A deadly spat over something as arbitrary as marijuana. A sudden burst of violence that
came without warning. And a cold case that was solved fifteen years later. The stories behind
these college students who killed their roommates are all very different, but equally bone-chilling.
In early October 2022,
Purdue University cybersecurity major Ji Min Sha — who went by "Jimmy" — called the police to
report that his roommate, Varun Manish Chheda, was dead. When the police arrived at their dorm room,
they found a blood-splattered room and a knife on the floor, and Sha admitted
to being the killer. He was immediately arrested on a preliminary murder charge.
According to NBC News, Chheda's friends and family were playing video games and chatting
on Discord with the Indianapolis native and data science student on the night of
his death. A friend of Chheda's reported that they suddenly heard screaming on the line.
People struggled to explain the murder. Sha, who was an international student from South Korea,
made several strange statements when making a court appearance. Yahoo! News reported that
Sha said, "I am very sorry," when reporters asked if had any message for Chheda's family,
then went on to state that he was blackmailed — without offering any
evidence or elaboration. He also told reporters:
"I love my family."
On the morning of January 24,
2019, Radford city police were called to the apartment shared by Radford University students
Luisa Cutting and Alexa Cannon. When Luisa opened the door, she was covered in blood,
and immediately urged the police to arrest her, saying, "I killed her." People reports that
Cutting proceeded to give police a disturbing series of rambling statements, claiming to
have done "cocaine with the devil." She also recited a prayer, referred to the apocalypse,
and attempted to fit her fist inside her mouth. Her attorney later called it a psychotic episode
triggered by drug use — Cutting admitted that in the hours prior to the murder, she had
indeed taken cocaine, as well as mushrooms, Adderall, Xanax, marijuana, and alcohol.
The Herald Sun reports that Cutting and Cannon were seemingly very close. Cannon
frequently posted about Cutting on her social media, describing her as her "best friend."
Cutting responded by writing "I love you so-so much" to one such post. Hauntingly,
a few months before her death, Cannon had posted:
"Pray that we don't kill each other this year."
Cutting pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in
jail for the murder. She offered a simple apology to Cannon's family, saying:
"There are no words for this tragedy,
and my heart is filled with sorrow and grief [...] I am so, so sorry."
Caitlyn Scaggs, a spokesperson for Radford University, said told WSLS 10:
"We are feeling devastated that we've lost one of our
own, a highlander with true promise and a future."
According to Atlanta News First,
Clark Atlanta University student Jordyn Jones and Alexis Crawford appeared to be
more than just roommates in an off-campus apartment, but best friends. They were so
close Jones spent time with Crawford's family during holidays. So it was beyond
shocking when Jones and her boyfriend Barron Brantley were arrested for Crawford's murder.
Crawford filed a police report accusing Brantley of sexually assaulting her while she was passed
out from intoxication. Jones appeared to take her boyfriend's side and reportedly stopped
speaking to Crawford. On October 30, 2019, a physical fight broke out in the apartment
between Crawford and Brantley. Brantley began choking Crawford — and Jones reportedly joined in,
suffocating her with a plastic bag. Brantley and Jones proceeded to place
Crawford's body into a plastic storage bin and transported her body to a nearby park.
They then cleaned the apartment thoroughly. Most chillingly, Jones continued to text Crawford,
claiming increasing worry over her lack of response — all while she possessed Crawford's
turned-off phone — in a clear effort to create the appearance of innocence.
The proceedings against Jones and Brantley were interrupted and frequently delayed by
the COVID-19 pandemic, and they only made their first official
court appearance in May 2022. Jones and Brantley requested to be tried separately.
In 2007, a man
named Gorden Knutson became concerned when he hadn't heard from his daughter, Anita,
in several days. He drove to her apartment in Minot, North Dakota, where Anita had been studying
elementary education at Minot State University, and discovered her dead body. Anita had been
stabbed multiple times on her bed and left there with a housecoat tossed over her remains.
There were several mysteries associated with Anita's murder. The door was locked
and there were no signs of robbery. A bloody knife was found in the sink,
and Anita's bedroom window screen had been sliced off and removed, leaving traces of
blood behind — indicating it had been done post-murder. Anita's roommate, Nichole Rice,
told police she had been away with her family for the weekend. However, there were inconsistencies
in her story, and friends told police that Rice and Anita didn't get along as roommates.
Police struggled to put together evidence. They received tips that Rice had admitted
to the killing at a party in either 2008 or 2009, but couldn't identify a specific
witness until March 2022, when they tracked down William May, who confirmed the reports.
May claimed he had attempted to get Rice to elaborate but had been unsuccessful. Police
re-interviewed several people, including Rice, and finally arrested her and charged her with
Anita Knutson's murder 15 years after her death. Minot Chief of Police, John Klug,
said of the investigation during a press conference:
"Other than hard work and dedication by our department,
I can't say there's anything that got us there."
Tong Cheng was a former student
at the Stevens Institute of Technology, living in an apartment in Jersey City with Yuting Ge,
a current student. On a Saturday morning in 2020, several neighbors heard Cheng and Ge arguing,
as well as Ge screaming for mercy in Chinese and a "thumping" noise according to Northjersey.com.
Despite these disturbing incidents, no one called the police. When Ge and Cheng's other
roommate noticed blood in their shared bathroom the next morning, several people
finally called 911. It was too late: Police found Ge in the apartment, stabbed to death.
The evidence against Cheng quickly piled up. Police reviewed surveillance video that
showed Cheng with what appeared to be blood stains on his shirt,
Cheng was admitted to the local hospital for a hand wound later in the morning. Police quickly
tracked Cheng down at a nearby hotel and arrested him, charging him with first-degree murder.
Cheng made no attempt to deny the charges and pleaded guilty to one
count of aggravated manslaughter. The state asked that the court
sentence Cheng to 30 years, invoking the state's No Early Release Act. However,
Cheng was sentenced to 28 years by a Hudson County Superior Court Judge on August 19, 2022.
According to ABC 17 News,
roommates Kundarrius Taylor and Torrance Evans had not gotten along for several weeks before Taylor
shot and killed Evans after a heated argument. Taylor told investigating officers that Evans had
"disrespected" him on many occasions, leading to a final, deadly confrontation. Evans was a
student at Central Methodist University, where he was an offensive lineman for the school's team.
Taylor was a former student in the process of seeking readmission when the incident occurred.
Evans was a popular student: The team held a moment of silence for Evans and took
up a collection to cover his funeral expenses, and the university offered
counseling services to help students deal with the shocking act of violence.
Despite apparently admitting guilt to investigators, Taylor pleaded not guilty
when he made his initial court appearance after the arrest. His lawyer requested
he be released with electronic monitoring because he wasn't a threat to the community,
and claimed he would argue self-defense at the trial because he felt threatened by Evans.
However, the prosecuting attorney pointed out that Taylor said nothing about fearing
for his life when he spoke to police, and noted that he'd kept a firearm very near to a college
campus. Taylor was denied bond, remaining in jail until his preliminary hearing.
Back in 2011, a simple spat took
a turn for the worst at Middle Tennessee State University. When Shanterrica Madden's roommate,
star basketball player Tina Stewart, reported her for smoking marijuana in their off-campus
apartment, an altercation ensued. It turned deadly when the much larger and more athletic
Stewart began to physically assault Madden. Madden, who is 4 feet 11 inches tall,
claimed she feared for her life as the 5 foot 7 inches Stewart began hitting her.
After being arrested for Stewart's death, Madden pleaded self-defense.
This might have worked except for one small detail: Madden attempted to cover up her
involvement in the crime. She apparently made no attempt to help Stewart after stabbing her,
sent texts from Stewart's phone to mislead anyone looking into the killing,
and washed and disposed of the knife in a garbage dumpster. All of this led Circuit
Court Judge Don Ash to tell Madden that he didn't believe she was remorseful — or
credible. He sentenced her to 25 years for second-degree murder, with an additional
four years for tampering with evidence. Madden will serve at least 26 years of that sentence.
Madden's attorney filed appeals claiming ineffective counsel and
denial of impartial treatment. Madden claimed that Judge Ash was a Facebook
friend of Tina Stewart's basketball coach, bringing his impartiality into question.
Madden took the case to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2020, but her appeal was denied.
In 2009, Cal State Sacramento student Quran Jones was seen hitting himself
with a baseball bat and smashing up his dorm room by several witnesses. Six minutes later,
his roommate, Scott Hawkins, entered the room. According to SFGate,
there was no known conflict between the two prior to that moment.
According to CBS Sacramento, when Cal State Sacramento campus police arrived
at Jones' campus dormitory, they were confronted by Jones,
who "had a crazed look in his eye." He was hitting himself on the head with a baseball
bat and then charged at the police with a knife in his hand. The police shot him several times,
then found his roommate, Scott Hawkins, severely beaten in the room they shared.
Jones had to undergo major surgery for his wounds, and was paralyzed as a result of the shootings.
Although witnesses had attested that Jones may have been experimenting with a psychedelic drug,
there was no evidence of drug use, and Jones eventually pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity. Jones' trial dragged on as his mental state was assessed. A former friend said of him:
"He was quiet all the time, but
again, that was, like, the last person we'd ever expect to do something like that."
The presiding judge eventually ruled that Jones was insane,
and prosecutors negotiated a plea deal wherein Jones pleaded no contest
to second-degree murder. The judge sentenced him to 18 years in prison.
On May 28th, 1995, a woman named Thao Nguyen was spending the night
in the dorm room of her friend Trang Ho and her roommate, Sinedu Tadesse,
at Harvard University's Dunster House dormitory. When an alarm clock awakened Nguyen at 8 AM, she
looked over and saw Tadesse stabbing Ho to death with a knife. When she tried to stop the attack,
Tadesse turned and stabbed her as well. Tadesse then ran into the bathroom and barricaded the
door. By the time authorities broke down the door, Tadesse had died by suicide.
The crime was initially baffling. According to The Washington Post,
Ho and Tadesse were friends who had bonded over their similar experiences: Both were
from developing nations — Ho was from Vietnam, while Tadesse hailed from Ethiopia — and both had
worked incredibly hard to find themselves in the pre-med program at an elite American university.
But according to The Harvard Crimson, that bond may have been the catalyst for the
attack. Tadesse's diaries reveal a woman in crisis, struggling with a deep sense of
loneliness that drove her to send letters to strangers. Ho had just informed Tadesse that
she planned to live with a different roommate in her senior year. The murder prompted an outcry
from students who complained that the mental health support on campus was insufficient,
pointing to the numerous signs that Tadesse was struggling in the weeks before the attack.
Earnest Jackson and Timothy Campbell were roommates at Miles College in Alabama in 2001, as
well as teammates on the school's football team. Campbell's Chevy Tahoe was found abandoned in a
pasture in November 2001, and his body was found under a loose pile of leaves a few days later.
Jackson initially described the killing as an accident. In a videotaped statement made to the
Oktibbeha County Sheriff's Department, Jackson claimed he was being driven by
Campbell and was showing him his gun. He then claimed that due to his "reflexes," the gun
hit the dashboard of the truck, and went off, shooting Campbell in the head. He then stated
that he threw the gun into a nearby river and placed Campbell's body in the back seat.
But Jackson's story didn't add up. The forensic pathologist on the case noted
that the bullet wounds Campbell suffered were consistent with a defensive move,
indicating that he knew he was about to be shot. And the body showed signs of having
been hidden far longer than Jackson initially claimed. Faced with these inconsistencies,
Jackson eventually pleaded guilty to murder. The prosecutors believe robbery
was the motivation for the killing, and Jackson received a life sentence.
On August 27, 2016,
Georgia State University roommates Breyana Davis and Charles Rudison went out partying.
12 News reports that the two went out with Davis' friend Conquista Johnson,
but at one point, Davis left her friends and drove herself home. This made Rudison
and Johnson upset because they were forced to pay for a rideshare service to get home.
According to Davis, when they arrived at the apartment, Rudison was angry and
pushed Davis. Johnson refutes that, stating that Rudison did not attack Davis at all,
and only demanded to know why she had left them without a ride home. According to Johnson,
after a brief argument, Davis suddenly grabbed a pot of boiling water from
the stove and doused Rudison with it. She then stabbed Rudison in the heart.
Davis was initially charged with murder, but negotiated a plea of voluntary manslaughter.
The judge in her case sentenced her to 20 years in prison — but the mystery of her motive,
and how a night out with friends could suddenly turn into a brutal and senseless murder,
remains. Charles Rudison's sister expressed disappointment in Davis' sentence, saying:
"I wish the years were longer."