Normal homicide could have been a catalyst for a fatal shooting this spring
PEORIA − A fatal shooting in May that left a Peoria man dead was in retaliation for a homicide last fall in Normal and could have been a case of mistaken identity.
That’s the conclusion a Peoria detective drew when applying for a search warrant earlier this year to obtain phone records from the suspected triggerman linked to the death of Roger Browder on May 21.
Stephen Coaxum has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Browder’s death. When he was arrested, police seized his iPhone and then asked a judge for permission to search it.
Using phone records, rental car receipts, license plate cameras and newspaper obituaries, detectives here were able to piece together the case in about a month before arresting Coaxum in late June.
More:Teen arrested in connection with deadly shooting in Peoria's North Valley
The Journal Star filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Normal Police Department which was denied due to the pending investigation into Roy Ward, III’s death in September 2021. So far, no one has been arrested, said Lt. Tim Edmiaston of the Normal Police Department.
The shooting
Browder, 21, was killed two days after his birthday after being shot multiple times in the 1500 block of North Bigelow Street. Police were called to the area at about 12:27 p.m., after the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system indicated four rounds had been fired, according to an affidavit that had been filed with the search warrant request.
When they arrived, they found a black Jeep Cherokee facing north had “come to rest” against another vehicle that was on the curb on the east side of the street. Browder was inside the Jeep in the driver’s seat, the affidavit stated.
The Jeep had been struck multiple times by gunfire on the driver’s side and officers found seven spent shell casings on the ground near the rear of the vehicle, the complaint stated. Officers also found two handguns, which had been under Browder’s legs inside the Jeep.
The 20-year-old passenger told police he and Browder had been at the Peoria High School graduation ceremony and were now driving back to the school but had been rerouted through the neighborhood due to high traffic.
They were headed north on Bigelow when a car that was headed south started to shoot at them, the passenger told police. The passenger said they had been at Central earlier and had not had any issues, the complaint stated. The officer, however, noted the passenger was “less than cooperative and his story made little sense.”
Checking for footage
Quickly, detectives began to check nearby homes for any security camera footage and found that a gray Chevrolet Malibu had left the area at a high rate of speed, the complaint states. Footage from the high school showed the same car circling the parking lot as if looking for someone, the detective noted in his complaint.
Relatively new technology, license plate cameras, proved to be invaluable. By plugging in the make and model of the car, police were able to get a plate and find out the car was rented by a Peoria woman from Enterprise Rent-a-Car on Pioneer Parkway the day before the shooting.
Detectives then learned the car was traded in at Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport for a pickup truck three hours after the fatal shooting, the complaint states. Following behind the woman as she left in the new vehicle was a man driving another car. That man was believed to be Coaxum, the complaint stated.
Using cell tower records and call reports, police determined the woman and Coaxum were calling each other on the day of the shooting. One call, the complaint states, was less than two minutes after the shooting and as the car was driving away from the scene.
A possible suspect
At the same time, officers were also checking social media accounts tied to Browder, Coaxum, the woman and the passenger in Browder's car. The Journal Star is not naming the latter two as they are not facing charges related to the shooting.
Among the things they turned up was a Jan. 14, 2022, incident involving the shooting of a house in the 2700 block of North Dechman Avenue. That house, the detective said in the complaint, was occupied by the male passenger in Browder's car as well as his brother and his mother.
One man was arrested and charged with a weapons offense after his vehicle was seen leaving the area, according to the complaint. Shell casings found near the house on Dechman matched shell casings found in the weapon. And the car was registered to the mother of the woman who had rented the car the day before Browder was killed.
Officers followed the pickup truck around the city and quickly believed it was Coaxum who was driving it. He was well known to local police, having been a suspect in two prior homicides and also being "implicated in a staggering amount of shooting investigations over the years," the affidavit states before listing several cases from 2004 through 2010. And he was also on federal supervised release after serving a sentence stemming from 2017 weapons office, according to records from the U.S. Circuit Clerk's office.
The woman who had rented the car, it was learned, had also bought a 9mm Glock handgun in January. Officers found that interesting as Coaxum was seen after the homicide at a local sporting goods store trying to buy an extended magazine for a 9mm handgun and seven spent 9mm shell casings were found at the Browder homicide scene, the complaint states.
The rental vehicle was exchanged two more times at Enterprise by the woman and each time, it was followed by police to her apartment where Coaxum was seen. He was also seen by officers putting gas into the vehicle, the affidavit states.
The Normal Connection
On June 1, officers from Peoria began talking to Normal detectives about the death of Roy Ward, III, after being told by anonymous tipsters that Ward's death on Sept. 19, 2021, was linked to Browder's death. A detective there told Peoria police that the brother of the person who was in Browder's car at the time of the fatal shooting was a "person of interest" in Ward's death.
That's because a handgun, a Walther CCP, seized in an Oct. 10, 2021, traffic stop in Central Peoria was the one that "deposited shell casings at the Ward crime scene in Normal," the complaint stated. The brother who has not been charged in connection with Ward's death, is set for an April 2023, jury trial on a weapons charge related to that stop.
The Normal detective noted the woman who was linked to Coaxum and who had rented the cars from Enterprise had been on contact with her regarding Ward's death and believed the brother was involved. A search of online obituaries from area newspapers indicated the woman was related to Ward, the affidavit stated.
Given that, and that her brother was arrested for a weapons offense related to the Dechman Avenue shooting, Peoria detectives began to draw conclusions.
"Complainant believes Browder's homicide to be connected to Ward's homicide as well as the shooting of the {Dechman Avenue) residence in January of 2022.
Moreover, they began to think Browder wasn't the intended target and that even his passenger who was in the car wasn't the target. Rather, it was the passenger's brother, the one set for an April 2023 jury trial related to the gun fond in a traffic stop, that was the target.
"Surveillance footage from Peoria Central High showed (Browder's passenger) wearing hood pulled up over his head while he was in attendance of the graduation ceremony. Complainant believes (the passenger's brother) was likely the intended target and that its possible (Browder's passenger) was mistaken for his brother who looks strikingly similar."
Where the case stands
Coaxum's case is scheduled for a Dec. 15 hearing where he will appear in Circuit Judge John Vespa's courtroom. He has previously asked that Judges Kevin Lyons and Albert Purham, Jr., both former prosecutors, be disqualified from his case.
A trial date has not been set. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Was a Peoria homicide linked to a Normal murder? Detectives think so
