Opinion ID: 4556238
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Murder of David McKillop

Text: In September 1978, twenty-two-year-old David McKillop was brutally murdered in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Officers discovered McKillop’s body with his hands bound behind his back by an electrical cord and with seven gunshot wounds to his head. For twenty-eight years McKillop’s family had no answer as to who had murdered David. This changed in 2006, when Billy Joe Lolley, McKillop’s former real estate agent and neighbor, came forward to the police with a valuable clue. Lolley believed he was terminally ill and wanted to clear his conscience. Lolley had known Cooper in 1978 both as a neighbor and also through a mutual acquaintance, Donny McKitty. (R. 5.19; 5/9/12 Pros. Br. Mich. Ct. App.; Page ID 1186.) According to Lolley, Cooper was known by the nickname “Boo Boo” and was involved with a local gang-affiliated businessman, John Anderson. (Id., Page ID 1186-87.) Lolley was not part of the gang, but “just liked to party” with them on occasion. (Id., Page ID 1191.) Lolley also had known McKillop, who had been the real estate agent for Lolley and his wife. (Id., Page ID 1220.) Most critically relevant, Lolley revealed that back in 1978 Cooper had approached him with a proposal. According to Lolley, Cooper said that he had been paid $3,000 to kill someone, No. 18-1391 Cooper v. Chapman Page 3 and he in turn offered Lolley $1,500 to be his driver when Cooper made the hit. (5/5/11 Tr., R. 5.13, Page ID 766-67, 769). Lolley told the officers that he had declined Cooper’s offer because he thought Cooper was kidding. (Id., Page ID 766, 774). But it was no joke. Cooper later told Lolley that he had, in fact, killed someone. Cooper shared chilling details, according to Lolley, which included McKillop’s being tied up, forced to lie on the floor with a pillow over his head, and then being shot six to nine times in the head. (Id., Page ID 766-67, 769.). But it was all for naught. Lolley claimed that Cooper had said he had mistakenly killed the wrong person. The real target of the crime was not McKillop, but rather McKillop’s roommate, Paul Jenkins, because he owed money to Anderson. (Id., Page Id 768.). Accord People v. Cooper, No. 304620, 2013 Wl 2223896, at  (Mich. Ct. App. May 21, 2013). At the time, Jenkins’s business, Landmark Realty, was struggling with debts. (R. 5-19; 5/9/12 Pros. Br. Mich. Ct. App.; Page ID 1186.) Jenkins knew Anderson. However, at trial, Mr. Jenkins denied that he had owed Anderson—or anybody—any money related to Landmark, and he denied that he had dealt drugs through or with Anderson. (Id., n. 4., 5.) Jenkins also claimed that people who had rented property from him had owed him money. (Id., n. 4) However, Ms. Frazer, another witness who knew Jenkins, contradicted his statements. She claimed that in September 1978, Jenkins was worried about paying money back to “a loan shark or something.” But Jenkins denied that he had ever told Frazer that he owed somebody a lot of money, and he denied that he had dealt drugs through or with Anderson. (Id., n. 5.)