Malik Coleman. (Washoe County DA's Office)
From the Washoe County DA’s Office:
(Washoe County, NV) — The man who laid in wait before fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, has been sentenced to life in prison. Malik Coleman pled guilty to First Degree Murder with the Use of a Deadly Weapon, after killing 18-year-old Janaya Baker on November 16, 2023.
Officers with the Reno Police Department responded to an apartment building on N. Virginia Street a little after 8 p.m., following a report of a shooting. There, they found Ms. Baker just inside the doorway of her room, with a gunshot wound to her head. Surveillance video from the hallway showed Janaya leaving her apartment to go to work, and Coleman entering the space around 5 p.m., where he waited for more than two hours until Janaya returned. The video caught audio from inside the apartment, with Janaya being heard saying “what are you doing here?” to Coleman, followed by the gunshot. Coleman is seen leaving the apartment shortly after.
Officers learned that Coleman and Janaya had been dating and were both on the rental agreement for the apartment, until two weeks before the shooting when the pair had broken up and Janaya had asked to have Coleman’s name removed from the agreement. Janaya’s mother also told police that Coleman had texted her the night of the murder, saying Janaya had been shot.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Nicole Hicks appeared for the State. During sentencing, Hicks asked the Court to impose a life sentence with parole eligibility only after the defendant serves the entirety of his term, “not one year, one minute, or one second less.” The Honorable Kathleen Sigurdson presided and imposed the sentence. Coleman will be eligible for parole after 28 years in prison.
