The Christmas Murder Spree of The Downtown Posse
Three days over the Christmas period, a town in Ohio was gripped with terror as a gang began randomly robbing, murdering and maiming people around the town.
Dayton, Ohio, looked like a Christmas dream in 1992, but very quickly, it became a nightmare for the residents who had been enjoying the pop-up shops and festivities. A group of young adults had gotten bored by the scene and decided that a murderous crime spree fuelled by petty robberies and jealousy was the solution.
Marvallous Keene (19), his girlfriend Laura Taylor (16), DeMarcus Smith (19), and his girlfriend Heather Mathews (20) were the four to form the Downtown Posse, and on the 24th of December, they began their spree with a person that Mathews knew had a lucrative job working at a General Motors.
Mathews and Taylor called 34-year-old Joseph Wilkerson, seducing him and promising sex, knowing that when they arrived at his home, they would rob him with the help of the pair of boyfriends. Which is just what happened: after Mathews and Taylor used electrical cords to tie Joseph down to his bed, Deene and Smith entered the home and began ransacking it for things they saw as valuable.
In the home, a .32 calibre Derringer gun was found and used to shoot Joseph in the chest while he was tied to his bed, killing him. Despite his death, Mathews, at trial, claimed Taylor had used a .25 calibre gun to shoot Joseph a second time, aiming at his head.
(I was unable to find an official photo of Joseph)
The group didn’t stop after Joseph died; they stole his car, using it to drive around and continue their spree throughout the 24th.
Danita Gullette, an 18-year-old mother, was heading to a payphone near a neighbourhood market in West Dayton, likely to check on her 2-year-old daughter waiting on her return at home. She was approached by the four with weapons at the ready, demanding that Danita hand over her belongings. She complied with the orders but was still shot five times and left to die on the street while the four drove away.
Danita was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital; she was murdered over her shoes, backpack, coat, and 50 cents.
After fleeing the scene where they attacked Danita, the group decided to head for another person that they knew: Mathews’ ex-boyfriend, Jeffery Wright. He was sitting outside his home when the group arrived. Smith approached, shooting Jeffery in the legs four times before once again fleeing and leaving him to die.
Jeffery managed to crawl to a neighbour’s house and get help, surviving the attempt on his life.
Thinking that they had just killed their third victim, the group of four returned to Joseph Wilkerson’s home, spending the night inside the house with Joseph still lying dead on his bed in another room. Keene, Taylor, Smith, and Mathews partied and turned the house into their base of operations for their spree.
The following day, Christmas day, the group planned on targetting another of the ex-boyfriends connected to the pair of females in the group; this time, it was Taylor’s ex, Richard Maddox.
Taylor tricked Richard into leaving his parents’ home and going on a car ride together in his car; what he wouldn’t notice until it was too late as the rest of the Downtown Posse was following in their stolen car. When Richard noticed the car trailing behind them, he put his foot on the accelerator, but Taylor pulled out a Derringer and put it to Richard’s right temple. She pulled the trigger. Taylor lept from the car as it hurtled towards a tree with Richard’s dead body at the wheel. The car hit the tree, with Taylor narrowly surviving the crash after jumping out.
Christmas Day was left behind them, possibly to let Taylor recover from the jump out of the car.
The break wasn’t long as, on December 26th, the group went to Short-Stop Mini Market, a family-owned store on West Fifth Street. Taylor walked in first, scouting the place out before Smith and Keene followed her.
Sarah Abraham, a 38-year-old mother of three, was working behind the counter when the group entered; Keene was shot twice in the head with bullets similar to the ones used in the murder of Danita. Sarah survived her wounds for five days before passing in the hospital. Sarah wasn’t alone, as Jones Pettus was also inside; they were shot in the hand and the stomach. Thankfully, Jones survived the attack.
Jones was permanently scarred, and Sarah was murdered; her children left motherless over $44.
According to Mathews, the four (Mathews, Taylor, Smith, and Keene) weren’t the only people who had been a part of the attacks; two others had been connected to the attacks. Wendy Cottrill (16) and Marvin Washington (18). They were deemed witnesses and potential snitches who endangered their freedom. So, after the robbery and murder of Sarah, the group collected Wendy and Marvin, bringing beer and wine in the promise of a party. They drove until Keene claimed he needed to use the restroom, so he parked in a gravel yard on Richley Drive. There, Wendy and Marvin were dragged from the car and taken to a secluded field where Wendy and Marvin were executed.
Their bodies weren’t found until after the group were arrested.
The group had been swapping plates and cars and were in need of a new vehicle after the attacks on the 26th, so they travelled out to a Salem Avenue gas station to find their new car. A woman was by her Dodge Shadow when she was approached by the group holding a gun. She fled from the scene, surviving the attack. The four took her car, swapping license plates with the vehicle that they had abandoned.
Dayton Police Sgt. John Huber was out driving when he spotted a suspicious vehicle: the Dodge Shadow they had stolen. Huber requested a plate check, and when the information didn’t match, other deputies were called to assist Huber in apprehending the four inside.
John Huber later found out that his life was almost taken as Taylor ordered Keene to shoot him when he approached, but he didn’t follow through with it.
Marvallous Keene, leader of “The Downtown Posse,” received the death penalty and was executed by lethal injection on July 21, 2009
All three other members received life sentences. Laura Taylor and Heather Matthews are serving their time at the Ohio Reformatory for Women; DeMarcus Smith is at the Mansfield Correctional Institute.
In 2021, Taylor had the opportunity for parole due to new laws affecting life sentences for crimes committed by minors — she is still at Ohio Reformatory for Women — and her next parole date is in 2026
That is all for this case; thank you for reading!
