Prosecutor: Drug Deal Turned Deadly, HP Teens Among Accused

By Jacob Nelson

Twenty-year-old Colin Nutter’s last moments were spent in his car, conducting what he thought was a drug deal. Then, one of his customers shot him in the back of the head.

These are among the details that the Lake County State’s Attorney released Friday after announcing first-degree murder charges against two teenagers and a 20-year-old, all from Highland Park.

According to Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim, the accused — Benjamin Schenk, 20, Philip Vatamaniuc, 17, and Michael Coffee, 17 — met with Nutter early on the day of June 3 to buy marijuana from him. All three suspects are Highland Park residents.

Read Patch's full coverage of the Colin Nutter homicide

Schenk, Coffee and Vatamaniuc got into Nutter's Dodge Stratus, with Schenk sitting behind Nutter. Both Vatamaniuc and Coffee gave statements indicating that they watched as Schenk shot Nutter in the head, according to Nerheim.

After, Schenk and Vatamaniuc removed Nutter's body from his car and put it in the car's trunk. Schenk, Vatamaniuc and Coffee then drove the car near the Edens expressway in Wilmette, where Nutter’s body was eventually found by a teenager walking her dog.

At some point, the three defendants also stole Nutter’s family’s Ford Focus. They drove both cars to the 3900 block of Madison in Chicago. They left the Dodge there. They drove the Focus back to 240 Oakridge Ave. in Highwood, which was their hangout, according to Nerheim and Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Commander George Filenko.

Filenko did not know why the three stole Nutter’s family’s car or how they picked that block in Chicago to dump the Stratus.

"Sometimes there's really no succinct answer as to what's going through a person's mind after they've committed a heinous murder," Filenko said. "Why they drove to that specific area, why they then drove the car to another area, some things are just unexplainable."

When they returned to Oakridge, Schenk was seen by police who were surveilling the area standing outside the Ford Focus that belonged to Nutter’s family and hitting it with a baseball bat. He had locked the keys inside the car and broke a window to get them out, according to Nerheim.

Schenk, Coffee and Vatamaniuc were apprehended within a 48 hour period of each other, according to Filenko.

Filenko called the the physical evidence "overwhelming."

"There’s a lot," he said.

Officers found a bloody trunk liner at the Oakridge home as well as cleaning materials and items taken from Nutter’s Highland Park home.

When police found the Dodge they found blood near the trunk and on the seatbelt of the driver’s seat, according to Nerheim.

The day before Nutter was killed, Schenk told a witness that he planned to rob and murder someone the next day, Nerheim said.

"He asked that witness to help him obtain gloves, masks and duct tape," Nerheim told reporters on Friday.

Bond has been set at $5 million for each of the three defendants. Filenko indicated there might be more arrests to come.

"We’re still looking into a lot of active leads," Filenko said.

Coffee and Vatamaniuc are students at Highland Park High School. The school’s superintendent issued a statement Friday morning regarding their arrests and Nutter’s death.

"Our hearts go out to Colin's family. This is an unconscionable tragedy and we realize that no words can heal the pain of their loss," District 113 Superintendent George Fornero said in a statement. "Should the police investigation require District 113's cooperation, we fully intend to provide any information or support we can."

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering also issued a statement on Friday, applauding the work of the Highland Park Police Department and its collaboration with the Wilmette Police Department, the Highwood Police Department, the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force and the agency leading the investigation, the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force.

“Like many others, I experience this news first as a parent,” she said, “and am extraordinarily saddened by this young life lost too soon.”