THE Christmas tree twinkled with flashing lights, and hearty laughter echoed through the Gullette household as the whole family came together to celebrate the festive season.
It was Christmas eve, and Rhonda Gullette looked at her watch – out of her seven siblings, the only person missing was her younger sister Danita, 18, who was due home from work any minute.
However tragically the mum-of-one would never return to celebrate the holidays, as she was cruelly shot five times – senselessly murdered on her way home for her trainers, coat, and a measly 50 cents.
It was a devastating loss, and one that also meant Christmas would never be the same again for the heartbroken family – but the heartache didn’t end there.
It was just the start of a violent crime spree that would leave the town of Dayton, Ohio, gripped with terror as a gang began robbing and murdering people around the town, seemingly at random.
Similarly with many families, the Christmas holiday was a big deal in the Gullette household.
Rhonda says: “Christmas was the one holiday of the year that we’d get together.
“For me the centre of our Christmas was just the big celebration with each other.
“My mum was this amazing cook, and she made a big Christmas meal. One of my favourites was the chilli, with cornbread. It was just beautiful.”
“That Christmas eve… we just waited for my sister to get home from work. Around 10pm there was a phone call. I picked up and there was no answer. I said ‘Ma, I’m going home, we’ll celebrate tomorrow’.”
Around the same time, across town Dayton Police Detective Doyle Burke received news of a shooting.
Tragically, the victim was quickly identified as Danita.
Detective Burke says: “It appeared she’d just been standing at the phone booth when she’d been shot.
The idea of someone being killed for a pair of shoes and a coat, while horrible, was not out of the realm of possibility.
Detective Burke
“She’d been hit five times. She was shot in the chest, legs and in the hand, which is indicative of defensive wounds, in that she was trying to fend off and shield herself from the attack.
“One of the things I was drawn to was she had no shoes, no coat and it was cold. Clearly she didn’t walk in her bare feet so it was a robbery as well as a homicide.
“The idea of someone being killed for a pair of shoes and a coat, while horrible, was not out of the realm of possibility.”
Speaking on an episode of documentary series Homicide for the Holidays about the moment she discovered her sister had been murdered, Rhonda says: “I got a call from my mother, saying Danita was gone.
“I just threw the phone and ran out the door and started screaming and crying. I was about to lose it. My sister meant the world to me.”
Less than 24 hours later while opening gifts with his family on Christmas day, Detective Burke then received news a young black male, 19-year-old Richmond Maddox, had also been shot dead.
He’d taken a bullet to the head while driving, and police believed the passenger of the car may have shot him, as the windows were up and no shots had pierced through the glass.
Detective Burke says: “We were fortunate we did have a witness who saw a young black female jump out from the moving car.
“It was in the same neighbourhood area as the previous homicide.”
Both incidents were close range, and had the potential to be connected.
The next morning, police spoke to Richmond’s family and friends, who mentioned he had a girlfriend Laura Taylor, who police discovered was missing.
The brutality didn’t end there, either.
On Boxing Day there was yet another shooting, this time two people shot at a convenience shop.
Detective Burke says: “It’s the day after Christmas. They’ve got Christmas decorations up and Christmas candy, and there’s blood all over that.”
They found the same shell casings as they had at the Danita Gullette crime scene.
Two men had entered the store demanding money, which was given to them without fuss and only amounted to around $40 – but they started shooting everybody anyway.
Hardworking Sarah Abraham, who was behind the counter at the family-owned business, was shot in the face and killed and a customer was also shot and wounded.
A part-time worker at the store, Jimmy Thompson, 71, survived by pretending to be dead, and was able to tell officers what happened.
Detective Burke says: “He said a young black female came in, she made a purchase and she was a nickel short so he gave her a nickel and when she walked out two black males walked in.
“Both had handguns and they demanded money… and then they fled on foot.”
Sarah’s brother Tekeste Abraham says: “She was loved by the community. When she was gone it was terrible. She was the star of the family.”
While still at the scene, Detective Burke then received news of the carjacking of a 1989 shadow in the same neighbourhood.
A woman was filling her tyres with air, and two men matching the shop suspects description armed with guns approached.
People were getting shot putting air in their tyres, people were getting shot at a convenience store, at a payphone, in their own car. Everybody is on edge.
Detective Burke
Montgomery County Assistant Prosecutor James Levinson says: “One of them pointed his gun at her and said ‘you will die today’”.
She ran and they shot at her, but she got away uninjured and they took her car.
Detective Burke says: “People were getting shot putting air in their tyres, people were getting shot at a convenience store, at a payphone, in their own car. Everybody is on edge.
“It’s the one time of the year when everybody is friendly and everybody’s happy and looking forward to Christmas, and now you’re afraid to even stick your head out of your house.”
Police quickly found the car, and discovered the plates had been switched with another car, registered to Joseph Wilkerson, 34.
Police went to his home and were immediately struck by a foul smell.
The place had ben ransacked and in the bedroom they found Wilkerson’s decomposing body.
Detective Burke says: “He had his hands tied to the bedpost, kind of spread eagle, and he’d been shot once in the head and once in the chest.”
Again, they found the same shell casings used to killed Danita and Sarah, and used in the carjacking.
24 December 1992: Joseph Wilkerson is murdered in his own home, but his body is not discovered for several days.
24 December 1992: That same day, later that evening, Danita Gullette is shot and killed while making a call on a payphone on Christmas Eve.
26 December 1992: Another shooting takes place. Two people were shot at a Mini Market, and shop worker Sarah Abraham is killed.
26 December 1992: A short time later, police receive news of an armed carjacking – thankfully no one is harmed.
August 1993: All four suspects went on trial. Heather Matthews agreed to a deal, while Demarcus Smith pled guilty the morning of the trial. Both Laura Taylor and Marvallous Keene went to trial and were found guilty.
July 21 2009: Keene was sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection.
By this point the entire city on was high alert, and police appealed for the public’s help locating the suspects.
They then received a phone call from a young man called Nicholas Woodson, who told them about the ‘downtown posse’, a gang of high school dropouts and runaways surviving on the streets together.
Detective Burke says: “He said the downtown posse were bragging about all these homicides.”
He also provided the names of the four ringleaders, Demarcus ‘Maurice’ Smith, 17, Heather Matthews, 20, Marvallous Keene, 19 – and Laura Taylor, 16, Richmond Maddox’s ‘missing’ girlfriend.
Police continued to monitor the car, and three suspects returned to the scene.
Keene – who was wearing Danita’s coat – and Taylor were arrested, followed by Demarcus, who was wearing Danita’s shoes, and Heather Matthews.
Officers found two firearms connecting all four shootings.
Montgomery County Assistant Prosecutor James Levinson says: “I think they are all on a level of cold-bloodedness, and it’s astonishing these killings would take place right at Christmas time.”
The police reckoned Laura Taylor would be the first to talk – but they couldn’t have been more wrong.
Detective Burke says: “These interviews can take some time so we want to make sure the subject is comfortable.
“We’ll offer them something to eat, something to drink, a bottle of water, would you like to use the restroom?
“We did that with Laura, she didn’t say a word and… stood up, urinated on the floor and sat back down so we knew it was going to be hard getting anything from her.”
However the other three were more cooperative.
Heather Matthews revealed both Keene and Taylor knew victim Wilkerson, and had asked her if she wanted to go and rob him for his car on December 24.
Montgomery County Assistant Prosecutor James Levinson says: “One of them came up with the idea and contacting Wilkerson and suggesting they could have an orgy together, and invited Heather Mathews to come along.”
While he pleaded for his life, the girls tied him up to the bed, and they even stole Christmas gifts he’d bought for his family before shooting him dead.
That left four dead – but it was actually even worse than first anticipated.
When speaking to Laura Taylor, Detective Burke says: “She said ‘there are two more bodies in a gravel pit and I can tell you where they’re at’.
“We went to the gravel pit and we did find two more bodies. Both were shot execution style, shot in the head.”
The victims were Wendy Cottrill, 16 and Marvin Washington, 18.
They had been part of the group. While they weren’t involved in the spree they were both aware of it – and the main group were concerned they were going to blab.
In August 1993 the four went on trial.
Heather Matthews agreed to a deal, while Demarcus Smith pled guilty the morning of the trial.
Both Laura Taylor and Marvallous Keene went to trial and were found guilty.
Taylor, Smith, and Matthews were all sentenced to life in prison.
Keene was sentenced to death, and he was executed by lethal injection on July 21, 2009.
Sadly, while justice had been served, the impact of their callous and cold actions has meant for their victim’s loved ones, Christmas is now a painful reminder of what they’ve lost.
Speaking years later, Rhonda revealed: “This time of year is not like it used to be.
“It’s not a happy time for me. Even though I may look like it, I still carry that wound.”
