Dec. 21, 2013
Police: Northwest student charged in slaying told acquaintance 'I got my first body'
An 18-year-old Northwest High student told an acquaintance “I got my first body” as he described the shooting death of an Omaha man, police allege.
Mitchell Q. Wynne, who just completed his senior football season at Northwest, was arrested Friday by police and charged with first-degree murder in the July 14 slaying of Darnell P. Haynes, 29, during a purported marijuana deal.
Police: Northwest student charged in slaying told acquaintance 'I got my first body'
An 18-year-old Northwest High student told an acquaintance “I got my first body” as he described the shooting death of an Omaha man, police allege.
Wynne also is named as a suspect in a drive-by shooting earlier that day in which a bystander was shot. He has not been charged in that case.
At Northwest, Wynne was a running back on the football team. He was honorable mention on the Metro Conference coaches' 2013 all-district team.
His brother, Richard Wynne Jr., is a 2010 Creighton Prep graduate and former running back who now is a walk-on wide receiver at Nebraska.
Their parents are Richard Wynne Sr., a former standout running back at Omaha North, and Monica Wynne, an elementary teacher in the Omaha Public Schools.
According to Omaha police and prosecutors' accounts:
Haynes was shot about 3:20 p.m. outside the Mid-K Beauty Supply store near 60th Street and Ames Avenue.
Investigators found Haynes in the front seat, with clumps of marijuana covering his body and spilling onto the ground. They also found a 9 mm shell casing.
And they found something else: Haynes' cellphone.
Searching the phone, they discovered that the last communications to Haynes' phone were text messages between Haynes and a phone number belonging to Mitch Wynne.
The texts discussed meeting Haynes and buying marijuana from him.
Investigators seized Wynne's phone and discovered more texts in which Wynne sent out a picture of a 9 mm gun.
The person who received the picture asked where Wynne got the gun, and he named an acquaintance.
Detectives subsequently contacted the acquaintance and several of Wynne's friends.
Three friends said Wynne had either told them about the killing or had overheard him describing it to other friends.
One friend told police that Wynne had confessed to her, making statements such as “I got my first body” and “I did what I had to do.”
The friend said Wynne told her he had planned to rob Haynes because he had no money. A struggle ensued, and Wynne shot Haynes.
Wynne then described going through the victim's pockets and stealing $400 from Haynes, the friend told police.
The friend said Wynne also claimed to have done “a drive-by” earlier in the day.
In that case, he told the friend, he rose out of the bed of a black pickup truck and opened fire on a bystander. Officers believe that description matches the shooting of DeShawn Jackson near 44th and Pinkney Streets about an hour before Haynes was killed.
Jackson, 17, survived. A witness to that shooting described a distinctive black pickup truck with a letter painted on the side of the truck.
At the scene of Haynes' death, witnesses described a similar black pickup truck with a number or letter painted on the side of the truck.
Another friend told police Wynne was “extremely nervous” after the shooting.
“They (the police) are coming to get me,” Wynne kept saying, according to the friend.
Omaha police interviewed Wynne in October. They say he told them he was in church all day that Sunday.
Wynne has little criminal record. At the time of the shooting, he was on probation for reckless driving and disorderly conduct in connection with an April 14 traffic stop.
Haynes had previous misdemeanor convictions for marijuana possession and a felony conviction for assaulting a police officer, according to online court records.
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