On May 24, 2022, the body of 30-year-old Jermaine Trevion Wilson was discovered by a pair of hikers along Old Stage Road in an unincorporated area of El Paso County. An autopsy would later reveal that Wilson had been fatally shot twice. Investigators quickly deemed his death to be suspicious and began the arduous task of piecing together the events that led to his demise.
During the course of the investigation, a name that surfaced was that of Marquis Dunlap, a 30-year-old Colorado
Springs man with a history of legal troubles. Dunlap had recently escaped from a halfway house in Denver in April of that year, just over a month before Wilson's murder. He had been serving a sentence for a prior escape conviction. Another individual, Laina Curtis, was also identified as a person of interest in the case.
A significant breakthrough came when Dunlap and Curtis were taken into custody a week after Wilson's body was found. They were discovered driving a Mercedes-Benz that Curtis had purportedly sold to Wilson a month earlier. A handgun was also recovered from the vehicle. While Curtis was arrested on an outstanding warrant unrelated to the homicide, the investigation into Dunlap's involvement intensified. Detectives uncovered incriminating evidence through recorded jail phone conversations between Dunlap and Curtis. In one call, Curtis was heard telling Dunlap, 'You did it, you were mad as f---, you did it, it happened.'
Forensic evidence further solidified the case against Dunlap. DNA analysis of a plaid hoodie belonging to Dunlap revealed bloodstains that were a match to Wilson's DNA profile. Further testing on other bloodstains showed a mixture of both Dunlap's and Wilson's DNA. The handgun found in the Mercedes also proved to be the murder weapon, with ballistics confirming that it fired the bullets recovered from Wilson's body. Dunlap's DNA was also found on the weapon. Subsequently, Marquis Dunlap was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Jermaine Wilson. Laina Curtis later turned herself in and was charged with Accessory to a Crime.
