Dellmus Colvin, Serving Life for Killing Toledo Women, Is Indicted in a 1987 Atlantic City Death Once Blamed on Cocaine
Donna Lee White's death had been ruled cocaine toxicity and the case closed. New Jersey prosecutors reopened it after learning of Colvin's Ohio record.
Published
Donna Lee White's 1987 death in Atlantic City was blamed on cocaine, and the case was closed. In June 2010, prosecutors indicted Dellmus Colvin, a trucker already serving life in Ohio, in her killing.
Colvin had confessed in 2006 to killing five women in northwest Ohio between 2000 and 2005, Toledo's WNWO reported on June 25, 2010. Charged with the murders of Melissa Weber, 37, and Jackie Simpson, 33, both of Toledo, he offered near the end of his trial to plead guilty to those and three other killings in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. He was serving a life sentence at the Toledo Correctional Institution. White, 27, of Somers Point, New Jersey, had been found dead in a vacant lot in Atlantic City in September 1987. Colvin was charged at the time with hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence, but the case was closed after an autopsy found she died of acute cocaine intoxication. Prosecutors in Mays Landing reopened it after learning of his Ohio convictions.
Colvin waived extradition to New Jersey in March 2011. On April 8, 2011, he pleaded guilty to killing White and admitted leaving her body in the vacant lot.
WPVI reported that the White case was reopened in 2009, while the Associated Press, citing The Press of Atlantic City, said New Jersey authorities began reviewing old cases in 2010.
Sources
- Toledo serial killer tied to Atlantic City murder, WNWO NBC24 (Toledo)
- Trucker Waives Extradition to NJ, NBC10 Philadelphia
- Guilty plea in killing of NJ woman in 1987, WPVI 6abc (AP)
Related News
- October 21, 2005: DNA Under a Murdered Woman's Fingernails Leads Toledo Prosecutors to Charge Truck Driver Dellmus Colvin