4 killings, 1 suspect: Man arrested in woman’s slaying linked to others in Las Vegas

The investigation into the fatal shooting of a woman in the southwest Las Vegas Valley last year helped police link the accused killer to three additional slayings in the valley between 2021 and 2022, police said Tuesday.

Michael Coleman, 40, was arrested on three counts of open murder with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder, Lt. Jason Johansson of the Metropolitan Police Department said in a media briefing. Coleman also faces a charge of attempted murder in connection with a separate northwest valley shooting in 2021, police said.

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

The Review-Journal previously reported that McCarty had been in the parking lot of a Pep Boys on East Charleston Boulevard when he was gunned down; Larry was with his teenage nephew ordering food at a Summerlin restaurant when a masked man ambushed and shot him; and Hill was working on his car outside his home in West Las Vegas when a man in a red Hyundai approached and shot him.

Kidada Stewart

Coleman was also accused in the killing of a 48-year-old woman in southwest Las Vegas.

Kidada Stewart was found dead outside her home in the 9800 block of Venus Lake Court, near South Fort Apache and Blue Diamond roads, in February 2023. A man wearing all black ran toward Stewart and fired several shots before fleeing, police said.

Coleman was arrested in May 2023 and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder.

After a year-long investigation, police said that developments in the Stewart case led to the arrest of Coleman, who now faces four murder charges in total. Under the direction of another man named Carl Chester, Coleman threatened and targeted people who owed Chester money, Johansson said.

“Coleman would often use physical and electronic surveillance, such as trackers, to track their victims and obtain a pattern of life so they could carry out their act,” Johansson said.

‘Tasked with murdering’

Johansson said they learned about Chester’s involvement as the department continued to build a case against Coleman last year. 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.

“Michael Coleman was tasked with murdering those who shorted Chester’s money,” Johansson said. “And if Coleman couldn’t get to who owed them, he would target their family members, which is what happened in the Kidada Stewart and William Hill cases.”

Johansson added that Ardlanders Gibson, the man convicted of driving the getaway car in McCarty’s murder, McCarty himself, and Michael Coleman were all a part of the Rollin’ 60s Crips, a criminal street gang in Las Vegas.

In the early 2000s, more than 20 men associated with the gang were indicted on federal charges, including arson, attempted murder, and sex trafficking.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Johansson said that the indictment created “internal strife” in the group and motivated McCarty’s killing.

Chester shot dead

In March of this year, Chester was also killed in a shooting. Police alleged that the event was an act of retaliation and that those arrested included relatives of Hill.

In the briefing, Johansson said that DNA evidence and ballistic information helped exonerate Oscar Richardson, who was initially — and falsely — accused of Larry’s murder in 2021.

“At the end of the day, we got it wrong on the Oscar Richardson part. But as in every one of our investigations, the work doesn’t end on the day of the arrest,” Johansson said. “The minute our detectives began to uncover evidence that he was likely not our suspect, we acted on that as fast as we could. Additional evidence from these other investigations allowed us to be where we are today.”

Coleman was being held at the Clark County Detention Center. He was set to appear in court on Wednesday morning.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.