10 Trivial Disputes That Led To Tragic Murder Cases

Unfortunately, disagreements are an all too common part of life, be it a simple misunderstanding, difference in beliefs, or a personal grievance. For example, married couples may find themselves at odds over financial decisions, household chores, or personal habits. Parents and children may argue over curfews, academic performance, or bad behavior. However, disputes may also arise outside of the home for both children and adults alike at school, work, or in public spaces.

Despite the difficulty of the situation at hand, when we can successfully navigate through these types of conflict using patience, compromise, and understanding, we are able to grow personally and often become much more prepared for any future disagreements.

While that doesn’t mean that all types of discord will necessarily be solved, one must also know when to walk away, especially when a disagreement stems from an issue that is ultimately of little importance overall. Unfortunately, the minor disagreements and petty disputes on this list—ranging from a missing lunch to being a gentleman and holding a door to being late for work—spiraled out of control, leaving one party to believe that the only possible way to resolve the conflict was to take a life.

Here are ten trivial disputes that led to tragic murder cases.

Related: 10 Newlyweds Who Chose Murder over Marriage

10 Coworker Taking Lunch

Twenty-five-year-old Bazn Berhe was an employee at a Target store in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia. Unfortunately, on April 14, 2021, Berhe found out that 58-year-old Hernan Leiva—his coworker and a janitor at the store—had taken his lunch from the staff refrigerator. However, rather than communicating his frustration with Leiva or asking him to replace the lunch, Berhe purchased a hammer and two knives after his shift on April 15, 2021, and began “training for murder.”

On the morning of April 17, 2021, Berhe arrived at the employee parking lot early and sat, waiting for Leiva. Once Berhe saw Leiva in the parking lot, he beat and stabbed him to death before fleeing the scene.

Berhe was later arrested and immediately confessed to the killing. Berhe was charged with first-degree murder, and at his sentencing hearing, he “threatened to kill or hurt other people if he was not given the harshest sentence possible.” On January 30, 2024, Berhe was sentenced to 100 years in prison, with 30 years suspended, meaning he will serve 70 years of active incarceration. ^[1]

9 Appearance on Reality TV Show

Shanti Cooper and David Tronnes met online in 2013, and within months, Tronnes made the decision to move from Minnesota to Orlando, Florida. There, Tronnes fell in love with Delaney Park, a well-established neighborhood approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from downtown Orlando.

In 2015, Tronnes paid a little more than $600,000 cash for a 4,000-sq-foot (371-sq-meter) Victorian-style home in Delaney Park, complete with a pool, a garage apartment, and its own gargoyles. Although Cooper and her son, Jackson, shared the house with Tronnes, he placed the house in a trust fund with his mother.

The couple wed in 2017, but Tronnes never put Cooper on the deed to the home, which they attempted to remodel. Unfortunately, it was Cooper who operated a lucrative financial software business out of her home office and was footing the bill for the renovations despite the fact that she had no claim to the home. She was under the assumption Tronnes had inherited between $4 and $6 million from his father.

By 2018, the main part of the house was unlivable. The renovation project had turned into an expensive failure, forcing 49-year-old Tronnes to live in the garage while 39-year-old Cooper lived in a one-bedroom studio above the garage. Therefore, in an effort to minimize the losses, Tronnes contacted Keith Ori, a local house renovator, in hopes of being featured on the reality TV show Zombie House Flipping. The series renovates homes in the worst of shapes—often abandoned—hoping to be able to sell them for a profit. However, Cooper refused, and “her refusal to appear on the show upset Tronnes to the point that it led to her murder.”

On April 24, 2018, Cooper was fatally beaten and strangled by Tronnes. Tronnes then attempted to clean up the crime scene before calling the police and claiming that he had found Cooper dead in the bathtub. Detectives noticed inaccuracies in Tronnes’s story, and after spending four months gathering evidence, Tronnes was arrested at his mother’s house on August 29, 2018. He was charged with first-degree murder. On October 18, 2023, Tronnes was sentenced to life in prison.^[2]

8 Number of Christmas Gifts

On December 24, 2023, 23-year-old Abrielle Baldwin went shopping with her two young children, her mother, and her two teenage brothers—14-year-old Damarcus Coley and 15-year-old Darcus Coley. However, as the family was out Christmas shopping in Largo, Florida, the two teenagers got into a spat over Christmas gifts, with Damarcus being upset that Darcus was getting more gifts than him.

The family eventually left the store and went to Baldwin’s grandmother’s house, but unfortunately, the argument between the brothers continued. Damarcus then attempted to get Darcus to fight, causing an uncle to step in and separate the teens, taking Damarcus outside to the driveway area. Baldwin was outside with her 11-month-old in a baby carrier and told Damarcus, “You all need to leave that stuff alone. Why are you trying to start it? It’s Christmas.” Damarcus, however, was not happy with his sister’s remarks and began arguing with Baldwin and calling her derogatory names before shooting her in the chest with a .40 caliber handgun, causing Baldwin’s 11-month-old son to fall to the ground. Thankfully, the infant was unharmed.

Darcus then came outside, took out a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and shot Damarcus in the stomach due to the fact that he shot Baldwin. Darcus ran, threw his gun in a nearby yard, and fled to a relative’s house in Clearwater, Florida.

Both Baldwin and Damarcus were transported to a local hospital. Damarcus underwent surgery and was stable, but Baldwin died as a result of her wounds. Darcus was eventually located and taken to a mental health facility after making self-harm statements.

Damarcus was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, and delinquent in possession of a firearm. Darcus was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. No trial has been set for either brother.^[3]

7 A Bad Grade in Spanish Class

Sixty-six-year-old Nohema Graber, a Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School in Fairfield, Iowa, was reported missing by her family on November 2, 2021. Sadly, Graber’s badly beaten body was discovered in Chautauqua Park “concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow, and railroad ties” on November 3, 2021.

Two days after Graber’s body was found, police announced the arrests of two of Graber’s students—16-year-olds Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale. This happened after several classmates approached police to show Snapchat messages in which Goodale allegedly revealed that he and Miller “were involved in the planning, execution, and disposal of evidence” in Graber’s murder. It was later discovered that the brutal act stemmed from a bad grade Miller received in Graber’s class.

In an interview with police, Miller described his frustration with the way Graber taught Spanish, along with the fact that the F he had in the class was lowering his GPA, which he felt would prevent him from participating in a study abroad program. However, rather than Miller taking any accountability for his grades, he and Goodale spent two weeks planning Graber’s murder.

On the afternoon of November 2, 2021, Miller met with Graber at school to discuss his poor grade. That afternoon after school, Graber drove her van to Chautauqua Park, where she was known to take daily walks. Unfortunately, the disgruntled teens followed her, and at some point during Graber’s walk, Miller and Goodale ambushed her with a baseball bat and beat her to death. Witnesses then saw Graber’s van leaving the park approximately 42 minutes after her arrival with two males in the front seat. The van was later found abandoned.

Miller and Goodale were both charged as adults with first-degree murder. On July 6, 2023, Miller was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 35 years. On November 15, 2023, Goodale was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Both Miller and Goodale were also ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to Graber’s family.^[4]

6 Toddler Jumping on the Bed

At approximately 2:56 pm on May 17, 2016, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office in Texas received a 911 call from a fifth-wheel trailer located between Joy and Vashti, a remote area of the county near the state’s border with Oklahoma. The 911 caller stated that a three-year-old child, later identified as Dominic Tra’Juan Castro, had been shot in the head and was believed to be dead.

Once emergency personnel arrived on the scene, Castro was airlifted to United Regional Health Care Systems in Wichita Falls, Texas. But he was pronounced dead at 10:34 am on May 18, 2026.

Witnesses initially told investigators that Castro was jumping on the bed and caused a gun on the bed to accidentally discharge. However, those witnesses later recanted, saying Castro’s stepfather, 18-year-old George Coty Wayman, threatened Castro with the gun and told him if he didn’t stop jumping on the bed he would shoot him. Wayman then fired the gun, striking Castro in the back of the head.

Wayman was charged with capital murder of a person under 10 years of age. On December 29, 2016, Wayman agreed to a plea deal where, in exchange for a guilty plea, he would serve a life sentence.^[5]

5 Elevator Etiquette

Twenty-nine-year-old Ariel “Ace” Harris invited his younger brother, Cameron Harris, out to a party at the International Conference Center in Greektown—an entertainment and cultural district—in Detroit, Michigan. Upon leaving the party in the early morning hours of November 27, 2022, Ariel decided to hold the elevator for a group of women.

Unfortunately, his attempt at being a gentleman led to a dispute with another man. He was later identified as 34-year-old Gayelon Spencer Jr., who was trying to push through to get on the elevator first. Spencer then shot Ariel in front of Cameron and the mother of his children, who was also in attendance. He then fled the scene. Officers rushed Ariel to Detroit Receiving Hospital, but he later died.

Spencer was arrested on December 5, 2022, when officers responded to a domestic violence report and found him at a residence in Gahanna, Ohio. Spencer was charged with second-degree murder.^[6]

4 Being Late to Work

On June 27, 2022, 25-year-old Daniel Leroy Brotemarkle and his supervisor, 27-year-old Nathanial Marceal Ebarra, got into a dispute at work over Brotemarkle being late for a job with the dock installation company they worked for in Pontiac, Michigan. The argument between Brotemarkle and Ebarra turned into a physical altercation, which led the owner of the company to tell both men they had to leave work for the day.

With the owner’s permission, Brotemarkle used a company vehicle to get home. However, just after noon, the owner sent Ebarra and other coworkers to retrieve the truck. While they were at the home, another confrontation between the two men escalated, and Ebarra shot Brotemarkle multiple times before fleeing the scene.

When deputies arrived at Brotemarkle’s home, he was lying in the road unresponsive. Brotemarkle was rushed to a local hospital but died from his injuries shortly after arrival.

Ebarra was arrested at his home within an hour of the shooting. He was charged with second-degree murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.^[7]

3 Dog Droppings in Yard

Forty-four-year-old Paul Allen Wilson and his wife, Beth Wilson, had been at the center of a protracted dispute with their neighbor, 46-year-old Larry Russell Bates, about dog droppings in their Auburn, Georgia, neighborhood.

Beth stated that Bates kept wrongly accusing their dogs of leaving feces in his yard. However, Beth claimed that their dogs were not allowed to poop in Bates’s yard, and in an effort to keep the peace, Paul told Bates, “If he ever finds dog droppings in his yard to come find him, and he’ll get them up, even if it wasn’t our dogs.” After the two men had shaken hands and agreed to move on, they naturally assumed the trouble was over.

Unfortunately, on July 2, 2017, Paul arrived home from work around 1 am and took their dog, Maggie, and his mother-in-law’s dog, Scooter, out for a walk. Beth stated that moments later, she heard gunshots, and when she ran outside, she saw Paul lying on the sidewalk as Bates ran back into his house. Beth called 911, but unfortunately, it was too late. Both Paul and Scooter died.

Bates was arrested on July 2, 2017, and confessed to the shooting. He was charged with felony murder and animal cruelty. On August 26, 2019, Bates was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years.^[8]

2 Pancakes

Eighty-five-year-old Steven Schwartz of Washington, D.C., had suffered a stroke. In an attempt to help him reach his previous weight of 180 pounds (81 kg), his wife, 81-year-old Sharon Schwartz, made him pancakes on the morning of December 10, 2023. Steven stated he agreed to try eating a pancake, but when he couldn’t, Sharon grew frustrated and threw the plate against a wall. Steven then grabbed a carving knife, and while he claimed his intentions were to kill himself, he stabbed Sharon in the back.

After neighbors heard “screaming and tumbling” coming from the Schwartz’s duplex-style apartment, they contacted Sharon’s two sons and asked them to do a welfare check on the couple. When one of the sons arrived, he found his mother lying against the front door, conscious but struggling to breathe. The son questioned Steven, his stepfather, about what happened, and Steven admitted to stabbing Sharon and himself. The son then took the knife from Steven’s possession and called 911 as Steven headed upstairs.

However, when police arrived at the home around 3:40 pm, they discovered Steven in the living room, on his knees, with a second knife in his hands. Although officers tried to de-escalate the situation, Steven used both hands to stab himself in the abdomen, forcing officers to use a stun gun to disarm him.

Steven and Sharon were both taken to a local hospital, but Sharon was pronounced dead a short time later due to stab wounds that punctured both her heart and her left lung.

Sadly, Steven later told investigators that he and Sharon had been married for 40 years, that he loved her, and that he prayed the killing was a delusion. Steven was charged with second-degree murder while armed.^[9]

1 Borrowing Clothes

On May 25, 2014, a small, petty argument over clothes escalated into a fight between two brothers. The fight was between 14-year-old Steven Odeus and 16-year-old Stanley Blanc inside the family’s apartment in Little Haiti, a neighborhood in Miami, Florida. Blanc wanted to wear Odeus’s clothes, but Odeus didn’t want him to.

Family members separated the two, but the fight flared up again outside, and just after 11 pm that night, Odious shot Blanc. The boys’ older brother, 18-year-old Mark Blanc, witnessed the shooting and stated that Odeus then ran across the apartment complex and turned the gun on himself, resulting in a tragic murder-suicide.^[10]