INDIANAPOLIS – The suspect in a deadly Indianapolis stabbing told investigators he smoked “the rest of his meth” before police could lock him up.
Indianapolis Metropolitan police arrested 30-year-old Nicholas Radford in connection with the Jan. 24 death of 50-year-old Cornelius DeWayne Coleman, who was found fatally stabbed in the 200 block of South Illinois Street.
The two had agreed to a “drugs for drugs” trade earlier, according to court documents. A swastika tattoo, security cameras and eyewitness accounts helped police find Radford, who’d taken refuge in a parking garage.
According to court documents, officers were dispatched around 1 a.m. on Jan. 24, where they found Coleman suffering from at least one stab wound. He was later identified through fingerprints.
A witness told police he knew who the suspect was and provided them with a description of a man in his 30s with a swastika tattoo on his neck.
Another witness said he was walking behind Coleman and another man—believed to be Radford—from a Greyhound bus station to get some methamphetamine (“ice”). The witness said Coleman fell and reported seeing Radford, knife in hand, take off toward a parking garage. The witness gave chase but eventually stopped so he could go back and check on Coleman, according to court documents.
The witness said the stabbing suspect was about 5’6 or 5’7” with a baseball hat, jeans, jacket, facial tattoo and brown hair. Surveillance footage from a parking garage showed a man matching that description entering the parking garage; police believed he was still inside.
The witness was unable to identify Radford in a photo array, according to court documents.
A K9 unit arrived to aid in the search. Officers found Radford in a hotel parking garage after receiving a tip. He “kept his hand in his pocket” and refused officers’ commands. An IMPD sergeant then used a stun gun on Radford, who was taken into custody. He was in possession of a knife and a pipe; police said his jacket also had blood on it.
During an interview, Radford said he met three men at the Greyhound station to complete a trade—drugs for drugs. While they were walking, Radford claimed one of the men—ostensibly Coleman—jumped him from behind.
Radford told police he “stabbed the male twice with the second one maybe hitting his heart,” according to court documents. He then went from parking garage to parking garage until he felt safe. After “watching for a while,” he told police he “smoked the rest” of his meth before he could get locked up.
He also told police he hid the knife inside a t-shirt at the parking garage. While police found the shirt, they didn’t locate the weapon. The knife Radford had with him during his arrest was a different one, police said.
An autopsy found Coleman died from a stab wound to the chest. The case remains under investigation.