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Murder victim’s girlfriend details robbery that went bad

Reluctant witness breaks silence
February 27, 2017

A former girlfriend of one of two men who died in a January 2014 double homicide in Millsboro took the witness stand Feb. 27 and detailed a weekend of drug use that led to a robbery and ultimately to the double murder.

Rachel Rentoul is serving 15 years in prison for her role in the robbery, home invasion and theft that preceded the murders. She testified extensively about the weekend of Jan. 10, 2014, which ended with her then-boyfriend, Cletis Nelson, and his friend, William Hopkins, dead in their home on Harmons Hill Road. Rentoul is one of the prosecution’s key witnesses in the first-degree murder case of Rhamir Waples, 20, who prosecutors say was part of a gang that robbed and then killed Nelson and Hopkins.

Rentoul said she had been dating Nelson for about six weeks. She said after she lost custody of her two children in February 2012, her life spiraled out of control. Rentoul said she had turned to prostitution for money, and she was using more than 30 bags of heroin a day and two grams of cocaine a day. She said Nelson supplied her with heroin. Rentoul testified she knew Nelson through Nelson’s roommate, Ed Cannon, whom Rentoul had known since she was 15.

The weekend of the murders, Rentoul testified, she and Nelson had an argument after she found out Nelson was having an affair with another woman. Rentoul said she and her roommate, Jackie Heverin, decided to get a hotel room. She stayed in touch with Nelson, making multiple trips to Nelson’s home to buy heroin.

At the hotel, Rentoul said, she and Heverin partied with an acquaintance of Rentoul’s, Carlton Gibbs. She said the trio partied into the night, drinking beer and gin, and using heroin and cocaine. Rentoul said she bought four bundles, 13 bags to a bundle, from Nelson at different points in the night. On one trip, she testified, she saw Nelson counting $5,000 on a table. Rentoul said she did not stockpile the drugs, but instead began using them as soon as she got back to the hotel each time.

On the third trip back to Nelson’s to buy heroin, Rentoul testified that Cannon wanted to go to Rehoboth Shores to get his hair cut. After she dropped off Cannon, Rentoul said she got another bundle from Nelson and went back to the hotel, where Gibbs had brought some friends who included Steven Kellam, known to Rentoul as Silk. Rentoul said she called Nelson again to try to score more heroin, this time with all of Gibbs’ friends listening in. She told Gibbs’ friends that Nelson had drugs and cash at the house, and when Hopkins’ name came up, one of Gibbs’ friends, who Rentoul said had stitches in his head, mentioned that Hopkins had hit him with a bottle in an earlier fight. That testimony matched a police interview played Feb. 23, when Cannon also said that Hopkins and Nelson had been in a fight with one of Kellam’s friends. On cross-examination, Rentoul said she had encountered the man with stitches earlier in the day at a liquor store, and it was this man, not yet identified at trial, who suggested the robbery.

When Rentoul mentioned money and drugs at the Harmons Hill Road house, Gibbs, Kellam and their friends plotted to rob Nelson and Hopkins. Rentoul, agreeing to set up Nelson in exchange for a cut of the money, said she made the call to get another bag of heroin, leading the caravan to the house before she and Heverin drove away. After using more drugs, Rentoul said, she had thought about going back to stay with Nelson, but they had paid $85 for a hotel room, so she decided against it.

When asked by prosecutor Chris Hutchison why she had arranged the robbery, Rentoul said she did not think the gang would go through with it.

“Nobody was supposed to get hurt,” Rentoul testified.

Later that night, she said, she went back to the hotel, where Gibbs and Kellam were sitting at a table. Rentoul said Kellam gave her $500 as her cut of the robbery proceeds.

The next day, she said, she met with Cannon, who was frantic and shaking. Rentoul said at first, Cannon did not tell her why he was so freaked out, only that he wanted to go back to his house to get some clothes. It was at the house where Cannon told her that Nelson and Hopkins were dead.

Rentoul said she was questioned three times by Delaware State Police about the murders, saying the first two times, she was terrified to talk. But after being picked up on prostitution charges, Rentoul told what she knew to a cellmate. Police interviewed her a third time, and she finally told them what happened.

Defense attorney Thomas Pedersen sought to contrast Rentoul’s confident demeanor on the stand with her previous interviews with detectives, specifically the second, recorded in late January 2014. In the video of that interview, Rentoul is alternately defensive, evasive and argumentative. Some of the details matched her testimony on the witness stand, but others did not, including her memory of how many people were in the hotel room the night of the murders, and refusing to say she was a prostitute. On further cross-examination by Pedersen, Rentoul admitted she lied and withheld information from detectives because she was embarrassed. As Pedersen continued to question her, Rentoul also confirmed that she had been ripping off Gibbs that night - she said Gibbs gave her $80 for heroin but Nelson only charged her $35 to $40 and she kept the rest - and that she helped set up the robbery of Nelson. Pedersen also said Rentoul’s cut of the robbery was supposed to be $1,000, but she only got $500. Pedersen also attacked Rentoul for lying on the stand about her jail sentence, as Rentoul testified she was serving eight years when she her sentence is actually 15 years. Pedersen said Rentoul only became more forthcoming with her account of what happened after taking a plea deal in hopes of reducing her sentence.

Reluctant witness speaks

After refusing to answer questions Feb. 23, Cannon remained on the witness stand, as technical snafus prevented prosecutors from playing all of his statements to police in place of oral testimony.

Cannon was again hesitant to speak on cross-examination by Pedersen, who accused Cannon of looking out for himself and implicating others when it became clear that Cannon was going to do serious time for escaping from a work-release program; Cannon is serving five years in prison for escape. Pedersen said after Cannon had discovered the bodies of Nelson and Hopkins, he returned to the house to take drugs and cash. 

On redirect from prosecutor Martin Cosgrove, Cannon was more willing to speak. Cannon said when he saw the bodies of Nelson and Hopkins, he sought to flee the area, but he called police because he wanted to clear his name and not be connected with the murders. He said he knew Kellam and that he thought he saw Kellam near his house on the night of the murders. Cannon said he knew of Waples’ codefendant Damon Bethea, but he did not know Waples, Shamir Stratton or Richard Robinson, all of whom prosecutors say took part in the murders. Prosecutors say Kellam was the ringleader of a crime ring that robbed drug houses in Kent and Sussex counties, and that he often used muscle from out of town to do so.

Robinson and Stratton have already accepted guilty pleas on murder and home invasion charges and could testify in the trial.

 

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