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Second Chances and Deadly Consequences: The Darnell Collins Story · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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A series of vicious cycles. They can be usually found littering the lives of
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convicts, addicts, and misfortunate people trapped in the conditions they were born into.
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But one life in particular would be marred by these vicious cycles and result
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in a crime spree much unlike any other. His name was Muanza Camu,
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otherwise known as Darnell Collins, and he was born April fifth, nineteen sixty
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two. His father was killed in combat during the Vietnam War, leaving Darnell
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in the sole care of his mother. But soon after Darnell would find a
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new role model or role models to shape his life around the other inmates in
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the juvenile detention center he'd just been sent to, sometimes referred to as Khan
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College. Darnell didn't show up on the steps of Juvie with only petty crimes
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under his belt. He was there for assault, shop lifting, larceny,
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and it was there that Darnell's life turned a dark corner he seemed never to
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be able to come back from. Darnell was in and out of Juvie his
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entire childhood, and when he grew up too old to be allowed back in,
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he stood at a cross roads. The next time he was caught breaking
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the law, he would go to prison, adult prison, a place far
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harsher than any institution Darnell had been to before. Now as an adult,
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Darnell attempted to pay the bills by buying pictures and paintings in New York and
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selling them on the streets of Atlantic City, where he'd grown up. Maybe
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there'd been a future for him in this once, a future where Darnell would
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never need to break the law again. Maybe it was simply that Darnell had
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no idea how to behave as a law abiding citizen. He was arrested again
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in nineteen eighty four, and this time he had six charges against him.
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Convictions for armed robbery and burglary saw him sentenced to twenty years in prison.
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Ten years later. Darnell parolled out, now officially institutionalized, like you hear
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the characters in Shawshank Redption talking about and simply waiting for his next brush with
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the law. It came only six months later, in an event that will
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forever be deemed as the turning point for him, a point of no return.
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In the summer of nineteen ninety four, Darnell tested positive for drugs,
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which was a direct violation of his parole. If his parole officer had followed
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the law, Darnell should have been sent back to prison to serve the rest
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of his sentence. But his parole officer gave Darnell something that would change so
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many lives irreversibly. He gave him a second chance. It was shortly after
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Darnall came a hair's breadth from going away to prison again, that he met
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April Gates, a thirty year old blackjack dealer at the Trump Castle Casino resort.
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It was like the lights had come on for Darnall. What he saw
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in April was a future and a home, one that he was seemingly incapable
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of treating right. He grew violent and possessive, and he was slipping back
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into a life of crime. And April had more to think about than just
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her feelings for Darnell. She lived with her young son and her mother in
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a house in Atlantic City, and she simply couldn't risk bringing a life of
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criminality in danger into their home. So April broke up with Darnell, and
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Darnell was furious. He began stalking April. He'd show up at her workplace,
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at her home and follow her on the streets. Eventually, April had
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enough and she got a restraining order against Darnell, and that ticked Darnell off
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even further. The harassment continued, and, not seeing any other way out
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of her situation, April called Darnell's parole officer and reported that Darnell had violated
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the conditions of his parole yet again. Darnell quickly got wind of his impending
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arrest, and in his mind there was only one person to blame for his
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fate. April Gates. Enraged and determined to see justice done, Darnell rode
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his bike over to April's home on the night of June seventeenth, nineteen ninety
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five. Just two days later, April's restraining order went into effect. Darnell
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wanted April, but what he got as her fifty one year old mother,
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Shirley Gates. Shirley was home alone when Darnell burst through the door of her
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house, and she was home alone when Darnell tied her up. He then
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shot her twice, once above the ear and once below the ear, with
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a gun that was believed to be Shirley's very own, but Darnell stole one
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more thing from Shirley that night, her car parked outside, and with it
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he went on the prow for the person he was really after. April was
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at a birthday party only about three blocks away and had no idea what had
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already happened to her mother when she spotted the uninvited guest. April was sitting
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in a chair and called to Darnell, only for him to then shoot her
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then and there. The shot hit April in her head, but she was
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still able to stand up and stumble towards him. Darnell then shot her twice
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in the stomach, sending April to the ground while he shouted why you tell.
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By then, the investigators presumed that April was already dead and couldn't have
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answered Darnell. Darnell then fled the scene and raced towards the Star Motel on
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Black Horse Pike, where he made a quick pit stop. Many believed that
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what Darnell was after at the motel was what had fueled his sudden burst of
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violence and deadly activity to begin with, and that it was the very same
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thing that had soured his relationship with April in the first place drugs. Living
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at the Star motel was forty one year old William Dawson, otherwise known as
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Darnell's drug dealer. William had been there about a week with his twenty seven
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year old girlfriend, Stacy Smith and her four year old son when Darnell came
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looking for more. It was unclear if Darnell got what he was after in
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that motel room that night, but there would be no disputing what he did.
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Right after he arrived. Darnell shot William in the chest, killing him
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almost in and then he shot Stacy through the neck. All that was left
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now was Stacy's young son, but for whatever reason, Darnell spared the child
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before fleeing the motel in William's car, probably thinking that he'd left no credible
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witnesses behind. But Stacy fought despite being shot in the neck. She survived
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long enough to be rushed to the hospital, where she later recovered from her
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wounds and lived to be reunited with her son. Darnell, however, had
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no way of knowing that Stacy was alive as he rocketed down the streets searching
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for his next fix, presumably still under the influence of narcotics and running low,
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Darnell pulled into a gas station and had in Township. The very next
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day, he got ten dollars worth of gas, picked up some orange juice,
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chips and a chocolate bar, and approached the counter there. Instead of
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paying for his goods, he whipped out his gun and demanded money. Instead,
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give me your money. The attention it remembers Darnell saying, I had
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eighty or one hundred dollars in my pocket. I gave that to him.
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He pushed me with his gun in my back. Then I said, no
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money in the cash register. I pushed his gun and he hit me in
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the head and face. After pistol whipping the attendant, Darnell raided the cast
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register and stole over eight hundred dollars. His actions had put him firmly on
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the police's radar, but they still had no idea where Darnell was or where
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he would strike next. Thinking it's where he would be headed, units were
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dispatched to his aunt's home and Haarlem, but it wasn't until the next day
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that the authorities would be able to place him anywhere. Darnell cornered another gas
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station attendant in the parking lot and demanded money. Thirty eight year old Jose
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S. Carpetta refused, even with a gun in his face. Darnell retaliated
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by firing three shots, killing Jose on the spot. He then took off
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on foot and darted into the elevator nearby of a building. Trapped in there
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with him, not knowing who Darnell was or what he had done, was
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twenty six year old computer graphics designer Jeffrey Rourke and fifty four year old architect
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David Roth, who both worked in the building. As the elevator climbed to
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the ninth floor, Darnell took out his gun and shot both of the men
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and the head. The elevator doors opened up into a scene of carnage and
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Darnell pointing his gun at another potential victim. How do I get out of
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here? He demanded, and the man on the wrong end of Darnell's gun
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guided him toward the freight elevator. The investigators believed that it was only because
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Darnell was probably out of AMMO at this time that he didn't kill this man
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or the other witnesses on that scene. Now back on the streets again,
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Darnell found his next victim not knowing who he was, Norma Acosta took Darnell
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back to her home, where they took drugs and got high together. It
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was when he was under the influence that Normous said Darnell became paranoid and very
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suspicious about her. He then shot Norma in the head and fled before realizing
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that she had miraculously survived her wounds. The next were Reverend Robert Gathers and
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Deacon Joseph Johnson, who were fixing a car outside their church. Darnell approached
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them and demanded money. Reverend Robert handed Darnell about three hundred and fifty dollars,
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and it was because of this that Darnell claimed that he spared them before
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taking off in their car. Two days later, Darnell was in a taxi
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when something inside him snapped all over again. This time it was over a
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dollar one literal dollar. Darnell wanted to pay five dollars for his ride,
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but the driver wanted six. In retaliation for what Darnell deemed to be an
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offense, he shot the driver, Emmanuel Milan, in the head during the
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ride. This time there would be no miraculous recovery. Emmanuel died over dispute
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of a dollar. All of Darnell's victims were either known to him, like
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April and Shirley Gates, or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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But within the next few hours of killing a Manuel, it would be
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Darnell who found himself tripped up by fate. A woman concerned over three men
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with guns threatening another woman outside her house called the incident in to the police.
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As the responding officers approached the scene, they spotted Darnell and began to
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pursue him instead. Darnell realized that the cops were onto him and began to
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speed down the streets in another car that he had stolen. He managed to
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keep ahead of them for about twenty minutes before he lost control of the vehicle
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and crashed into a nearby home. Still determined to get away, Darnell ran
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from the scene and took cover behind a wall, where he and the police
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got into a shootout. Seizing an opportunity to get away, Darnell then got
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up and ran and continued to run, making it to a river, where
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he laid down in the shallows and reloaded his gun. The New York Police
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Commissioner William J. Bratton described what happened next. It was a quick ending
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to an extraordinarily violent episode, he said. And what happened was that Darnell
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was struck fourteen times in the head, neck, and torso when he opened
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fire on the responding officers and those officers returned fire. Darnell's crime spree left
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seven people dead and three injured, a spree that many people believe wouldn't have
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happened if Darnell's parole officer hadn't thought he was doing something good and given him
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that second chance. The courts agreed and stripped John Goodman of his position and
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title only about six months after those horrific and deadly shootings. That's ten minute
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