This weekend marks 25 years since a quadruple murder in 2000 in Wichita, the first of two multiple-homicide cases that would occur in the city in a span of a little more than a week. It happened at a duplex in the 1100 block of N. Erie, west of 11th & Hillside, in a neighborhood near the back side of Highland Cemetery.
The call for police began as a shooting complaint. Inside, the officer located four dead bodies: the victims included Jermaine Levy, Quincy Williams, and his cousin 'Dessa Ford in the front room, and Raeshawnda Wheaton in a bedroom.
Levy had been shot in the head and neck by two bullets fired from a .380 semi-automatic handgun. Williams was shot three times in the head, twice with a .38 caliber special revolver, and once with the .380 handgun; they were both shot in the back of the head as they played a video game. Ford was shot in the head with a .38 revolver from a few feet away, as she tried to run away. Investigators found no defensive wounds on these three victims.
Wheaton had a pillow clutched to her face in a bedroom, and there were two bullet holes in the pillow; she'd been shot through her wrist, and in the top of her head at close range. These bullets were fired by the .380 handgun.
Jesse Hardyway, a friend of Williams, arrived at the house before the police. He testified that Ford was selling drugs for the defendant out of her house.
In the bedroom, a ceiling tile had been moved. The police recovered a small amount of drugs and money from the ceiling.
Before arresting the suspect, 19-year-old Cornelius Oliver, police knew he and the 18-year-old Wheaton shared a violent romantic history. They also knew Oliver was a gang-member, and Levy and Williams were affiliated with a rival gang. Levy and Williams each appeared to have been shot from behind.
There was no forced entry; investigators concluded the shooter was probably someone familiar to the victims.
Wheaton's father told police about Wheaton's rocky relationship with Oliver, saying Oliver often stole Wheaton's car; Wheaton's mother reported to detectives that Oliver had pulled a gun on Wheaton.
Police also learned from Ford's mother that Wheaton had described a fight with Oliver in which he dropped his gun and she picked it up and shot him with it. The same day, Wheaton had appeared at a hospital with injuries to her face. She was interviewed by a police officer but refused to file a complaint, claiming a stranger had attacked her. Oliver appeared at another hospital with a gunshot wound to his left shoulder. He also was interviewed by a police officer. Oliver first told the officer that he had been shot in a drive-by shooting; he later claimed he had shot himself.
Ford's mother also told police that Oliver had threatened Wheaton and Ford two days before the murders and that he was crazy. Oliver had said he would "get" the people helping Wheaton.
Officers sent to arrest Oliver that afternoon found him on his brother's porch; he was wearing pants and a sleeveless tank top, even though it was December and cold outside. One of the officers testified he saw blood on the toes of Oliver's shoes, and on clothing in the garage.
Oliver was charged with one count of first-degree premeditated murder for the killing of Levy, and three counts of capital murder for the killings of Williams, Ford, and Wheaton.
This was described as Wichita's worst crime case in nearly 27 years.
After trial had begun, the defense sought to introduce expert testimony from a psychologist on his diagnoses of Oliver's post-traumatic stress disorder and dependent personality disorder.
The jury convicted Oliver of first-degree premeditated murder in the killings of the two men, Levy and Williams, and of felony murder in the killings of the two women, Ford and Wheaton. The district court sentenced Oliver to two consecutive hard 50 sentences on the first-degree premeditated murder convictions, and to two consecutive life sentences on the two felony-murder convictions.
Oliver was sentenced to the Lansing Correctional Facility in the northeast part of Kansas, serving a life sentence with no chance of parole until the year 2140.
After the Carr brothers' notorious crime spree in Wichita soon afterwards, some referred to the victims on N. Erie as the "Forgotten Four".