In the pre-dawn hours of August 5, 2014, police found 24-year-old Damato Anthony Coates of Silver Spring dead on the grass behind an apartment building in the 7800 block of Riverdale Road in New Carrollton, Maryland. Investigators recovered a single bullet from the back of his neck consistent with a 9-millimeter Luger and two shell casings nearby that were fired from the same weapon. Over $200 in cash remained on Coates’s person.

The inquiry traced events to the night before, when Coates met Donte Fung and joined a dice game behind the Heritage Square Apartments with six to ten people. Ian Christopher Murdaugh was among those present and was seen carrying a black bag with a single strap. After the shooting, Murdaugh and a female companion, Mobley, were observed leaving in a taxi; the driver reported Murdaugh saying he thought somebody had been shot. Murdaugh initially told police two unknown people had tried to rob him and Coates.

Murdaugh was tried in Prince George’s County. The jury acquitted him of first- and second-degree murder and use of a handgun in a crime of violence but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, illegal possession of a regulated firearm after a disqualifying conviction, and wearing, carrying, and transporting a handgun. Anyone with information about Coates, his movements that night, or the people at the dice game is asked to come forward.