Authorities in Illinois have arrested a fugitive wanted in the murder-for-hire plot that left a Minnesota-based realtor and mother dead on New Year’s Eve and her boyfriend, rapper Momoh, wounded in a shooting.
Berry Davis was arrested late last week, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported, after slipping away in January as police closed in on a hotel where he was staying.
Cedric Berry, 41, was charged with kidnapping and second degree murder less than a week after the body of Monique Baugh, 28, was found in an alley. She was bound by tape and shot at close range in the face and torso, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Less than an hour before Baugh was found dead, Momoh — real name Jon Mitchel-Momoh — r called 911 from the couple’s Minneapolis home saying a masked assailant entered the home and shot him several times. He said their two young daughters were home but were uninjured.
According to the Star Tribune, police believe Berry was the gunman who shot the rapper, who told detectives he thought he might have been targeted because he had recently signed a recording contract and had been flaunting “a lot of money” on social media. The warrant says that Momoh had a falling out with a former friend over the record deal, and that man, identified only by his initials in court documents, may have ordered the hit. He has not been publicly charged.
Shortly before her murder, Baugh was scheduled to show a home in Maple Grove. Investigators said the meeting was planned directly through the client instead of Baugh’s realtor company, according to WCCO-TV.
According to the Star Tribune, Elsa Segura helped lure Baugh to the phony home showing. Segura, a former county probation officer, is currently in jail on a $1 million bond.
Surveillance footage from across the street shows Baugh arriving at the Maple Grove home. A U-Haul is spotted passing the house, and another person enters the residence. The video shows the U-Haul pulling up to the home and backing up to the garage doors. Investigators said they believe the video captures the realtor being forced into the truck before it drives off.
Witnesses told police that they saw a U-Haul truck drive through the alley where Baugh’s body was found right before gunfire erupted, according to WCCO-TV.
A plate reader reportedly caught the U-Haul’s license plate 13 minutes after the initial shooting. The news station reported that authorities tracked down the truck to a Minneapolis U-Haul store — and found zip ties in the rear storage area and duct tape in the front passenger side door. Reports also stated that four press-on nails that were found inside the truck are identical to a nail recovered from the home Baugh disappeared from on New Year’s Eve.
Earlier, prosecutors had charged Shante Davis — Berry’s wife and Davis’s sister — with being an accomplice after the fact. Her cellphone records as well as surveillance video place her with the two when they picked up a rental truck on December 30, the Star Tribune said.
Berry has pleaded not guilty and is being held on a $2 million bond. He is due in court on August 31.
The Star Tribune reported that Berry has gang ties and a lengthy criminal history which includes arrests for drug dealing, aggravated robbery, and weapons possession.
In 2001, Berry was driving a car when his passenger fatally shot a rival gang member in retaliation for a previous slaying. Berry was charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The complaint alleged that Baugh’s boyfriend had recently signed a rap contract and was showing off his money on social media. He reportedly said that people were privy to his relationship with Baugh but did not believe these people knew where they lived.
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[Featured image: Monique Baugh/Facebook]
