Did cops get right man in killing?
Authorities re-examine ‘Baby Bill’ Thao case
Thirteen-month-old Bill Thao was playing with Legos on the floor of a relative's house just after Christmas 2014 when a cascade of bullets riddled the home and killed the infant.
The death of the child, who became known as “Baby Bill,” occurred during a spate of shootings that claimed the lives of three children in Milwaukee over five months.
Milwaukee police detectives found 41 bullet casings on the street in front of the Thao home on the city’s northwest side, fired from three different guns. Authorities believe drug dealers shot up the wrong house, trying to kill a rival dealer.
Clearly, there were multiple shooters, but only one man — Darmequaye Cohill — was charged in the crime. He was convicted and sentenced to 50 years behind bars.
But information gathered by law enforcement suggests police and prosecutors got the wrong man and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has hired a special investigator to examine the new evidence, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has learned.
At least three informants have separately told investigators that Cohill wasn’t the shooter and wasn’t even at the scene on Dec. 27, 2014, when gunmen sprayed the Thao home, according to documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel.
Information from jailhouse informants is carefully examined to deter-
mine if they have legitimate information or are making something up to get a break in their sentence. The documents say the informants have provided solid information in the past and independently provided the same details.
But information in the investigation has dried up after a state prison sergeant identified a group of informants at the Redgranite Correctional Institution by putting pictures of rats next to their names on a list that was stolen and circulated among inmates. Investigators were using those informants to look into the Thao murder.
Last year, Chisholm hired a special prosecutor to re-examine the case, tapping David Robles, who spent more than three decades in the office before retiring, sources told the Journal Sentinel.
Chisholm confirmed that Robles has been reviewing the Thao murder case for several months. He said it is normal to conduct a careful review of a highprofile case, like the Thao murder, that is headed for appeal.
A special prosecutor was needed here, Chisholm said, to evaluate the new information and because the prosecutor who tried the case is no longer with his office.
Chisholm noted the case remains open because, regardless of what may happen with Cohill’s appeal, there are at least two other people who were firing guns at the scene that night who have not been caught.
“We have an obligation to investigate new additional information,” he told the Journal Sentinel. "I want no stone unturned that we can and make sure we are doing what we are obligated to do."
More than three years after Cohill's sentencing, an appeal has not been formally filed —an unusually long period — as his lawyers await the results of Robles’ review of the case.
Cohill's attorney, Craig Powell, has requested a dozen extensions, all of which have been unopposed by Chisholm's office.
In a filing with the Appeals Court, Powell writes that he and the District Attorney's Office are working “collaboratively at this time in an effort to resolve as many issues as possible.”
Cohill sits in prison after being convicted in the murder of Baby Bill, as well as shooting at a rival dealer the night before and, separately, for selling heroin.
Even if a new trial is ordered, it appears unlikely Cohill would simply walk free from prison. He could, for instance, face different charges related to the death of Baby Bill. .
In a statement provided this week, Powell said Cohill, 25, was wrongfully convicted in the shooting death of Baby Bill.
“We remain resolute in our efforts to exonerate Mr. Cohill and we are confident that the truth will emerge,” Powell said.
Window into drug trade
The events leading up to Baby Bill’s death provided a glimpse into the ruthless, drug-dealing landscape in Milwaukee.
Cohill was part of a drug-dealing gang known as Bless Team. Five years ago, it was one of several outfits raking in huge amounts of cash selling heroin from cars that fanned across the Milwaukee metro area.
The business was driven by dealers' phone numbers. Each number may be linked to dozens or even hundreds of heroin buyers.
In December 2014, Cohill’s girlfriend was upset and posted Cohill’s number on Facebook for anyone to take. Kwesen Sanders took the number and managed to have Virgin Mobile assign it to his phone, so he could start getting the calls
from Cohill’s customers.
Cohill quickly realized what happened. On Dec. 26, Cohill asked a customer to lead him to Sanders, who lived near N. 73rd Street and W. Mill Road.
As the customer was buying from Sanders, a car with four men inside appeared and shots were fired at Sanders but he was not struck. From several accounts, Cohill was in that car.
The following night, the car was back, again with four men inside. Three gunmen opened fire, spraying the Thao house — which was identical to the house Sanders lived in next door.
Sanders told police he saw Cohill among the four men.
Cohill was charged. Though four men were reportedly in the car, including three shooters, no one else was charged.
Sanders' account played a key role in the case. However, while on the witness stand Sanders changed his story, saying he knew for sure that Cohill was not there the night that Baby Bill was shot.
Prosecutor Antoni Apollo countered by putting on a Milwaukee police detective who had interviewed Sanders after the murder. That put Sanders' original account before the jury.
Meanwhile, a cellphone expert hired by the defense testified Cohill’s phone was two miles away at the time of the shooting.
The prosecutor questioned the cellphone evidence, suggesting that Cohill may have had other phones.
Prosecutors didn’t have to show motive, but it always helps convince a jury when there is one. Cohill certainly had one.
The jury took two hours to convict Cohill.
Calling the crime “outrageous and evil,” Milwaukee Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner sentenced him to 50 years in January 2016.
During the sentencing, Wagner asked: “Why should there be hope for yourself? There shouldn’t be.”
Cohill blurted out: “Because I didn’t do it.”
New information emerges
A year after Cohill’s sentencing, a state drug agent was interviewing an informant about drug dealing in Milwaukee. According to an internal memo obtained by the Journal Sentinel, the man made a startling statement: Cohill was not among the four men who opened fire at the Thao home the night Baby Bill was shot.
The informant, who like Cohill and the others was a member of the Bless Team gang, said he was in an apartment after the Thao shooting where gang members mapped out their plan: The gang told Cohill they would pay $60,000for an attorney for him.
They told Cohill not to worry — “no jury would convict him because he wasn’t there,” according to the memo by Bodo Gajevic, a special agent with the Department of Justice.
The informant also said gang members arranged to send the car used in the Thao shooting to Chicago to be shredded.
In January 2017, the new information went to then-Assistant District Attorney Laura Crivello, who prosecuted several Bless Team gang members on drug charges, but was not involved with the Thao murder case.
Crivello contacted her colleague, Assistant District Attorney Paul Tiffin, head of the homicide team, with the informant’s information on the Thao murder, leaving a lengthy voicemail. Tiffin didn't return the call, the report says.
The situation was unusual because Apollo, the prosecutor who handled the Thao case, was no longer with the District Attorney’s Office.
He and another prosecutor were charged with attempted misconduct in public office. They tried to cover up a decision by one of them to dismiss a case against a man who had injured a police officer.
In an interview Friday, Apollo said that before the trial Cohill's defense attorneys offered evidence that other suspects were responsible for the shooting, but that was rejected.
With no response from Tiffin, Gajevic wrote a two-page memo, which “was not, understandably, well-received by either the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office or the Milwaukee Police Department,” according to a second longer memo he crafted.
Gajevic also alerted Cohill’s attorney, Powell, according to the memo.
Around this time, Gajevic and his partner, DCI Special Agent Todd Higgins, began investigating threats against Crivello, who has since become a judge in Milwaukee County. Crivello was the prosecutor for several drug cases against the Bless Team.
Ultimately, Bless Team member Steve Jordan and his mother, Latasha Savage, were charged with plotting to have Crivello killed. His mother pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation this week. Jordan is set to go to trial later this year.
In January 2018, Gajevic submitted the second memo, which noted that two other confidential informants had independently come forward with similar information —that Cohill was not at the scene of the Thao murder.
Gajevic wrote that he submitted the 11-page memo to fulfill “my ethical obligation and duty to disclose any and all exculpatory material about this criminal case in my possession.”
Exculpatory refers to evidence that could to be used to exonerate a defendant.
Asked about the new evidence in the memo, a Milwaukee police spokeswoman issued this statement: “MPD takes this homicide investigation very seriously and acknowledges that this is an open investigation as Mr. Cohill was convicted of two felony charges which were both party to a crime."
That suggests detectives continue to look for other shooters in the case.
Informants exposed
Investigators at Redgranite Correctional Institution last year were looking into the Thao murder and separately the plot to kill Crivello, according to retired Department of Corrections Capt. Jason Wilke.
Both investigations were severely damaged, Wilke said, when prison Sgt. Robert Wilcox labeled informants on a list of inmates by putting images of rats next to their names. The list was left where inmates could see it and a copy was quickly stolen.
Word quickly spread about which inmates were informants, prompting other inmates to clam up.
Wilcox told internal investigators he had labeled the informants as rats because he wanted to keep track of where they were located. He said he didn’t think the list would get into the hands of the inmates and called it a "dumb" mistake.
Wilcox was suspended for a day without pay.
Wilke and two informants later received death threats.
Wilke said one of the informants was getting another inmate to talk about the Thao shooting. Wilke said investigators planted secret recording devices in the prison and expected to get a prisoner to make comments on tape that would bolster the investigation.
Asked how the exposure of informants by Wilcox affected the Thao investigation, Wilke said, “Without a doubt, it destroyed it."
Reporters Patrick Marley, Ashley Luthern and Bruce Vielmetti contributed to this report.