located for this synopsis establishes the first-degree-murder charge, indictment, lengthy fugitive investigation, eventual arrest and scheduled trial, but it does not provide a reliable later report establishing a final conviction, acquittal, dismissal, or sentence. For that reason, no final verdict or punishment can be stated as fact from the available online sources.
