A Chicago man sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting his girlfriend in North Dakota this year killed the girlfriend’s cousin in 2016 after she told the girlfriend the man had been flirting with her, prosecutors said Wednesday.
David White Jr., 26, was ordered held without bail Wednesday in the June 6, 2016, killing of Fatima Muhammad, 19, whose body was found behind a vacant home in the 6000 block of South Aberdeen Street on June 11, 2016, according to prosecutors and court records.
White was arrested March 19 in the shooting of his girlfriend — Muhammad’s cousin and the mother of White’s child — in West Fargo, N.D., according to prosecutors and police. He has since pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the West Fargo shooting and been sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors and court records.
The chain of events began the night of June 6, 2016, when White’s girlfriend was driving him and Muhammad home in her minivan, with Muhammad in the back seat, according to prosecutors.
Muhammad told White’s girlfriend that White had been flirting with her, and White got angry, prosecutors said. White pulled out a gun and shot Muhammad in the head, then threatened to shoot his girlfriend if she ran away, prosecutors said.
White’s girlfriend drove to his sister’s house in the 9700 block of South Halsted Street and pulled into the garage, prosecutors said. White went and got plastic bags, a laundry bag and gloves, then put a plastic bag over Muhammad’s head and put her body in the laundry bag.
White put plastic bags on the floor of a closet in the house, brought Muhammad’s body inside, and hid the body in the closet, prosecutors said. He then cut out part of the minivan’s floor mat because it was covered in blood.
White and his girlfriend went back to his sister’s home with the minivan June 10, and after White covered the floor of the minivan with plastic bags, he took Muhammad’s body from inside the house and put it in the van, prosecutors said. They drove to near 60th Street and Aberdeen Avenue and put Muhammad’s body behind a vacant house.
To cover up what he’d done, White threatened to kill his girlfriend, prosecutors said.
White’s girlfriend went to Duluth, Minn., to stay with a sister of hers and escape White, prosecutors said. At some point, she told her sister what had happened and went to the Duluth police and told them about the killing.
On June 11, Chicago police, acting on information from the Duluth police, found Muhammad’s body, wrapped in a blanket and hidden in a bag behind the vacant building in the 6000 block of South Aberdeen, prosecturos said. Muhammad was officially pronounced dead at the scene at 6:53 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.
Following an autopsy, the medical examiner’s office determined Muhammad died of a gunshot to the head, according to a spokesman for the office. A fragment of a .22-caliber bullet was found lodged in her skull, prosecutors said.
Sometime that same day, White was drinking at Muhammad’s house — according to the medical examiner, she lived in the 9300 block of South Ada Street — and passed out, prosecutors said. Someone at the house saw that White had passed out. That person took a .22-caliber handgun from his waistband and a note in his pocket in which he confessed to killing Muhammad, prosecutors said.
Someone later turned over the gun and the note to police.
Handwriting samples from White matched the handwriting in the note turned over to police, prosecutors said. Blood samples from the minivan also matched Muhammad’s DNA, according to prosecutors.
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Early on March 19, West Fargo police were called to the home where White was then living with his girlfriend after he shot her in the face, according to police. White has since pled guilty to attempted murder in the shooting and been sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors and North Dakota court records.
On March 30, Chicago police obtained a murder warrant for White’s arrest, according to court records. White, of the 6700 block of South Chappel Avenue, was sentenced in North Dakota, he was recently extradited to Chicago to face the murder charge, according to prosecutors.