Alleged gang member accused of 4 Las Vegas killings appears in court

An elaborate loan scheme lead to a series of shootings in which an alleged gang member was hired to kill multiple people over the course of four years, including members of two different gangs, police documents show.

The Metropolitan Police Department announced Tuesday that Michael Coleman, a 40-year-old alleged member of the Rollin’ 60s Crips gang, was tied to the four killings. He is accused of threatening and killing people who owed money to another man, Carl Chester, who himself was fatally shot in March.

Coleman is accused of working with Chester to track his victims before ambushing and shooting them, according to Coleman’s arrest report. Investigators found several photos on Coleman’s phone showing his alleged victim’s vehicles and homes.

Coleman made his initial court appearance Wednesday morning, when Justice of the Peace Rebecca Saxe ordered him to remain in custody without bail.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Wednesday that prosecutors would weigh whether to seek capital punishment for Coleman.

“Any time there is a situation where a person is accused of four murders the consideration of the death penalty comes into play,” Wolfson told the Review-Journal. “This will certainly be a case where the death penalty will be considered.”

Held without bail

During the court hearing, Saxe said there was probable cause for Coleman’s arrest. She said he will remain in custody without bail, but attorneys will have a chance to argue bail at a later date.

Police said Coleman killed Benjamin McCarty Jr., 49, in May 2021; Marcus Larry, 39, in November 2021; William Hill Jr., 54, in November 2022; and Kidada Stewart, 48, in February 2023.

According to Coleman’s arrest report, released Wednesday afternoon, Chester admitted that when he was younger, he was a member of the 004 Hoodsmen, another street gang in Las Vegas. Investigators believe that Chester, who went by the moniker “Wicked,” had “orchestrated the murders” of several members of the 004 Hoodsmen.

The report indicates that McCarty was a Rollin’ 60s Crips member who was indicted in the early early 2000s in a federal racketeering case, along with Coleman. McCarty was gunned down in the parking lot of a Pep Boys on East Charleston Boulevard.

Larry, who has also been linked to the Hoodsmen gang, was ambushed and shot by a masked man while he was ordering food at a Summerlin restaurant. An employee at the restaurant was also injured in the gunfire. It was unclear from the arrest report why he was killed, other than information detectives received that Chester “paid to have Marcus killed.” Police initially — and falsely — accused Larry’s cousin, Oscar Richardson, of his murder.

Hill was killed while working on his car outside his home in West Las Vegas. According to the arrest report, Hill was a member of the 004 Hoodsmen gang who was killed due to a debt that his son owed to Chester.

Stewart was found dead outside her home near Fort Apache and Blue Diamond roads. According to grand jury transcripts, a neighbor’s surveillance footage captured a man wearing all black get out of a red Hyundai and shoot Stewart in the back before fleeing the scene. A Hyundai was linked to several of the killings that Coleman is accused of.

Metro Lt. Jason Johansson said Tuesday that Stewart was also killed because one of her family members owed Chester money.

Coleman was arrested in May 2023 in connection with Stewart’s killing three months prior.

Police found a phone, reportedly belonging to Coleman, that records show was near the crime scene when Stewart was killed, according to the grand jury transcripts. An employee at a Cricket phone store testified to the grand jury that he sold Coleman a cellphone the night before Stewart was killed, but that Coleman used the fake name “Bruce Banner” to make the purchase.

Involvement with Carl Chester

As investigators continued to build a case against Coleman, they learned of his involvement with Chester, Johansson said during a press conference Tuesday. Police said Chester had been operating a criminal enterprise and defrauded the government of numerous Paycheck Protection Program, or PPE, loans. When Chester and his associates got the fraudulent money, they dispersed it to clients, expecting a share of the profits, according to police.

Chester himself was ambushed and killed by members of Hill’s family outside the Sky Zone trampoline park on Prairie Falcon Road. Police have accused five men — Keveon Glenn, Monroe Jones, Michael Mays, Tyree Mays and William Emmerson Hill, III — of committing the shooting.

Coleman’s arrest report also links him to an attempted murder on Jan. 13, 2021, in which Larry’s friend, Kenneth Reid, was injured in gunfire. Both Reid and Larry were convicted in the 2009 killing of a 9-year-old girl at an apartment complex near Civic Center Drive and Cheyenne Avenue.

Police linked Coleman and Chester to the four killings through cell phone records and GPS information from trackers they used, according to the report.

A group of victim family members attended Coleman’s court hearing on Wednesday, but declined to speak with a reporter afterward.

Coleman is facing charges of attempted murder, three counts of murder with a deadly weapon, and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder, court records show.

He is set to appear in court again on Sept. 23.