On July 18, 2008, Jenai Coleman was reading the Bible in her car near a train station when a man approached her with a gun.
A gunman emerged from a gas station across the street, pointed a gun at her and demanded she get out of her gold Dodge Stratus. He shot the 40-year-old woman in the chest, dragged her from the car and drove off.
Coleman, a resident of Gwinnett County, Georgia, has passed away.
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The murder is the subject of Oxygen's true crime docuseries “Real Murders in Atlanta,” which focuses on the “shocking, sinful and sordid murders” that took place in the “music, entertainment and technology mecca” of Atlanta. The show features interviews with loved ones, investigators and others connected to the murders.
Jenai Coleman was murdered on July 18, 2008. She was 40 years old. The Navy reservist was shot to death in her car outside a shopping mall in Atlanta. (oxygen)
Gwinnett County Police Department Crime Scene Supervisor Brittany Barrington was at the scene.
“This was a crime of opportunity,” Barrington explained to Fox News Digital. “She was doing something that people do every day. I do it sometimes, everybody does it. Just sitting in their car on their phone, not caring, just parking in the wrong place, and he took advantage of that. This was a crime of opportunity. He needed her car and he was going to take it.”
Coleman's family later contacted police after becoming concerned when the mother of three adopted children did not return home. Investigators confirmed that Coleman was the victim.
The episode revealed that Ms Coleman was a beloved teacher and soon-to-be grandmother.
Jenai Coleman is a beloved Georgia teacher and soon-to-be grandmother, pictured here with some close friends. (oxygen)
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Coleman had parked his car near a popular shopping mall, but Barrington said the crime scene was “minimal” — there was a pool of blood and no suspects.
“All the major pieces of evidence that would have been an immediate lead were gone,” she said. “What stood out to me was the car was gone. There were no fired shell casings on the ground. And we knew there had been a shooting. So that immediately raised the suspicion that the shell casings had been left in the car. They may have been picked up. The gun that was used may have been a revolver, so there shouldn't have been any shell casings left.”
There were witnesses.
Jenai Coleman was waiting for her daughter to come out of work when she was targeted by a stranger. (oxygen)
According to the episode, the bus driver said she saw a man walk to the driver's side of the vehicle and call Coleman a “motherfucker,” then she heard gunshots and saw a man drag Coleman from the vehicle to the ground.
Coleman's car was found parked in a parking lot about 40 miles away, with a cigarette butt on the floor.
“The small chance of finding a cigarette butt turned out to be a huge clue with DNA,” Barrington said. “It immediately opened up a new dimension to the investigation.”
The cigarettes were submitted for DNA testing.
The episode also shows detectives reviewing surveillance footage and finding a man purchasing a pack of Bronson Lights cigarettes at a gas station. The Bronson filters matched those found in the recovered cigarette butts. The same man was seen walking through the parking lot approximately 15 feet from where the car was abandoned.
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Cigarette butts were found in Jenai Coleman's car, and family members confirmed that Coleman was not a smoker. (Oxygen)
The DNA test results came back, identifying a man named Donald Smith.
According to investigators, Smith had previously been charged with armed robbery, making him a “strong suspect.” Investigators obtained his cell phone records and discovered that his cell phone was transmitting signals to a cell tower near the crime scene on the night of the murder. He also bore a strong resemblance to a man seen on security camera footage.
Police were confident they had caught the killer, but when Smith was brought in for questioning, he claimed he had never seen Coleman or her car. When police told him they had his DNA, Smith responded, “So what?”
“I was never in that car so there's no way my DNA could have been on that car,” Smith said.
Witnesses, including a bus driver, heard gunshots and then saw Jenai Coleman being dragged from the vehicle by a man. (oxygen)
Mr Smith was then shown the CCTV footage.
“That's definitely not me,” he said.
Smith also said the cell phone number police found belonged to his brother, an identical twin.
“Donald and Ronald. He's my twin,” Smith said.
Barrington said murder cases involving identical twins are “extremely rare.”
“This is the only major identical twin murder case that the police department has handled,” she explained, “and we haven't been to a crime scene involving identical twins since then. This was a unique experience. We don't normally handle cases like this. Usually it's one person, or if there are twins, they're fraternal twins. But the uniqueness of identical twins is very rare.”
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Police found fingerprints that belonged to Ronald Smith. (oxygen)
Smith initially denied implicating his brother, Ronald Smith, who also lives in Gwinnett County, but later admitted that Ronald was the man seen on the security footage.
Cigarette butts and fingerprints were found in the car, which may provide clues as to which of the twins is the culprit.
“Even identical twins have unique fingerprint characteristics that distinguish siblings,” Barrington said, “which helped us determine which brother had placed his hand on the roof of Jenai's car, and which brother was the actual suspect.”
The fingerprints matched Ronald's.
Ronald was later arrested and admitted to killing Coleman and taking her car and abandoning her. He claimed the shooting was an “accident.”
“It was a moment of ignorance,” Ronald claimed, the Oxygen series shows. “They tried to take my car at gunpoint. The gun went off.”
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In October 2012, Ronald was convicted of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, vehicular hijacking and possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony. Gwinnett Daily Post He was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 25 years.
Barrington said a crime like this “can happen to anyone at any time.”
“Please be aware of your surroundings,” she warned, “and remember that detectives, police and whoever is investigating are passionate about achieving justice. They want to help.”
“There's an emotional toll,” Barrington reflects, “and a professional toll. But that's why we're here, that's why we exist.”
“Real Murders in Atlanta” airs Saturdays at 9 p.m.
