In the early morning hours of October 22, 2018, a dispute in the parking lot of the Delux Inn in Wichita, Kansas, turned deadly. Jackie Jerome, a 43-year-old Caucasian male, was found by police with multiple gunshot wounds. He was quickly transported to a nearby hospital but succumbed to his injuries less than an hour later. An autopsy would later reveal that Jerome had been shot four times, with one bullet entering his back and causing catastrophic damage to his spinal cord and a lung.
The investigation into the shooting led police to Cory Wayne Bentley, then 22 years old. Investigators determined that Bentley and others had arrived at the motel, leading to a confrontation with Jerome. During this disturbance, Bentley fired a handgun multiple times, fatally wounding Jerome. The motive for the shooting appeared to stem from a minor drug transaction from the previous day. Bentley later told police he had purchased what he believed to be "ice" for $15 from a man he thought was Jerome. He claimed the substance made him feel anxious and panicky, as if he was going to die.
Bentley was arrested the day after the shooting and was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm by a felon. This was not Bentley's first encounter with law enforcement; he had been arrested the month prior for gun and drug-related crimes and had been released on bond. A warrant for his arrest had been issued just ten days before the fatal shooting of Jerome after he violated the conditions of his bond by admitting to methamphetamine use.
In May 2021, Cory Wayne Bentley pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. The following month, he was sentenced to 554 months, more than 46 years, in prison for the killing of Jackie Jerome. In addition to his prison sentence, the judge ordered Bentley to pay for Jerome's funeral expenses and to provide financial compensation to Jerome's son, who had to travel from Iowa after learning of his father's murder.
