Fatal Hotel Shooting Followed 'Midday Adventures': Prosecutors

SKOKIE, IL — The Evanston man charged with the first-degree murder of another Evanston resident in last month's fatal hotel shooting was extradited from Wisconsin Tuesday before being ordered held without bail at an initial court appearance Thursday in Skokie.

Patrick Jenkins, 24, of the 900 block of North Sherman Avenue, was arrested on Feb. 1 in Milwaukee by a U.S. Marshals Service task force in connection with the Jan. 19 homicide of 34-year-old Dyrek Coleman at the Hampton Inn and Suites Chicago North Shore/Skokie at 5201 Old Orchard Road.

Coleman was found shot dead on the floor of an eighth-floor hotel room shortly before 5 p.m. that day. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a homicide.

Known as "DC" and "Nunu," Coleman was the youngest of three brothers and a father of three, according to an obituary. After graduating from Evanston Township High School, Coleman studied music at Columbia College and later moved to Atlanta before returning to Evanston to be nearer to his family.

According to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, a longtime acquaintance of Jenkins invited him over to the hotel around 2 p.m., while Coleman and a friend showed up shortly before 3:30 p.m., after Jenkins' acquaintance arranged to exchange cannabis and pills.

The acquaintance and his girlfriend, who had been celebrating her birthday, had been scheduled to check out by noon, but they stayed into the afternoon, waiting to be asked to leave, prosecutors said.

For more than an hour, the five people hung out in the room listening to music, smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, according to prosecutors. One of the witnesses posted a video to social media around 4:30 p.m. with the caption "Midday Adventures" showing the alleged revelry.

But an argument broke out between Jenkins and Coleman about 15 minutes after the video was posted. According to prosecutors, the argument related to a lottery ticket and the murder of someone who may have been related to Jenkins.

Prosecutors said Jenkins pulled out a 9 mm pistol and shot Coleman in the head as he sat on a bed. After Coleman fell to the ground, Jenkins shot him four more times in the head, the judge was told.

After the shooting, Jenkins grabbed the woman who had been celebrating her birthday, held her in a chokehold and threatened her with a gun to her head after the two other men fled the room, according to prosecutors. Jenkins then allegedly picked up the shell casings as the woman gathered the phones and clothes that had been left behind.

A subsequent search of the hotel room revealed a large five-pointed star drawn on a window pane with "BPSN" written beneath it, symbols associated with the Chicago-based Almighty Black P. Stone Nation street gang, in addition to fired bullets, spent shell casings and Coleman's cell phone.

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According to prosecutors, Jenkins is seen on hotel surveillance footage leaving the building while carrying bags from the room and wearing one of the witnesses' clothes.

Investigators also tracked Jenkins cellphone to the area of the Hampton Inn around the time of the murder and, afterwards, up to Milwaukee, where he was taken into custody at a family member's home in possession of the murder weapon, prosecutors said, noting that Jenkins switched his cellphone into airplane mode more than 170 times in the days following the murder.

In a statement, Skokie police said only that investigators determined that Jenkins and Colemen had been "involved in a verbal altercation that escalated" prior to the fatal shooting.

According to prosecutors, Jenkins, who had been arrested by Evanston police last summer, has one previous adult felony conviction — for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon after he was found with a loaded gun during a traffic stop. He also has a misdemeanor resisting arrest conviction and another pending resisting charge.

Jenkins is due back in court March 3 on the first-degree murder charge, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office.

Earlier: Man Wanted In Skokie Murder Arrested By US Marshals In Milwaukee