UPDATE | June 24, 2024 — Deontre Hollie pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office. He faces up to 80 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 20.
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DENVER — A Denver 17-year-old has been charged as an adult and is accused of shooting two people, killing one and leaving her body behind a dumpster in late December.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday that Deontre Hollie, 17, will be charged as an adult after he was arrested on Saturday. He has been charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, attempted first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, and tampering with physical evidence of a felony crime.
Hollie is accused of fatally shooting Tayanna Manuel, 16, on Dec. 23 and leaving her body behind a dumpster. A GoFundMe to help cover Manuel's funeral costs has reached over $10,000.
According to an arrest affidavit, around 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 23, a person called 911 from the 4600 block of Kittredge Street to report a person with a gunshot wound to their head in a parking lot.
The male victim, whose name is redacted through the document, was transported to Children's Hospital in critical condition, so officers were not able to interview him that evening.
Ultimately, police said they believe that Hollie also shot Manuel at this time and location, but Hollie drove away with her in the car, according to the affidavit.
The following day, Dec. 24, at 6:50 a.m., the Denver Police Missing and Exploited Persons Unit learned that Manuel was missing. The two individuals who reported her missing said her phone had been shut off since the shooting the previous day on Kittredge Street, according to the affidavit.
Just before 9 a.m. that day, Denver police learned that the suspect vehicle from the Dec. 23 shooting may be a gray Honda CR-V. The license plate was redacted in the affidavit. The person who relayed this information to police added that the vehicle, which she said had blood inside, was currently at E. 48th Place and Ceylon Way in Denver, according to the affidavit.
Using the license plate number, police determined it had been stolen out of Denver in November 2022. But once they arrived at the intersection, it was gone. They were able to speak with the 911 caller, who said a man had driven off in the car. She also told police that Manuel and the male victim in the Dec. 23 shooting were with that suspect driver just before that shooting, according to the affidavit.
Denver police found suspected blood where the CR-V had been parked. Nearby, they found a concealed backpack and vehicle floor mats with suspected blood on them, the document reads.
The Denver Crime Laboratory documented the scene, which included footwear impressions in the snow near the hidden items. The shoe print was identified as a Nike Air Uptempo '96 basketball shoe.
On Dec. 25 around 9:20 p.m., a Denver detective interviewed the male victim from the Dec. 23 shooting, who was still in the hospital. Due to his injuries, he could not speak, but communicated by writing and nodding. He told the detective he didn't know who shot him, according to the affidavit.
He also confirmed that he was with Manuel and two others the night he was shot. He added that he didn't the two of them, writing "One tall one small" on the whiteboard, according to the affidavit. He told the detective he did not have any recollection of that day.
Police learned from another person that one of the people he and Manuel had been with that evening was Hollie, the suspect.
While investigating Hollie, police learned that he had been the victim in a shooting on Dec. 25 around 6 a.m. along the 4550 block of Cathay Street in Denver. An unknown person had fired into Hollie's residence and he was home when police came to investigate.
The home is less than half a mile from where the CR-V had been reported on the previous morning.
On Dec. 26 around 6:15 a.m., a person called 911 to report a deceased female behind a dumpster at 4927 N. Salida Street in Denver. When officers arrived at the scene, they found the person with a gunshot wound to her head, according to the affidavit.
Denver Sgt. T. Lopez was assigned as the primary investigator in the homicide case. He identified the victim as a juvenile Black female and noted that she appeared to have been dragged behind the dumpster. Aside from her clothes, she did not have any belongings near her.
Based on photos and descriptions, police believed she was Manuel, which was later confirmed by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.
Around 10 a.m. that day, Sgt. Lopez spoke with two people — both of their identities were redacted in the affidavit — who knew Manuel. One said she had last seen Manuel around 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 23. These two people showed police how a phone app called Life360 allowed Manuel to share live location information, which showed she had been in the same area of the shooting on Dec. 23.
At 10:30 a.m. that day, a detective again interviewed the male victim in the Dec. 23 shooting, who was still in the hospital and unable to verbally communicate. He reiterated much of what he had said during his first interview.
At the end of the interview, he wrote, "Find Tayanna" on the white board. The detective told him that she had been found deceased. Immediately afterward, the victim wrote two names on the whiteboard, according to the affidavit.
The detective left and returned later, this time with three photographs. The victim did not recognize one photo. He identified the person in the second photo. The third was not involved in the case, he told the detective.
Around 6:50 p.m. on the same day, an unknown person contacted police to report that the CR-V that police were looking for belonged to Hollie, according to the affidavit.
Just past 8 p.m. that day, a judge signed a search warrant and court order to install a pen register trap and trace, which captures incoming calls to a certain number, for Manuel's cell phone. The order included about 30 days of data.
The following day, Dec. 27, police went to Children's Hospital to speak with the male Dec. 23 shooting victim. Though parts of the discussion are redacted, the affidavit does reveal that there was a conflict over a firearm and car, and police were given permission to take screenshots of conversations surrounding this argument.
Around 5:45 p.m. that day, using the pen register trap and trace, police began receiving emails every 15 minutes regarding the whereabouts of Manuel's phone. However, the phone never returned any location information, which typically means it has been turned off, according to the affidavit. Around the time, police received the historical data associated with the cell, which included device location. Several of the listed areas matched the Life360 app information provided to police earlier.
Around 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, police looked at video surveillance from the 4600 block of Kittredge Street, which showed a vehicle with similar characteristics to the CR-V drive out of the complex. According to the time stamp, this happened just before the first 911 call, according to the affidavit.
That afternoon, Denver police found the CR-V in the parking lot of Addenbrooke Park in Lakewood. It was covered in snow from the previous night's storm and was unoccupied. It was towed to the Denver Crime Lab.
In the early evening of Dec. 29, police executed a search warrant on the car. According to the affidavit, they found two 9mm cartridge casings inside the vehicle and two more under the front wiper blades. They found "a significant amount of blood" in the car, especially on and around the front passenger seat. Blood splatter was on the passenger's side dash and front passenger door and a bullet defect was found on the inside of the passenger door under the window. A fired bullet was also found inside the passenger door panel.
These details "were consistent with at least one victim being shot inside the car," according to the affidavit. Police said it was not yet clear if this shot individual was Manuel or the male victim.
That same day, police installed a pen register trap and trace on the Facebook account for Hollie.
On the morning of Jan. 3, police spoke with an unknown person who said that around 7 p.m. on Dec. 23, a person identified as Hollie was in her driveway in a CR-V. She said he was "wide-eyed and acting strange," but told her he was OK, according to the affidavit.
That evening, police went to an Aurora neighborhood, particularly one house, to try to find more surveillance videos. While the detectives walked around, a person approached them and said her home did not have video surveillance. However, as the detectives were leaving, they saw a small black object with a blue blinking light, which appeared to be a small portable video camera, on the second story. A detective tried to take a photo of it, but somebody inside moved the object from the windowsill so it was out of view, according to the affidavit.
On Jan. 5, authorities received returns from a records requests from Hollie's Facebook and T-Mobile account. Using this, plus the Verizon data from Manuel's phone, between Dec. 23 and 24, they found the following information, as detailed in the affidavit:
- On Dec. 23 from 3:20 to 3:34 p.m., Hollie's phone was in Aurora
- Around 4:05 p.m., both Hollie's phone and Manuel's phone were in Denver
- Around 4:20 p.m., both devices traveled to an outdoor gun range in Aurora. They stayed in the area until 5:15 p.m.
- Both devices left the gun range and went to a home at an unknown location, arriving at 5:45 p.m. They left here at 6 p.m. and traveled west at the same time
- From 6:14 p.m. to 6:28 p.m., both were in Denver
- At 6:33 p.m., both devices were around the 4600 block of Kittredge Street
- At 6:39 p.m., Manuel's phone disconnected from the network
- At 6:41 p.m., Hollie's phone began to move north and then east
- (At 6:42 p.m., the victim was found with the gunshot wound)
- At 6:44 p.m., Hollie's phone was around the 4900 block of Salida Street, which is where Manuel's body was found and where multiple cameras captured video of a CR-V driving around
- At 6:53 p.m., Hollie's phone was farther north and east from Manuel's body. The CR-V was seen on video driving in the area
- At 7:15 p.m., Hollie's phone was in the area of his home in Denver, where it stayed for the night and early morning
- (At 8:56 a.m. on Dec. 24, a 911 caller told police about locating the CR-V and seeing a Black male get inside and drive away)
- At 9:26 a.m. on Dec. 24, Hollie's phone left his home. Shortly afterward, he communicated with an unknown person via Facebook messenger
- At 9:53 a.m, Hollie's phone was in the same area the CR-V was ultimately found
- At 10:04 a.m., Hollie's phone moved a short distance south
- At 10:38 a.m. and 10:41 a.m., Hollie communicated with unknown individuals on Facebook
- At 11:25 a.m., Hollie's phone left the area and went back to the area of his house
Based on witness interviews and evidence, police said they believe that on Dec. 23 along Kittredge Avenue, not only was the male victim shot, but Manuel was too. Police said they believe that Hollie then drove Manuel's body to N. Salida Street and left her behind a dumpster, where she was found on Dec. 26.
The Denver Police Department identified the body as Manuel late on Dec. 26.
Police said they believe some witnesses had time to "arrange a story that would fit the evidence they believed Your Affiant had at the time of their interviews," according to the affidavit.
The document also reads that police expect that Hollie had to "discard and clean a significant amount of Tayanna's blood from his clothing and skin," so police believe "that trace evidence of this blood will be found at Deontre's house in addition to firearms, ammunition and related components."
On Dec. 31, community members gathered in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood in response to recent violence in the northeastern part of the city, including Manuel's death.
It provided an opportunity for community members to learn about resources available to them to help them cope.
