In the early morning hours of February 10, 2018, the life of 28-year-old Latasha Collins, a woman from Fayette, Mississippi, was tragically cut short. The events unfolded at a Zippy's convenience store located on Main Street in her hometown. Around 4:30 a.m., a 911 call alerted the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department to a shooting at the location. When deputies and emergency responders arrived at the scene, they found Collins wounded.
She was quickly transported to Jefferson County Hospital, but unfortunately, she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
An eyewitness at the convenience store identified 26-year-old Ikeheem Colenberg as the individual who had shot Collins. Based on this information, sheriff's deputies were able to locate and arrest Colenberg by 8:30 a.m. that same day. He was subsequently charged with murder and held without bond pending his initial court appearance. Investigators also had access to surveillance footage from the store, which was expected to support the eyewitness account of the incident. At the time of the arrest, the motive behind the fatal shooting was not immediately clear.
The legal process that followed saw Ikeheem Colenberg facing multiple serious charges. On February 12, 2019, a grand jury indicted him for the first-degree murder of Latasha Collins. The indictment also included charges of attempted murder of another individual, Rasheen Carter, as well as shooting into an automobile and a drive-by shooting. Initially, Colenberg entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.
In a significant development in September 2019, Colenberg chose to change his plea. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder in the death of Latasha Collins and also pleaded guilty to the charge of a drive-by shooting. The court sentenced him to serve thirty years in custody for the second-degree murder conviction and an additional twenty years for the drive-by shooting, with the sentences to be served concurrently. Following his sentencing, Colenberg later filed a motion for post-conviction relief, asserting that his legal counsel had been ineffective and that his guilty plea was not voluntary. However, this motion was denied by the circuit court, a decision that was later upheld upon appeal.
