True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII (Wattys2025)

Kevin Keith: Wrongfully Convicted?

Kevin Keith (born December 18, 1963) is an American prisoner and former death row inmate from Ohio who was convicted of the 1994 triple-homicide that killed Marichell Chatman, her daughter Marchae, and Linda Chatman. In 2022, his case received international attention due to claims of innocence and controversy surrounding his trial and conviction highlighted on a podcast hosted by Kim Kardashian titled The System: The Case of Kevin Keith.

Early life

Keith was raised in Crestline, Ohio, where he lived at the time of the crime. Keith has one brother, Charles. In high school, Keith played defensive tackle at Canton McKinley High School, winning a state title in 1981. As Keith got older, he began dealing drugs to make a living.

Crime

On February 13, 1994, three people were killed and three people were injured in a shooting at the Bucyrus Estates apartments in Bucyrus, Ohio. Marichell Chatman, her daughter Marchae, and her aunt, Linda Chatman were killed in the shooting. Marichell Chatman's boyfriend, Richard Warren, and her cousins, six-year-old Quanita Reeves and four-year-old Quentin Reeves were wounded. Warren, who was shot in the jaw, took off running toward a restaurant and was shot again in the buttocks. At the restaurant, Warren told four people, including one police officer, that he did not know who had shot him.

Investigation and witness accounts

The first description of the scene describes "a large black man" at the apartment complex. Several days after the shooting, police interviewed one of the victims, Richard Warren. Warren stated that Linda Chatman had stepped outside of the apartment to meet a man. When Warren asked Marichell Chatman who the man was, she stated that "it was Kevin who had been involved in a large drug bust." Linda and the man, who wore a mask, then came inside and talked about the basketball game while the man drank two glasses of water through the mask that covered his mouth. Afterward, the man ordered them to lie on the ground and began shooting. It was later determined the large black man originally described was Keith's half-brother who had recently moved into the apartment complex. When a nurse asked Quanita Reeves, the six-year-old victim, whose fault it was that she was in the hospital, Quanita stated it was her "Daddy's friend," Bruce Melton and repeatedly asserted that Keith was not the shooter.

The Bucyrus Police Department and Crawford County prosecutors claimed that Keith carried out the shooting in retaliation for his January 1994 arrest for selling 2.6 grams of crack cocaine, which had resulted from information received from Rudel Chatman. At the time, Rudel Chatman was a confidential informant for the Galion Police Department. Keith was arrested on February 15, 1994, and his bond was set for $1 million. He was never questioned by the police.

In 2022, Quanita Reeves, who was six at the time of the shooting, and Quentin Reeves, who was four, claimed that they were visiting their cousin Marichell Chatman at the time of the crime. They claimed that when they went downstairs to eat dinner there was a knock on the door and Kevin Keith was there, wearing no mask or gloves. The Reeves' said that they knew Keith because he was Marichell's ex-boyfriend, but did not know he was a drug dealer and that Marichell's brother, Rudel Chatman, was an informant who had recently helped to expose a drug ring involving Keith. They said Keith was carrying a bag which he said was full of laundry and asked for a drink of water. After drinking several glasses of water and realizing that Rudel Chatman was not there, the Reeves' claimed that Keith pulled a gun from the bag and shot the family. Quanita claims that she gave police the wrong name when she was in the hospital but that she is positive Keith was the shooter.