Maryland man sentenced to life in prison for contract killings

Nico Rossi
·5 min read
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(WBRE/WYOU) — The United States Attorney`s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Johnny Jenkins-Armstrong, 26, of Baltimore, Maryland, was sentenced on December 4, to life imprisonment for his role in the June 25, 2016 murders of three individuals in Franklin County, one of whom was cooperating with state and federal drug investigators.

Officials say the sentence was imposed by United States District Court Conner, who also sentenced Kenyatta Corbett to a consecutive 20-year term in prison on a companion robbery charge.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Kenyatta Corbett was also convicted as the result of a seven-year investigation into three murders that occurred on June 25, 2016, on a property along Welsh Run Road in Mercersburg, Franklin County.

PSP responded to the scene, and found the bodies of Wendy Ann Chaney, 39, Hagerstown, MD, Brandon Cole, 47, Fayetteville, PA, and Phillip Matthew Jackson, 36, Mercersburg, PA, in a barn on victim Jackson’s property.

U.S. Officials say all three victims were shot, had their hands zipped-tied behind their backs, and had been set on fire. Jackson and Cole were shot once in the head and Chaney was shot twice, once in the back and once in the back of her neck. Wendy Chaney and Brandon Cole were already dead when the police responded to the scene. Phillip Jackson was transported to York Hospital where he died shortly after arrival.

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According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the evidence previously presented at Jenkins-Armstrong’s guilty plea established that Wendy Chaney was in a relationship with co-defendants Kevin Coles and Torey White and had been previously assisting both with their drug distribution operation.

Officials say Coles, White, co-defendant Devin Dickerson, and co-defendant Kenyatta Corbett, also a heroin trafficker in Hagerstown and areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, learned that Chaney was cooperating with federal authorities and contracted for her to be murdered.

Law enforcement says Corbett, and co-defendant Jerell Adgebesan who worked for Corbett recruited members of a Baltimore-based gang known as the “Black Guerilla Family” and others from Baltimore including Jenkins-Armstrong to travel to the Jackson property to kill Wendy Chaney as Adgebesan knew these individuals from Baltimore. The killers were promised that they could take as payment $20,000 that was to be in a safe in the barn and any drugs and guns that they could locate on the Jackson property.

According to Karam, Chaney was killed to protect the drug trafficking activities of Corbett, Coles, White, Dickerson, and others. Jackson and Cole were murdered to prevent them from being witnesses to the crimes of violence that were committed at the Jackson property. The killers never found any money on the property but stole some drugs and firearms.

The following individuals were charged along with Corbett as a result of the investigation:

  • Jerell Adgebesan, age 35, of Baltimore and Hagerstown, Maryland, was sentenced to life imprisonment for participating in the murder of three people including a federal witness;

  • Devin Dickerson, age 31, Hagerstown, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and crack cocaine and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment;

  • Torey White, age 32, Waynesboro, PA, was convicted by a federal jury in May of 2023 of three counts of first-degree murder. His conviction is on appeal;

  • Michael Buck, age 30, Hagerstown, pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robbery and to being an accomplice to the use of a firearm during Hobbs Act robbery and is awaiting sentencing;

  • Nicholas Preddy, age 29, Baltimore, pleaded guilty to attempting to kill a witness and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment;

  • Kenyatta Corbett, age 41, of Hagerstown and Baltimore, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the murders and a consecutive 20-year term of imprisonment on a Hobbs Act robbery charge. Corbett pled guilty to those charges;

  • Terrance Lawson, age 31, Baltimore, sentenced to time served for attempting to intimidate a witness;

  • Tyrone Armstrong, age 30, Baltimore, sentenced to time served for attempting to intimidate a witness;

  • Christopher Johnson, age 31, Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty to multiple counts including murder for hire, and is awaiting sentencing;

  • Mark Johnson, 35, Baltimore, Maryland, pled guilty to obstructing the grand jury investigation and was sentenced to 110 months imprisonment;

  • Llesenia Woodard, 46, Hagerstown, Maryland, pled guilty to providing false testimony to the grand jury investigating the murders and is awaiting sentencing

  • Kevin Coles, age 36, of New York, NY and Hagerstown, Maryland, was found guilty in April 2022 of multiple crimes, including murder for hire, robbery, and drug trafficking, and was sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences;

  • Yolanda Diaz, 31, Hagerstown, Md, indicted on multiple counts of perjury and obstruction of justice based upon her testimony at the Coles trial. Her trial is currently scheduled for February 2024.

  • Joshua Davis, age 30, previously pled guilty to participating in the conspiracy to locate and kill an individual believed to be cooperating with federal authorities in the investigation of the triple murders. Davis was sentenced to serve 100 months’ imprisonment.

Assistant United States Attorney William A. Behe, Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, and Senior Litigation Counsel Michael Consiglio prosecuted these cases.

This prosecution is also part of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) identified as “Retribution for Welsh Run”. OCDETF is a joint federal, state, and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nation`s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations, and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.

All persons charged are presumed innocent unless and until found guilty in court.

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